TrentVilla Posted February 25, 2008 Moderator Share Posted February 25, 2008 Hi General. As I'm sure your aware there has been a sad loss to the Villa family with the death of a club legend Jimmy Dugdale. I have total faith that the club will act accordingly to mark the passing of this great figure from our past so will no suggestions in direct relation to that. But I have for some time thought that the club and the fans would benefit to something akin to either a museum or hall of legends that remembers those players who helped make us the great club we are today. It would be fantastic to be able to pay hommage to those of the Villa Park family no longer with us and somewhere on sad days such as this that the fans could pay their respects. I think a club of our heritage and standing within the game in this country merits something along these lines and could also be tailored to oversea's visitors to Birmingham. As always General thanks for your continued efforts and for taking the time to stop by on this and other message boards. I have to say over the last 12 months you have started to sound more and more like one of us. Have you noticed any difference in your feelings on match days? Best Wishes TV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-67 Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 General, following on from TrentVilla's post, could you put stones/paviers on the ground like the one's being purchased around the ground to remember the former Great's. My wife bought me a stone for my 40th last year. Could we have an area created for people like Jimmy Dugdale? Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortshadyuk Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 General Krulak here: 1. shortshadyuk: We can agree to disagree on Marlon. I believe he is talented and, more importantly, brings energy to the game every time he come on. There are certain types of athletes who just seem to generate energy and emotion when they are on the Pitch...they normally are not the most skilled or the most reknown. The simple fact is that they can "change" the energy level of the game when the come on the Pitch. I think Marlon is that type of player. The point I was making in my previous post was that MON obviously saw the same thing when he went after Marlon. 2. I agree with the youth talent...we have a strong program and superb coaches. We need to have a way to "grow our own" in order to augment the players we buy. The youth program gives us that! 1. I dont doubt Marlon brings something "now" and changes games, good on him for that and YES I shall be supportive. I just hear rave reviews of Forrester and Defouneso and would love for them to break through too, im all for youth coming through the ranks... Thats why I love Villa we dont need to buy success, we're building a self sustainable club with an excellent youth system. Is there a problem with the Seat Exchange website? I tried some other links and get blank pages even at work is anyone else having the same problem? And I agree with the posts before me, We should try and have perhaps a walk of fame kinda thing to acknowledge Villa greats General did anything happen with the healthy food stalls? and will we get food/drink stalls named after players like Patriks Bergers, Barrys Beer or Platts Plaice etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flec Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Seat exchange pages are fine here, browser issue? (Firefox 3 beta 3 here) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrissmith921 Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 General, I've just been to Barcelona and visited their stadium for the tour - obviously at the moment (and for the considerable future) Barcelona will have a much larger pull than us in terms of this - however there were so many things that could be picked up from it that we could incorporate into our tour. Given the huge numbers of Polish/Lithuanian/Romanian immigrants into this country recently, perhaps audio parts to the tour in their respective languages - certainly non-English speaking people visit the stadium, obviously we cant cover every language, but the major ones (English, Spanish, Chinese, Urdu, plus German, French etc) would be superb I feel. All the signs on the tour were in Spanish/Catalan/English, meaning they'd specifically gone out of their way to ensure that people were catered for - and apart from the Birmingham City pennant in their trophy room, it was brilliant from start to finish! The final part was that the tour finished in the shop - perhaps a little obvious to all what the aim of this is, but people still spent money. I'm not sure of the nationalities/languages spoken of people on the tours - may well be 99.999% english - your marketing team will know this obviously - but perhaps this is something that can be thought up - particularly an audio part of the tour, it would be an excellent addition if there are the numbers to support it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guus Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 General. How about translating the Official Site into other languages? Apologies if this has already been suggested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortshadyuk Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Phew got the Seat Exchange thing working General why is there no facility for Away tickets in case people can not attend those and more importantly so i can see them :-P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-krulak Posted February 26, 2008 Author Share Posted February 26, 2008 General Krulak here: 1. TrentVilla: As you know, the Club has been in contact with Jimmy Dugdale's "family"...we are doing those things that they feel appropriate..and we will continue to take our lead from them. As you know, we are going to have a museum at Villa Park and when we do, we will have a location that honours the "Legends of Villa"...Jimmy will be there. The pavers idea is a good one but the museum will cover the issue even more completely. As for my feelings on game days...there is no question that I get even more passionate with each game. Knowing the players and MON, I can't help but get more and more excited as we close in on the end of the season. We all know what it will take to get to Europe and we are pushing for that eventuality. We have a long way to go but we have a chance. That gets me fired up! 2. Chrissmith921: Those are some very good thoughts!! Some would be harder than others to get going but some are easy fixes and make a great deal of sense. Ending tour at Shop is a perfect example. Thank you for sharing the ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andycv Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 General, Bill Howell has posted on his blog that Villa are going to raise prices significantly for next season: "One piece of news has reached me these last few days- expect a steep increase in ticket prices at Villa Park next season." http://blogs.birminghammail.net/astonvilla/ I just wondered if you had any views on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted February 26, 2008 Moderator Share Posted February 26, 2008 General, I'm happy to report that the reserve and youth team tables are now up and running on the official site as you promised. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gort Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 When the North Stand is re-developed are there any plans to fill in the corners of the Upper Holte? I've heard a lot of fans say they'd like to see this happen as it would keep a lot of the noise in that gets lost and would improve the atmosphere even more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrobo1 Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 General, are the results of the questionnaire last year going to be published ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Becker Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 General, visited the Holte first time and it was very impressive! The service was excellent too! I'm disappointed about one thing though: It was last Saturday (non-match day of course) and after a wallet emptying visit in the shop I strode over to the Holte for a pint and some lunch. But, unfortunately there was absolutely nothing to eat! Quite shocking I must say. I can understand that there are not that many customers on a non-match day, but if we can't keep warm food because of that at least baguettes could be on offer. Greetings from a Villafan from Finland! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-krulak Posted February 27, 2008 Author Share Posted February 27, 2008 General Krulak here: 1. I will be off the site until Sunday...I have to go on a business trip. "I shall return". 2. As you know, we are looking at the entire Villa Park and what might be done to "upgrade" our facilities. HOK is looking at this right now. Closing in the corners will be looked at as will other options. 3. Rise in prices. "Steep increases...prices rise significantly"....I do not believe that any decision has been made re. ticket prices for next year. Not only do I not believe it but...I know that no decisions have been made. That type of decision will be made over the next month or so. My sense is that ticket prices may well be upped a bit but not "sttep" or "significantly". Randy recognizes that ticket prices are important to the fan attendence and atmosphere. He is fair in the US and has shown himself fair in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrobo1 Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 This is not a discussion thread, please keep this for Q & As for the General. jc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortshadyuk Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 General I read somewhere that Wes Brown might move to Villa (Dont care about this), but more interestingly MON wants to keep the wage structure and thus offer a large signing on fee to compensate him for the reduction in wages. This makes little sense to me Say over 4 years we want to pay someone 1m a year then they get 1m/year, if we elect to give them 2m as a signing on fee to make it only 0.5m paid a year in wages and the player leaves after 1 season we have in effect lost more money by paying a larger signing on fee, surely what we should do is break the wage structure BUT seeing as he would sign on a Free take some of the transfer money to pay for his excessive wages to balance it out so take 1m from the transfer funds and pay him 3m in regular wages funds... I hope that makes sense... End of Year 1 Signing on Fee -----------------------------No signing on fee 2m+500k=2.5m---------------------------------------------1m Year 2 3m in total----------------------------------------------------2m Year 3 3.5m----------------------------------------------------------3m Year 4 4m------------------------------------------------------------4m If the player stays for longer than 4 years then it makes sense but we'd pay another signing on fee anyway to renew a contract... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrobo1 Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 General, how do you and Randy feel about the difference in US sport and UK In the US your sports have a very communist feel to them, wage caps, Draft rules etc, all meant to help even the league up and not have a team dominate all the time Yet in the UK it is total opposite, everyman to himself, the big clubs do well and the small clubs, well go and bugger off (generalities General not Villa !!) Did this come to a shock to you and Randy and which system do you prefer ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaAsh Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 General, Would just like to make a quick comment regarding the mosaics that are currently being made to replace the ones that were trashed when the old Trinity was demolished. From the pictures I have seen they are going to be very impressive and a great addition to the already excellent signage we have around the ground. Could you tell us where you plan on situating these? Will they be in a similar position to the ones they are replacing? This is yet another example of the excellent work being done by our chairman and I couldn't be happier with the way everything is going right now. Thanks General, Randy, MON and everyone 'behind the scenes' doing their bit to restore the glory we have been deprived of for so long. :notworthy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dantanner Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 hi general me and my 7 year old son are season ticket holders ,i also in two years want my other son to be a season ticket holder (he is only 4 now) is there a waiting list for season tickets now? and can i put his name down for the 2009/2010 season to secure his ticket?thanks for good work.did you watch dan tanner 20 years ago? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-krulak Posted February 29, 2008 Author Share Posted February 29, 2008 General Krulak here: 1. Still on trip but got to a computer. 2. shortshadyuk: Don't believe everything you read or hear about player compensation. No need to comment on something that is not an accurate picture of how we operate. 3. I anrobo1: Randy and I were very familiar with the way football operates in the UK. Remember, we both lived here for over 5 years. BUT, you are absolutely right that the UK vs US concept of competition is remarkably different. In the US, NFL teams are "rewarded" with high draft picks for finishing poorly...in the UK, the teams are relegated. In the US there are salary caps for teams...obviously, that does not occur in the UK. The distribution of TV revenue is also different. Bottom Line: MUCH more incentive to win in the UK. 4. There is not a waiting list for season tickets at the present time....and I don't envision one in 2009/2010. BUT...the day will come when a season ticket to Aston Villa Football Club will be a much sought after item. 5. I am pulling for a win against Arsenal...it would be HUGE!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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