Fans Advisory Board Meeting - 16th September

[pas5898]

9 hours ago, tomav84 said:

the thing is, that with the terrace view not being the success they'd hoped it would be (in that it's far from sold out), why do they think there's a demand for MORE hospitality?

Thank you @OutByEaster? for taking the time to write this up.

On the Price of Football podcast a few months, Keiran Maguire was detailing how much Liverpool make from those fans who only go to 1 or 2 games a season - and its massive. Ideally, they want to reduce the number of Season Ticket holders to accommodate more of the 1/2 games a season tourist fans as they spend a lot more per game. 

Average season ticket holder (me): I haven't ordered this years kit, haven't eaten at the ground yet, and only had 1 drink in the 3 games at home this season.

Tourist 1/2 game a season fan: Spends £150+ in the club shop, buys food or hospitality package, plenty of food and drink. Take's a photo holding his scarf in front of the Holte.

Now the ground is almost guaranteed to be full it's only natural that Heck and co's mentality will switch to extracting as much money per seas as possible. 

Champions League qualification or success would bring in a whole new level of prawn sandwich brigade and it's clear they want to already be a in position to extract every single penny.

[OutByEaster?]

2 minutes ago, DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth said:

To hear that plans are potentially even further behind schedule is disturbing on many levels, mostly because this disconnect will only grow wider until “GE” admissions grow to a level where pretty much everyone who wants a standard ticket can get one.

At the moment, the plan is for next summer, it just sounded a little unconvincing.

The growth of GE admissions point is interesting, it's probably worth considering that we'll be raising our attendance by around 8,000 at the same time as we're increasing our hospitality numbers by around 4,000 or so - the actual increase in GE attendance won't be huge - the plan is to convert GE seats to hospitality around the ground where they can and take advantage of the new build to provide as much additional hospitality as possible - by the time the new North Stand is complete, we might only be looking at 4,000 more additional GE seats than we have now.

 

[OutByEaster?]

7 minutes ago, DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth said:

As someone who is reliant on using trains to get back to the westcountry, when I’m queuing for a train, I don’t blame Villa at all for this when I’m in my fortnightly hour wait. If Villa have any capacity to (planning wise), I would urge them to just build the bloody increase and force the local governments hand with the rail expansion that way.

Villa's plans aren't dependent at all on the improvement of the rail network - they'll go ahead without that.

[Davkaus]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

 

Heck has probably no idea about football culture and is only doing what he was asked in making money. He wont be popular on here

 

Ultimately, the fans unhappy about this are probably the fans they don't really want anymore.

[bobzy]

35 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Ultimately, the fans unhappy about this are probably the fans they don't really want anymore.

After one of these (I think? Or maybe it was just ticket pricing info), I remember saying that raising prices was a disgrace in this climate and that the club needs to care more about fans.

It got a lot of responses along the lines of "this is just what we need to do to be successful".

 

Football isn't about the fans anymore.

(Edit:  I should say, top level football isn't....)

Edited September 19, 2023 by bobzy

[andyjsg]

1 hour ago, pas5898 said:

Tourist 1/2 game a season fan: Spends £150+ in the club shop, buys food or hospitality package, plenty of food and drink. Take's a photo holding his scarf in front of the Holte.

This in reality is me (without the scalf), I live 3 hours away and have a young family with other commitments, so a trip to Villa is half a dozen times a season and at the Everton game I bought myself and son shirts, snacks and a couple of other things, made a proper day out of it.

I actually put us in the 1884 seats but actually would of paid for some of the hospitality options if I had been more aware of them.

[delboy54]

I wonder if the meeting was set up in the Terrace View on a match day on purpose in order to finish the meeting earlier than normal. Would have been much better to have done it in the Holte Suite where you would not be disturbed by people coming in to the Terrace View pre -game.

Thanks for your report, it does make depressing reading to those of us who have stuck through Villa from the 1960's....

I will be eventually be priced out of my ST in the upper Holte and when that happens thats it for me with footy, a 4 hr round trip from Cambridge is tiring enough for a 65 year old.....sounds like I am looking for an excuse .....could be my last season, hopefully we will go out on a high and win the FA cup

[The Fun Factory]

I thank all of the reps for the time and effort in attending, but what is the point of these meetings now? They don't consult, they are just informing us of their next money-raising plans

Deeply concerned about where they are at present.  I think we need to be louder in our push back to all of this before it is too late and Villa Park becomes a giant corporate money-making machine.

Heck does not convince me at all and despite the general consensus on VT  I would rather still have  Purslow in charge.

Edited September 20, 2023 by The Fun Factory

[Villatillidie95]

I do hope that the fan advisory board were notified of “The Lower Grounds” opening up for the Brighton game. 
 

if not then that should be seen as a major insult to the group and people who take the time to be there, and they clearly were not consulted as this would be the first time they are finding out about any of this 

[andycv]

5 hours ago, Villatillidie95 said:

I do hope that the fan advisory board were notified of “The Lower Grounds” opening up for the Brighton game. 
 

if not then that should be seen as a major insult to the group and people who take the time to be there, and they clearly were not consulted as this would be the first time they are finding out about any of this 

They did mention it at the meeting according to the readout?  That's why @OutByEaster? said the meeting went a bit off agenda....

[Villatillidie95]

21 minutes ago, andycv said:

They did mention it at the meeting according to the readout?  That's why @OutByEaster? said the meeting went a bit off agenda....

They mentioned that the holte suite would be turning into a hospitality area….but did they mention that it would be at the next premier league home game!?

i think the main thing I’m trying to get across is that there should be a level of respect and some goodwill shown by the club to the FAB representatives who take the time to attend and conduct themselves professionally even when the club try to hurry the meeting along by putting it on a match day.

the club need to actually consult and engage rather than just infodump at each meeting. They could use some tact and breadcrumb the changes and maybe give some time to sink in for the reps, let alone the rest of us! 

[tomav84]

1 hour ago, Villatillidie95 said:

They mentioned that the holte suite would be turning into a hospitality area….but did they mention that it would be at the next premier league home game!?

i think the main thing I’m trying to get across is that there should be a level of respect and some goodwill shown by the club to the FAB representatives who take the time to attend and conduct themselves professionally even when the club try to hurry the meeting along by putting it on a match day.

the club need to actually consult and engage rather than just infodump at each meeting. They could use some tact and breadcrumb the changes and maybe give some time to sink in for the reps, let alone the rest of us! 

they said that when it reopens it will be as hospitality i.e. it wouldn't be the holte suite as we know it. not sure if they gave timescales but it's been closed so far this season

but yes, it sounds like they thought the news would go down better than it did as it comes across that there was a bit of a 'WTF??' from the attendees of the meeting so there will probably be some lessons learned

Edited September 20, 2023 by tomav84

[Milfner]

Feels to me like the purpose of these meetings may have run their course. There's no discussion just small leaks/snippets of what they've already decided to. It all just seems very cynical.

[Risso]

I think they have to have them according to Premier League rules, just like they *have* to consult on changes to badges and other 'legacy' items like the club name, to stop wrong 'uns like the Cardiff owner trying to change the colour from blue to red etc. However, that still gives them a lot of wriggle room to "consult" and then do exactly what they want anyway.

[Captain_Townsend]

Or consult, agree something and then completely do a 180 degree turn on it.

[andycv]

@OutByEaster? are there formal minutes yet, or are the club dragging their feet?

[OutByEaster?]

4 hours ago, andycv said:

@OutByEaster? are there formal minutes yet, or are the club dragging their feet?

I've a feeling we won't get formal minutes for that one - there's an online catch up this week which will hopefully be more ordered and fill in the gap.

 

[ender4]

3 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

I've a feeling we won't get formal minutes for that one - there's an online catch up this week which will hopefully be more ordered and fill in the gap.

 

Is there an agenda for the online catch up this week? Will Heck be in attendance?

[OutByEaster?]

27 minutes ago, ender4 said:

Is there an agenda for the online catch up this week? Will Heck be in attendance?

Heck will be in attendance - it'll basically be a continuation of the arranged meeting.

 

[Tomaszk]

31 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Heck will be in attendance - it'll basically be a continuation of the arranged meeting.

 

Give em hell OBE.

Constructive, actionable hell.