The club's relationship with the fans

[Risso]

A general topic to discuss how fans feel the relationship with the powers that be at the club currently stands. Unfortunately, while the performances on the pitch are as good as most people can remember, the wider relationship with the board in my opinion is as low as the worst days under Ellis.

Most of this seems to have got a lot worse since Chris Heck took over, we've had:

The poor communication re the cancellation of the North Stand rebuild

The ridiculous and unneccessary badge situation

Ticket prices going through the roof and a general feeling of being exploited

The Fan Advisory Board being not fit for purpose and two representatives from major fan forums resigning from it

Lack of action re the sub standard facilities in many parts of the ground

 

[Dillon66]

15 minutes ago, Risso said:

A general topic to discuss how fans feel the relationship with the powers that be at the club currently stands. Unfortunately, while the performances on the pitch are as good as most people can remember, the wider relationship with the board in my opinion is as low as the worst days under Ellis.

Most of this seems to have got a lot worse since Chris Heck took over, we've had:

The poor communication re the cancellation of the North Stand rebuild

The ridiculous and unneccessary badge situation

Ticket prices going through the roof and a general feeling of being exploited

The Fan Advisory Board being not fit for purpose and two representatives from major fan forums resigning from it

Lack of action re the sub standard facilities in many parts of the ground

 

Which fans representatives resigned from the FAB ? I didn't see this reported (unless I missed something?)

[Risso]

2 minutes ago, Dillon66 said:

Which fans representatives resigned from the FAB ? I didn't see this reported (unless I missed something?)

Jon Fear from Vital Villa and Dave Woodall from H&V. Jon was a while ago, Dave was today I think.

[Teale's 'tache]

7 minutes ago, Risso said:

the wider relationship with the board in my opinion is as low as the worst days under Ellis

That is hyperbolic in the extreme.

To be honest, I find the anti-Heck circlejerk on here boring. He's made mistakes sure, but you'd think he was a one man wrecking ball drafted in to destroy the club, rather than just your everyday hard-nosed executive brought in to make more money.

I have sympathy with fans being priced out, but understand the need for the club to up its revenues, raising ticket prices is never going to be popular no matter how good things may be on the pitch.

The owners saved us, and have taken us on an incredible journey so far, I think it would be ridiculous to be throwing shade in their direction considering everything they have done for us, I wouldn't bite the hand that has fed us unless there was a really good reason.

I get people aren't happy with some things, and plenty are very vocal about it which is fine, but things change, football is changing constantly, and we need to change as well, you just have to mind that those changes are for the better.

We are here to hold the club to account, the club is not perfect, as such there will always be complaints. Those complaints always seem louder on places like this.

Also, some people just love a good moan, I thought it was just a British thing, but judging by the international nature of this place and the level of moaning, it's clearly a global thing.

[GarethRDR]

I am mostly upset we don't have a Sexy Unai Calendar in the merch range yet.  License to print money, right there.

[Dillon66]

3 minutes ago, Risso said:

Jon Fear from Vital Villa and Dave Woodall from H&V. Jon was a while ago, Dave was today I think.

Blimey....thats pretty telling. Thanks for the info.

[sidcow]

8 minutes ago, Dillon66 said:

Which fans representatives resigned from the FAB ? I didn't see this reported (unless I missed something?)

Have you not read the last meetings minutes?.......oh wait...

[tinker]

23 minutes ago, Risso said:

A general topic to discuss how fans feel the relationship with the powers that be at the club currently stands. Unfortunately, while the performances on the pitch are as good as most people can remember, the wider relationship with the board in my opinion is as low as the worst days under Ellis.

Most of this seems to have got a lot worse since Chris Heck took over, we've had:

The poor communication re the cancellation of the North Stand rebuild

The ridiculous and unneccessary badge situation

Ticket prices going through the roof and a general feeling of being exploited

The Fan Advisory Board being not fit for purpose and two representatives from major fan forums resigning from it

Lack of action re the sub standard facilities in many parts of the ground

 

Lower than when Lerner abandoned us? Lower than when Tony Xia took us to the brink of financial ruin? We have the best owners in living memory and arguably the best in the league atm.

[Stevo985]

I remember a couple of FABs ago some of us were reading the minutes on here and remarking that it appears to be completely pointless now. It was no longer a genuine gathering of feedback from fans, all of the answers were basically "Thanks for that feedback, we're doing it anyway"

So I couldn't be less surprised that people are dropping out

 

Heck and co are very lucky that things on the pitch are going so well. Off the pitch they're a joke

[Risso]

People weren't being charged £100 for a ticket, wading through rivers of piss or facing 1 hour of queueing to get into the ground under Lerner and Xia. Of course the club is doing wonderfully well on the pitch, that's not in doubt or up for debate. This is about how the fans are being treated on a day to day basis. We've got arguably the best team we've ever had, with certainly got the best manager. But less than 40K fans watched us play Wolves. On a Saturday at 3pm, in a non-televised game.

Edited September 27 by Risso
Spolling

[Stevo985]

1 minute ago, Risso said:

People weren't being charged £100 for a ticket, wading through rivers of piss or facing 1 hour of queueingto get into the ground under Lerner and Xia. Of course the blub is doing wonderfully well on the pitch, that's not in doubt or up for debate. This is about how the fans are being treated on a day to day basis. We've got arguably the best team we've ever had, with certainly got the best manager. But less than 40K fans watched us play Wolves. On a Saturday at 3pm, in a non-televised game.

Yep. I'd argue the "relationship with the fans" was better under both lerner and Xia

They were far far worse owners of course. Our current owners are running the club fantastically. It can't be denied

But running the club well isn't the only criteria for a club's relationship with the fans. We could be bottom of League 2 and still have a fantastic club/fan relationship

 

 

Currently it's as bad as I can remember for a long time. And it's getting worse.
The minute things go bad on the pitch (and I really hope things don't go bad on the pitch) they're in huge trouble

[sidcow]

3 hours ago, Teale's 'tache said:

That is hyperbolic in the extreme.

To be honest, I find the anti-Heck circlejerk on here boring. He's made mistakes sure, but you'd think he was a one man wrecking ball drafted in to destroy the club, rather than just your everyday hard-nosed executive brought in to make more money.

I have sympathy with fans being priced out, but understand the need for the club to up its revenues, raising ticket prices is never going to be popular no matter how good things may be on the pitch.

The owners saved us, and have taken us on an incredible journey so far, I think it would be ridiculous to be throwing shade in their direction considering everything they have done for us, I wouldn't bite the hand that has fed us unless there was a really good reason.

I get people aren't happy with some things, and plenty are very vocal about it which is fine, but things change, football is changing constantly, and we need to change as well, you just have to mind that those changes are for the better.

We are here to hold the club to account, the club is not perfect, as such there will always be complaints. Those complaints always seem louder on places like this.

Also, some people just love a good moan, I thought it was just a British thing, but judging by the international nature of this place and the level of moaning, it's clearly a global thing.

The owners deserve MASSIVE credit for what they have done and we are so lucky to have them. We are so lucky to be experiencing what we are right now.

But it doesn't give them carte blanche to run the club with impunity.  They are not some kind of deity to be worshiped unconditionally.

Yes there is a lot of hyperbole in here but checks and balances are necessary.

There are (I do hope) a lot of people attending matches week in week out who will still be there long after the current custodians have gone.  It remains the fans club.

It's Ok to try and increase revenues but if it is in danger of destroying the fabric of the club then it also endangers the future of the club.

If, lets say Emery had his head turned and left for Barcelona or some such, and we had a series of appointments of disastrous managers (like Gerrard) where the hell are we going to be then?   The current pricing and other things are riding on the coat tails of Emery, people are justifiably worried about the pack of cards collapsing if we don't sustain the success.

Feels like a pyramid scheme right now.  Give us more money and we will give you more success.

As I said, checks and balances are needed, there is nothing wrong with asking questions and applying a bit of resistance to unfettered power.

Edited September 27 by sidcow

[Teale's 'tache]

2 minutes ago, sidcow said:

The owners deserve MASSIVE credit for what they have done and we are so lucky to have them. We are so lucky to be experiencing what we are right now.

But it doesn't give them carte blanche to run the club with impunity.  They are not some kind of deity to be worshiped unconditionally.

Yes there is a lot of hyperbole in here bit checks and balances are necessary.

There are (I do hope) a lot of people attending matches week in week out who will still be there long after the current custodians have gone.  it remains the fans club.

It's Ok to try and increase revenues but it it is in danger of destroying the fabric of the club then it also endangers the future of the club.

If, lets say Emery had his head turned and left for Barcelona or some such, and we had a series of appointments of disastrous managers (like Gerrard) where the hell are we going to be then?   The current pricing and other things are riding on the coat tails of Emery, people are justifiably worried about the pack of cards collapsing if we don't sustain the success.

Feels like a pyramid scheme right now.  Give us more money and we will give you more success.

As I said, checks and balances are needed, thee is nothing wrong with asking questions and applying a bit of resistance to unfettered power.

Thanks for reading my post, ignoring several parts and going on a hyperbolic rant. Fun times.

[Risso]

As long as you're OK @Teale's 'tache, then obviously there's nothing else to worry about.

[sidcow]

2 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:

Thanks for reading my post, ignoring several parts and going on a hyperbolic rant. Fun times.

Wow. OK, you seem to have a lot of anger for some reason 

[Deano & Dalian's Umbrella]

I feel like Palpatine has been put in charge of the Republic, people keep saying what a great guy he is and how gratetful we should be for saving us from the bad old days of the trade blockade,  that he has no knowledge of what Darth Vader is doing and maybe Darth isn't that bad anyway and we should give him a chance.  After all, Darth did get that Death Star sponsorship deal.

Edited September 27 by Deano & Dalian's Umbrella

[Teale's 'tache]

4 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Wow. OK, you seem to have a lot of anger for some reason 

I really really don't. Keep projecting though if it makes you feel better.

[Dillon66]

26 minutes ago, Risso said:

People weren't being charged £100 for a ticket, wading through rivers of piss or facing 1 hour of queueing to get into the ground under Lerner and Xia. Of course the club is doing wonderfully well on the pitch, that's not in doubt or up for debate. This is about how the fans are being treated on a day to day basis. We've got arguably the best team we've ever had, with certainly got the best manager. But less than 40K fans watched us play Wolves. On a Saturday at 3pm, in a non-televised game.

 

All excellent points, especially the final part. I watched the Wolves game in licensed premises that shall remain nameless, along with 30 to 40 other Villa fans - the main reason being, I only have finite financial resources and I had to make a choice between getting a Wolves ticket or a Bayern ticket - most of the people I spoke to on Saturday were in a similar position to me. Making Wolves a Cat A game was frankly ridiculous and just seems like another way of rinsing loyal fans....

[Teale's 'tache]

17 minutes ago, Risso said:

As long as you're OK @Teale's 'tache, then obviously there's nothing else to worry about.

I'm fine, I'm just not sure what you are getting at?

I've said I'm symapthetic to those being priced out, and that we are there to hold the board to account. It was in my original post.

Seems to me that not agreeing hook and line with the anti-Heck/Board agenda on here means that I'm angry and inconsiderate of others? Weird.

[Mark Albrighton]

44 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:

That is hyperbolic in the extreme.

To be honest, I find the anti-Heck circlejerk on here boring. He's made mistakes sure, but you'd think he was a one man wrecking ball drafted in to destroy the club, rather than just your everyday hard-nosed executive brought in to make more money.

I have sympathy with fans being priced out, but understand the need for the club to up its revenues, raising ticket prices is never going to be popular no matter how good things may be on the pitch.

The owners saved us, and have taken us on an incredible journey so far, I think it would be ridiculous to be throwing shade in their direction considering everything they have done for us, I wouldn't bite the hand that has fed us unless there was a really good reason.

I get people aren't happy with some things, and plenty are very vocal about it which is fine, but things change, football is changing constantly, and we need to change as well, you just have to mind that those changes are for the better.

We are here to hold the club to account, the club is not perfect, as such there will always be complaints. Those complaints always seem louder on places like this.

Also, some people just love a good moan, I thought it was just a British thing, but judging by the international nature of this place and the level of moaning, it's clearly a global thing.

Are you for or against people being able to voice their criticisms? You seem to hold both positions.

Or if you hold the opinion that some criticism is permissible, what sort of thing would you consider worthy of discussion?