Fans Advisory Board Meeting - 16th September

[HanoiVillan]

2 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

If you really want to get their attention re poor service issues you should ask whether the club have done any impact assessment on how much revenue it loses across the season as a result of the extremely slow and poor service levels seen in various parts of the ground?

Have they also done an assessment of how much revenue increased where they have modernised F&B facilities for regular season ticket holders? 

I feel like this can't be a small number either. I know I'm just one person but when I go I never bother getting out of my seat at half-time any more, when I'd always previously get a beer, a chocolate bar etc. 

[ender4]

2 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

If you really want to get their attention re poor service issues you should ask whether the club have done any impact assessment on how much revenue it loses across the season as a result of the extremely slow and poor service levels seen in various parts of the ground?

Have they also done an assessment of how much revenue increased where they have modernised F&B facilities for regular season ticket holders? 

I have. They lose around £4m a year in food and drink due to slow service.

I have assumed if there were no queues then everyone would just buy 1 extra drink to now. In reality, people like me would buy 2 extra drinks, a pie, chips, etc, and some would buy nothing extra. So an average of 1 drink per person to keep it simple.  

1 drink x £5 x 42,000 people x 19 games = £3.99 million.

[DakotaVilla]

Even if you took a more conservative view re spend per fan you would scale up for expected home cup games this season and prob get to at least your number. That’s a huge number that quite frankly someone should be fired for ignoring to date. 

[villarule123]

I've said before that I'd love to take Purslow around VP on a match day and point out everything that's wrong with the experience. I'm still up for it now with Heck or whoever else is running the show. 

[ender4]

5 minutes ago, villarule123 said:

I've said before that I'd love to take Purslow around VP on a match day and point out everything that's wrong with the experience. I'm still up for it now with Heck or whoever else is running the show. 

Can someone actually suggest that at the Advisory meeting. It's such a good idea.

[cheltenham_villa]

31 minutes ago, ender4 said:

I have. They lose around £4m a year in food and drink due to slow service.

I have assumed if there were no queues then everyone would just buy 1 extra drink to now. In reality, people like me would buy 2 extra drinks, a pie, chips, etc, and some would buy nothing extra. So an average of 1 drink per person to keep it simple.  

1 drink x £5 x 42,000 people x 19 games = £3.99 million.

while its not the point. I dont think everyone buys a single drink so you shouldnt assume 2 get sold.

The lower holte has to be the example here, with the introduction of technology and self service areas they have pretty much removed wait times. 

[Hev]

I never buy anything from within the ground - havent done for ages. Too crowded with queues by the counters in Upoer Witton. I either buy outside (usually from Tesco) or bring from home. 

[ender4]

4 minutes ago, Hev said:

 I either buy outside (usually from Tesco) or bring from home. 

They should put an M&S inside the ground for those tasty prawn sandwiches. 

[HalfTimePost]

On 21/08/2023 at 12:42, MarkLillis said:

There is a simple solution in my eyes here.

Accept that they don't care about us we are just ticket price figures to them.

If you accept this then you don't expect much.

When you don't get much its not a surprise.

You can even get your own back by playing a little game...… try to spend as little as you possibly can with the club during the season as they are only trying to fleece you every way you turn once you are inside.

Nah, the best thing for the club is to have a great matchday experience and make people want to spend money.

The best thing to do is to educate them that this is not a "Fake it till you make it" type job on convincing our fans to spend like London fans or Tourist fans that other Big 6 Clubs may have.

This is a "build it and they will come". On principle there will be fans who hold out overspending at venues. But by and large fans will (and should!) Want to spend more money with their club and be rewarded with a stellar experience.

I don't think we should encourage fans to hope that new experiences at VP fail, or to try and boycott spending with the club. We should be pushing the club to make such a great experience, that feels as premium as it charges and also helps local businesses, and the business will follow.

Charging for it without delivering will lead to reduced commercial revenues as fans drop off and whether we like it or not, we have to cater to a further afield audience

[MarkLillis]

On 22/08/2023 at 13:51, HalfTimePost said:

Charging for it without delivering will lead to reduced commercial revenues as fans drop off and whether we like it or not, we have to cater to a further afield audience

This is already happening.They are charging for it without delivering!

Do we just keep paying and they keep taking? I'd had enough years ago nothing is good value inside VP every fan who attend games regularly  knows this.

[MrBlack]

I think an extra drink per fan is probably not far off a reasonable guess of lost income.

A fair chunk of fans, like @HanoiVillan, will get nothing at the moment because they're not willing to miss any of the game.

They should have the sales data from the lower holte pre-self serve and post self-serve. They don't need to be geniuses in data analytics to look at that,  see the increase, then expand that data across the capacity of the stadium.

I am genuinely amazed that they didn't roll it out anywhere else during the off season.

[sidcow]

5 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

I am genuinely amazed that they didn't roll it out anywhere else during the off season.

I can only think there was so much work going on overall there just wasn't the time and space to get more contractors in for more work. 

I note that a couple of the screens in the Lower Holte have been removed and not replaced.  Not sure why this would be but I hope they're not trying juggle screen numbers to queues at them because the big benefit is just going straight to the order screen and not having to queue for one to come free. Maybe there is a cost per screen, I don't know. Or a cost to repair a failed one so they just rip it out. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by sidcow

[villarule123]

I spoke to the supporter liaison yesterday about the complaint I made in relation to the post I made earlier. He told me that you're allowed to bring in food from the outside stalls, which I didn't know about, and drinks as long as it isn't alcohol or in a can. I think that would solve a lot of the queueing problems as I for one won't have a need to buy food inside the ground anymore. 

WiFi is a problem they said they've worked on for a while but haven't been able to crack, and that it'll probably be a problem indefinitely with the logistics of the stadium. I'm not sure I buy that because I've heard it's much, much better at other stadiums. I said it doesn't sit well with a lot of people that they're using it as a selling point to the Terrace area in the Holte. I get the feeling the club are very aware of how infamous the Terrace is amongst the majority of the fans. 

He said the stadium is in a mess due to building work and that the first day was a disaster in terms of cleanliness across the whole stadium. 

Said high ticket prices were needed to keep the world class manager we have and keep and acquire better players, I said I'd happily pay more for this but the standards around the stadium have to improve at the same rate as the cost, which he agreed. 

I got offered free tickets to the next European game which was nice, but I'd much rather a good experience from now on and a club we can be proud of on match days. 

[villabromsgrove]

On 22/08/2023 at 10:36, ender4 said:

I have. They lose around £4m a year in food and drink due to slow service.

I have assumed if there were no queues then everyone would just buy 1 extra drink to now. In reality, people like me would buy 2 extra drinks, a pie, chips, etc, and some would buy nothing extra. So an average of 1 drink per person to keep it simple.  

1 drink x £5 x 42,000 people x 19 games = £3.99 million.

Logistics used to be my area of expertise, so I'm going to point out the obvious problem with selling more pints per fan .... Available toilet facilities .... There's a causal link between the intake and outflow of alcohol which would result in huge queues for our already vastly inadequate urinals, causing them to become an even more unhealthy flood risk than they already are, lol.

[MrBlack]

1 minute ago, villabromsgrove said:

Logistics used to be my area of expertise, so I'm going to point out the obvious problem with selling more pints per fan .... Available toilet facilities .... There's a causal link between the intake and outflow of alcohol which would result in huge queues for our already vastly inadequate urinals, causing them to become an even more unhealthy flood risk than they already are, lol.

Functional toilets can be added to the things they fix at the same time as they put in the self service areas.

Obviously the number of them stays the same, so you are right it potentially exacerbates an existing issue around queueing for toilets. Again... this should be evident from what they've seen in the lower holte. 

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, villabromsgrove said:

Logistics used to be my area of expertise, so I'm going to point out the obvious problem with selling more pints per fan .... Available toilet facilities .... There's a causal link between the intake and outflow of alcohol which would result in huge queues for our already vastly inadequate urinals, causing them to become an even more unhealthy flood risk than they already are, lol.

My god, you think the current urinals are inadequate?

I remember the old Holte End and old Wembley with rivers of piss flowing back out of the doorway as people pissed in sinks and against blank walls due to the wait for the single urinal serving 40 pissed up blokes.

[ender4]

A quick question I’d love to know the answer to…

Since Purslow left Villa, who represents us in the Premier League meetings? Is it Heck, Monchi or someone else?

[WallisFrizz]

23 minutes ago, ender4 said:

A quick question I’d love to know the answer to…

Since Purslow left Villa, who represents us in the Premier League meetings? Is it Heck, Monchi or someone else?

Good question. I’d like to know more about this too. It was Purslows big plus, he knew the league/rules etc inside out.

[OutByEaster?]

4 hours ago, ender4 said:

A quick question I’d love to know the answer to…

Since Purslow left Villa, who represents us in the Premier League meetings? Is it Heck, Monchi or someone else?

Heck, he attended one in his first week or so with us, it was interesting that he said at the time that he already knew quite a few people from around the table for his time in the US and that people who run sports teams will quite often network, so he wasn't going in completely cold.

 

[The Fun Factory]

17 hours ago, sidcow said:

My god, you think the current urinals are inadequate?

I remember the old Holte End and old Wembley with rivers of piss flowing back out of the doorway as people pissed in sinks and against blank walls due to the wait for the single urinal serving 40 pissed up blokes.

The more Villa charge for the tickets, the more demands for better service will come. People will put up with shitty facilities if the prices were dirt cheap like in the olden days. Not when you are spending close to a thick end of a grand for a season ticket.