General Krulak (part 3) - Questions

[Drew'sMilitia]

General,

I'd be grateful for a response on this as I think it may have been missed.

Many thanks as always.

I read that the Year Book is to be published online rather than in the rather neat A5 size format. May I say that I believe this is a poor decision as I'm sure you will agree the Year Book is an opportunity to capture a whole season in one book and to keep it - to refer to in future years. Having it only online will mean that this opportunity will be lost and is certainly not as portable as the previous Year Book.

I understand cost implications etc. but I do feel this is a poor decision.

Please would you consider the above and maybe speak to whoever has made this decision?

Thanks

[c-krulak]

General Krulak here:

1. Season Tickets: I know economic times are hard but....a season ticket is going to be an important thing to have in the years to come. We have a stretch payment plan and I urge everyone to think about it hard.

2. Shirt sponsor: There has been no decision on shirt sponsors at this time. We will not see our shirts to a low bidder...not when we can help acorns.

3. stewiek2: Believe me, neither Randy nor I are complacent!!! In my "old" business, complacency led to death! NO way are we going to be complacent.

4. Drew's Militia: I will check on the "on-line" Year Bppk issue.

[dudley_villa]

Hi gen... a mate of mine has asked me if he bought the final five offer would he have an automatic 5 game booking history as all the tickets are none refundable... So if the semi final tickets go down to a 5 game booking history would he qualify to get one at that window?.. or if you already say have a 4 home game booking history and got the final five offer would it automatically take you up to a 9 home game booking history?..

Cheers...

[P3te]

General, any word on kit supplier for next season and beyond? It was a 3 year deal with Nike originally wasnt it? Not sure if I remember hearing anything about us extending it

[Mr_Dogg]

General, any word on kit supplier for next season and beyond? It was a 3 year deal with Nike originally wasnt it? Not sure if I remember hearing anything about us extending it

I thought it was a "longterm" deal. I don't remember a timeline mentioned.

[c-krulak]

General Krulak here:

1. dudley_villa: I would just call the ticket office and address that question to them...they will have the answer.

2. kit supplier: At the present time, there is nothing in the works to change the kit supplier.

[dudley_villa]

General Krulak here:

1. dudley_villa: I would just call the ticket office and address that question to them...they will have the answer.

2. kit supplier: At the present time, there is nothing in the works to change the kit supplier.

Thanks for responce gen... its almost impossible to get through within the hour this week with the semi tickets on sale... However with all due respect i no they are very busy but i think it all depends on who you speake to at the ticket office... ive called them in the past 3 times in one day and had 3 different answeres to ticketing questions.... As the saying go's it dose help if we are all singing off the same hymn book... Something as simple as a wee brief every morning or the days-weeks events are in writing on the white board on the wall infront of them incase they forget... Maybe this final five issue could be put in black and white on the OS as it could be classed as a sensitive issue... it works for the fans to boost up booking history and its good for the club for ticketing sales...

Cheers...

[Brumstopdogs]

Would be useful if you/ the club could clarify the position on the above as I would be very likely to buy the 5 tickets if it gave me a stronger chance of a cup semi final ticket.

Thanks.

[sellyoakvilla]

Dudley_villa/Brumstopdogs: Booking history counts from games you've attended..so you won't get the 5 game booking history unless you have attended 5 games before you buy your tickets.

Good win tonight General, do you know whether season ticket renewal packs are being sent out or whether we have to go to the ticket office to renew? Would save a long old poke to Aston just to renew when I can send it back through the post instead.

Cheers

[c-krulak]

General Krulak here:

1. Nicky Keye...could you pick up on the above posts and give me your thoughts...thanks!!!

2. Wigan: A MUST win that we won. Good, hard fought game. I thought Milner was huge in the win...for more than the goal.

3. I will be off the thread until Saturday...but WILL return.

[bear_1982]

Hi General,

I am a longtime reader of this forum and perhaps a not so regular poster. Either way I love reading your posts & really believe it’s a great time to be a Villa fan at the moment, thanks…

I am not sure if you have already seen in the Other Football forum the topic on Attendances across Europe’s top leagues. One club thrown up in this topic who are perhaps not the obvious choice are Borussia Dortmund in Germany.

I have been a Villa ST holder for almost 20 years now (I am only in my mid twenties!) and continue to be one although I have been living the last couple of years here in Germany. Unfortunately I am unable to get to as many games these days but still come as regularly as possible. As a result my girlfriend & her family are massive Dortmund fans and I have therefore been able to tag along to many of their games over the last 2-3 years (every cloud has a silver lining!).

I know the Villa are always looking at ways to take the club forward in terms of fans, stadium etc. and all I really wanted to ask is if you were already aware of Dortmund? If not maybe you and Randy should have a closer look, as I really believe they have a lot of things in common with the Villa that could maybe help or give you guys ideas for the future.

If I understand correctly what you & Randy are trying to do with the club I really think Dortmund isn’t that far off. I think that there is no real reason why we couldn’t emulate something like they do in the coming years and perhaps learn a little from them. In terms of football we are miles ahead of them, but in terms of the stadium, match day experience and relationship between supporters and fans I think we could certainly learn a thing or two from them.

In particular the stadium is immense (80k and sold out nearly every week), the build up to the games with huge flags waved by different supporter groups is fantastic and the way the players acknowledge the fans at the end of the game is a really nice touch.

I just wanted to bring it to your attention & hope that maybe it could be of some use. If you ever find yourself in this part of the world and short of a ticket let me know, I would be happy to help!

All the best, and keep up the good work. UTV

[villaajax]

Hi General,

I wanted to hear your opinion... who is going to win on the 12th June in South Africa, England or The USA?

And will you be following the World Cup?

Thanks again!

[wedge]

General,

I would like to express my disappointment with the decision to include Wolves in the "AA" category, I doubt we will sell out on Saturday and the prices for a relegation threatened team are ridiculous. I have never once complained about ticket prices at the Villa because they are usually spot on (including season tickets). I know this won't change anything but I thought I would explain my view.

Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

[sidcow]

Hi General, I hope you are well.

2 Questions if I may:

Firstly I have always wondered why the club put up with the street traders at all approaches to the ground selling counterfeit villa merchandise? They are not trying to pretend to be official club merchandise but are obviously stealing Villa intellectual property for their own gain. Personally I never buy anything off them as I would rather every penny I spend on anything Villa goes to the club and not some dodgy geezer who is probably stood outside The Sty next weekend selling counterfeit Blues stuff. But why is it allowed?

Secondly, I am not moaning about the ticket allocation, but the fact that they are not being sold online. I note on the Chelsea website they state "As per the club's ticketing policy 95% of the tickets will be sold on the internet and 5% will be sold at the Box Office/Call Centre. Tickets sold via the internet will go on sale at 7am and tickets from the Box Office will go on sale from 9am. "

Obviously our own online sales for the CC Final were a complete disaster but why are our rivals able to do this but we aren't?

Thanks for your time

[leviramsey]

General who do you have in the Final Four in your bracket, and has the first round of the Tournament ruined yours?

[carew_villa]

General, how many are we expecting for the Wolves game tomorrow?

The General said he'd be offline until tomorrow. He's also said repeatedly to contact the ticket office with these questions. limpid

[paulanddonya]

Gen

Obviously you won't be able to answer this until after the event, but are any of the players / club doing anything for Sport Relief ?

If you get BBC America - look out for Eddie Izzard - Marathon Man - it is truely ubelievable.

A 48 yr old comedian , never done any kind of sport before and he ran from London, through Cardiff, up to Edinburgh, back to London - a total of 43 marathons and over 1000 miles in 45 days !!.

Absolutely gobsmacking. Sometimes, players who go down writhing in pain when they have been tapped, should look at that and be ashamed of themselves.

have a look, I am sure a guy like you will enjoy it.

EDIT

Gen, good feature today by Stan Collymore about the price of games / season tickets, and the falling attendances at football. The long and short is. look at italy now (where the mighty Juve, who dwarf Villa) are getting 6,000 to some games due to the price rises of the late 90's.

This is coming in to this country and a lot sooner than people think. Today not one game sold out in the Prem, we had a disappointing 37k and Bolton took 200 fans less than 20 miles to Everton.

Now Villa, I think we are fair priced, and as I said previously, the tickets are probably about right (next season). But I think the well is running dry and people wont take any further.

I hope we take this on board because some clubs are going to be in serious trouble in 3 or 4 yrs, and I hope to god we arent one of them

[c-krulak]

General Krulak here:

1. bear_1982: I promise that both Randy and the Board are more than willing to look at other Clubs and capture those ideas that fit with our Club and our efforts. Thank you for your suggestion and I will personally get a study going on Dortmund.

2. villajax: I think England will win against the US. Yes, I will certainly be watching the World Cup...eagerly!!!

3. wedge: Sorry you didn't agree with the status of the game.

4. sidcow: As you probably know, we really have no control over the vendors who set up on the approaches to Villa Park. If they can get a permit, they can "do their thing."

5. leviramsey: The 1st round killed me!! I am currently down 13 games...which is unrecoverable. St. Mary's has been the bane of my effort. I now have Kentucky as the winner.

6. The Game: I, like all fans, was disappointed. Now we just need to concentrate on the next game.

[Maradona10]

General,

Can you get a message to MON for me that us fans are gratefulfor everything and apologise for certain fans who decide to boo! But with his comments he is tarnishing all fans which I think is a bit unfair!

[RMB]

General,

Can you get a message to MON for me that us fans are gratefulfor everything and apologise for certain fans who decide to boo! But with his comments he is tarnishing all fans which I think is a bit unfair!

I would also like to add to this that the majority of fans are not ungrateful for everything that has been achieved this season and i think the fact that MON's name was continuously chanted from the holte shows that we do have faith in him. You will get the minority who will boo and never be happy though and these are probably the people who turn up now we are becoming a success again.

Thanks General