hobbo Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 On the subject of Randy's money, I've always wondered - who actually owns us ??. The article stated he has a wealth of 800m quid, therefore , if he paid 60m for us, 40m on transfers, plus other stuff like the Holte etc.., lets face it, he has already spent over 1/6 of his wealth - and , although I don't think he will ever be in a position that he hasn't got enough to get a bag of chips - if he is financing Villa himself - it can't go on forever. As long as the club and players are still worth at least what Mr Lerner coughed up - and I'd imagine they are - he still has the same level of wealth. General - has anybody ever tried to get Prince William, the Villa fan, to a game? This would have a massive impact on our media profile, worldwide I'd imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bully Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 General Next time you are over, or sometime in the near future, would you be prepared to take part in a Q&A session in either the Holte pub or Holte suite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V111AFC Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 General, Not really a question but a point. Isnt it brilliant to see Martin O'Neill jumping around on the sideline every game! you see so many managers that just look boring and unanimated, yet martin heads and kicks every ball!! its so good to watch, a manager with so much passion for the game, and the desire to win. Every bad decision by the referee is more contested by our manager than the players and the fans!! He is such a legend and you can see he must be happy working for blokes like you and Randy. A lot of newspapers and people are starting to realise how good of a setup there is at the villa, from the board down to the manager. We really have some of the smartest, best businessmen in the game. General, I love Randy. UpTheVilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holte_k1 Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Following on from another thread where someone is looking to buy classic Villa photos, would the club consider selling in the club Villa related canvas art? I know some of it could be a bit pricy but if you offered different sizes and different styles, Black and White, Colour, Pop Art i think not only would the potentially look really good but also prove to be a great hit with fans. They'd make a great gift for people. I'd love to have a black and white Trinity Rd canvas hanging in my house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortshadyuk Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Dear General RE: Europe if we dont finish in the right positions for automatic qualification we could yet enter the Inter toto competition; something MON has refused to do previously as it is pre season. I just wondered is it Solely MON's choice to enter it? If situations are such that we can enter, could we not field a youths/reserves team managed by the Reserves manager to avoid interfering with MONS pre season plans? this gives the kids a perfect opportunity to test themselves and if they fair well then we get to see European footy... Any thoughts on this? I see it as valuable experience for the kids Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulanddonya Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 If Randy love Arts and Football, perhaps there should be a very big football/sport art gallery in new North Stand to raise profile of great arts and increase club earning potential. Just an idea which he might enjoy. Not such a silly idea - Barcelona have one which is colossal (prob. take a weekend to look around) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salsa Party Animal Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Was Birmingham a difficult location for attracting players to move Aston Villa ? ie players wouldn't consider it due to location of the club. A former rival club chairman told me it is hard to attract players to move to the Mdlands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holte_k1 Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 If Randy love Arts and Football, perhaps there should be a very big football/sport art gallery in new North Stand to raise profile of great arts and increase club earning potential. Just an idea which he might enjoy. Not such a silly idea - Barcelona have one which is colossal (prob. take a weekend to look around) Perhaps a small gallery in the Museum thats planned with the opportunity to buy prints of the pictures on display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-krulak Posted January 25, 2008 Author Share Posted January 25, 2008 General Krulak here: 1. Selling pictures...or copies of old photos....not a bad idea. Let me look into that. 2. Inter toto competition. I really hesitate to discuss an issue that is pretty much in the hands of our Manager. As you have seen, neither Randy nor the Board believes that we should attempt to get into the intricacies of MON's decisions...we have a Manager and we pay him to do a job...and we need to trust him to do that job. If he doesn't want to get involved in this competition, well then we will support. 3. As we all know, Birmingham is a great City and the midlands are a great place to live. Unfortunately, the reality is that most people view London as the "center of England" and thus, that City gets much attention. It is, in fact, a beautiful, exciting place. In order to make Villa a place where players want to play, we need to do several things....we need a great training facility (so we built one), we need a great Manager (and we believe we have one), we need a great tradition (we certainly have that), we need supportive and vocal fans (we DEFINITELY have that), we need a quality place to play (and Villa Park fills the bill) and we need a team on the rise (and we have that). Birmingham will never be London...but it doesn't need to be to attract players. 4. I would have no problem with a Q & A with fans...so long as they know I will not talk about players. 5. I love to see MON on the sidelines...he motivates me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavilla828 Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 GENERAL Early this week my sons school holly hill church school in rubery were to get a visit by a couple of villa players,my son who is 7 next week and a st holder was obviously very excited by this,then on thursday we were told they were not coming,i`ve never seen him so gutted.Please could you do somethng about this as no explanation was given to why they could not come,i know they have been busy recently but try telling that to a 7 year old Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrobo1 Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 on point 4 General , I hope you can arrange that I am sure a lot on here would want to go as for the photo's General I mentioned before this idea but it would be brilliant to see an exhibtion of Terry Weir's photo's in say the Holte Suite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villab0y Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 The Q&A session would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_of_Pongo_Waring Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 on point 4 General , I hope you can arrange that I am sure a lot on here would want to go as for the photo's General I mentioned before this idea but it would be brilliant to see an exhibtion of Terry Weir's photo's in say the Holte Suite That would be superb, General. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bully Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 General Krulak here: 4. I would have no problem with a Q & A with fans...so long as they know I will not talk about players. Great, when are you coming over? Lets get something organised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markdraper Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 General, What say did the club have in the change of date for the Reading game? Would it have been possible for Aston Villa to have rejected the switch if they wished? I ask because I justified buying tickets for this match due to the relatively cheap train fares that were available. The reason I had opted to go to Reading was that travel was cheaper for this than for the likes of Arsenal and Man Utd away that our coming up. However the change of date renders my tickets useless...the train companies tell me they are non-refundable. Knowing this I thought it would be best to just change my train times and get on with it but again not so easy: it appears I have to pay £20 in 'administration costs' aswell as more money on the increased train fair just to be able to travel to the game. What makes matters worse is that the new train tickets have to be paid for in full (£38 ) before i can attempt to receive any money back for the original tickets. Unfortunately it seems the best option in this case is for me to simply not attend the match and to return the two match tickets I have, despite having attended the majority of our away games for the past 3 years. At least the refund on the match can make up for the cost of the wasted train tickets. I appreciate that the club our offering refunds on official travel but this is no help to the many fans who travel to our games by rail/private coach. Having already suffered from the Liverpool kick off change, I booked my train tickets to Reading confident there would be no problems as I was sure the same thing could not happen again. In future could you please not sell away tickets until the club is sure of when the match is to actually be played. I understand that games have to be moved for television, what I don't understand is why this happens after we have already sold our whole allocation for an away fixture. I realise that Aston Villa aren't to blame but would like to know who the appropriate people are to contact regarding this issue (i.e. the premeir league etc)? Many Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villab0y Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 General I had my invite for the Holte for todays game and haveto say the place is lovely. The staff were all very friendly and the beer was good. Didnt try any food but plenty did and it did look nice. The only complaint would be a rather rude lady who was in one of the upstairs rooms with 2 or 3 wheelchair users. I dont think she was a Villa employee but as we entered the room to have a look around, like we did all the rooms, she said "This room is only for disabled" then my friend said we're just having a look so she said it again but directing it at me this time, to which I gave the same response. I know that she was probably just some crazy old lady but if that room is specified for the disabled then there should be some sinage to make it clear. Why would a wheelchair user need a seperate room anyway? All the rooms looked to be suitable. One more thing, the doors were all held open with a chair being pushed up against them. Not really very fitting with how nice the place has been done out, a simple fix too. Overall though its a lovely place and a shame that people don't take up there invites, I'd say only about 80 people there today including Pat Heard who signed my ticket!! Just thought Id let you know my thoughts anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dukes Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 General, I hope this is the right place for this. What is going on with catering in the Doug Ellis Upper ? For most of the games this season we've arrived at least 20 minutes before the game to find there are no pies or cornish pasty's. Today when we arrived there weren't even any chocolate bars available. We left our seats 5 minutes before half time (something I don't normally do) with the sole purpose of securing a Pie, even at this time service was extremely slow, and on arrival at the kiosk (after approximately a 10 minute wait) we found there were no Pies at all, and we had the last 3 Cornish Pasty's. I asked the server why they were so ill prepared for the number of people with both service and quantity of food, and he just responded that "I should use a different kiosk". I then repeated to the Manager, and she just said that "it's not my fauly, I just have the food I'm given and when it's gone it's gone". It seems to me that as the area I sit in is mostly populated by season ticket holders (Block P5, Row EE, Seat 175) there is really no excuse for the shortage of hot food. I appreciate that this may be a sign of the times, and that with things going OK on the pitch my complaint about catering may seem like a minor thing, but I wouldn't accept it at any other venue, so I feel it right to voice my opinion. Being fair, I was one of the lucky ones today, it got worse as shortly after we were served the lasy shouted there was no longer any Coffee. There were many irate customers in the upper Doug Ellis today, maybe some other visit this board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bully Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Another catering gripe here General. When the club have a special promotion on can they tell the staff about it in advance so that they can process our orders correctly? And teach them how to work a till? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobbo Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 General, Agree with Dukes. In the DE Upper, there was no hot or cold food, no coffee and some other stuff sold out also. The catering at VP is, and has been for as long as I can remember, appalling. There are a couple of reasons for this, IMO... - the staff are workshy idiots. ALL they have to do is concentrate and serve people for 15-20 mins and take a few orders during the match. Despite this, they can't resist the urge to laugh and joke with their mates and move at JPA/snail pace - the workflow is a joke. At McDonalds, some staff will concentrate on food prep, others on serving, etc. At VP, everybody seems to do everything so they're constantly getting in each other's way Somebody at VP really needs to get to grips with this, General. If the current contractors are not delivering they should be told what is and isnt acceptable and shipped out if they can't deliver the former. I can't imagine how much money the club loses from people walking away or not getting everything they want. By the way and to my fellow Villa fans: If something isnt available, as frustrating as it is, don't stand there arguing. It's not a negotiation. It's not going to suddenly appear. Just order something else and let the people behind get something. Rant over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC1874 Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 General, What say did the club have in the change of date for the Reading game? Would it have been possible for Aston Villa to have rejected the switch if they wished? I ask because I justified buying tickets for this match due to the relatively cheap train fares that were available. The reason I had opted to go to Reading was that travel was cheaper for this than for the likes of Arsenal and Man Utd away that our coming up. However the change of date renders my tickets useless...the train companies tell me they are non-refundable. Knowing this I thought it would be best to just change my train times and get on with it but again not so easy: it appears I have to pay £20 in 'administration costs' aswell as more money on the increased train fair just to be able to travel to the game. What makes matters worse is that the new train tickets have to be paid for in full (£38 ) before i can attempt to receive any money back for the original tickets. Unfortunately it seems the best option in this case is for me to simply not attend the match and to return the two match tickets I have, despite having attended the majority of our away games for the past 3 years. At least the refund on the match can make up for the cost of the wasted train tickets. I appreciate that the club our offering refunds on official travel but this is no help to the many fans who travel to our games by rail/private coach. Having already suffered from the Liverpool kick off change, I booked my train tickets to Reading confident there would be no problems as I was sure the same thing could not happen again. In future could you please not sell away tickets until the club is sure of when the match is to actually be played. I understand that games have to be moved for television, what I don't understand is why this happens after we have already sold our whole allocation for an away fixture. I realise that Aston Villa aren't to blame but would like to know who the appropriate people are to contact regarding this issue (i.e. the premeir league etc)? Many Thanks Hi General, I am in the same boat as this and wondered if there is anyone at the club i can speak to regarding this? I appreciate this is not the clubs fault athough did wonder if any ticketing procedural changes can be implemented so tickets are only on sale after the fixture is 100% confirmed? Again i have no idea of the admin and problems in doing this but wanted to draw it to your attention how difficult it has made things for me. The best part of £20 is wasted and when added on to the £20 i will now pay for a coach and the £35 match ticket the day is £75 before i have had a beer or any food. I can't stress enough i know it isn't the fault of the club and i believe fixture changes have inconvenienced you also but did wonder whether anything can be done to help the fans. For Arsenal away for example i can't book my travel yet or a mothers day meal for the Sunday incase the game is switched, even an announcement that "the game will definitely be played on a saturday" when this is confirmed would help massively. I can't thank you enough for all your hard work at the Villa and appreciate your time to answer people's questions. This is the most exciting time at the club since 1982 and it's great to be a part of it Up the Villa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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