heystally! Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 Hi General, I was in a card shop today in Worcester, looking for a birthday card for a family member, and came across a selection of football cards. There I was surprised and disgusted to find, just 25 miles from Villa Park, cards for Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and even Newcastle United. Is this a market which we should be attacking, particularly when a team hundreds of miles away to the north and aren't close to us in the league can successfully market them in our back garden? On a serious note, really looking forward to the game tomorrow, hope we start to show our potential as top-four raiders. Enjoy the game on your walkabout, it's all about the Lower Holte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizmo Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 General, why do Villa's transfers fees tend to be 'undisclosed'? In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter of course but I'm just curious why that happens in football. Does it benefit the buying or selling club? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RA19 Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 PLC's (public limited companies) are duty bound to disclose their dealings as they are owned by shareholders. Villa is a privately owned company (owned by Randy Lerner) & therefore don't have to disclose individual transfer deals - if the transfer is with another privately owned company then there is no legal requirement for either party to disclose the fee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_bubble Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 General, I like many other Villa fans feel extremely proud when we see our lads wearing the shirt with the Acorns name on the front, we are setting a good example to the other British clubs. Do you know if this same pride is felt by the players old and new? I know they do a lot for the hospices, but it'd be nice to know if they feel as proud to be wearing a shirt "advertising" a worthy cause rather than a corporate body. What has been their reaction if any? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salsa Party Animal Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 Why not give free access to AVTV to season ticket holders. I wouldn't try it out due to video resolution will be too small on my TV and I am not interested in unsubtitled interviews (due to deafness) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave1380 Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 General Do you know whether the Spurs game is likely to go ahead on 15th September as currently planned due to the UEFA cup game for both teams being on the Thursday? Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coops_AVFC Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 I just wanted to add my voice to the fixture congestion that we have coming up shortly. I dont know if anyone else has posted it, but after the international break we'll have 5 games in 12 days. I know we've increased the squad size, but are we gonna be able to cope with doing that this early in the season? Thanks for your time General. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddy Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 Hi General, Just checking that you've told the stewards to kick out any Liverpool fans who make themselves known tomorrow. A few years back one told me he couldn't kick the one out celebrating and taunting the Villa fans because they don't unless they cause trouble. To me that is causing trouble. I hope they've been told to be stricter this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 General, I've got the prematch jitters. Wish the lads luck and give Liverpool hell! I remember last season before the blues match, you said you hadnt been as nervous as you were then since operation desert-storm. That is EXACTLY how I feel right now! UTV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuW Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 General As a Villa fan who travels far and wide, I just want to say thanks to Randy Lerner for the support he has given to the club in the past month. Many, including me, questioned the clubs ambition We need not, the club is in safe hands Thanks! P.S. I'm after Randy's job in the near future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benireduk Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 Hi General, Was great to see you wandering around at the academy games yesterday. Thanks for signing my programme as well. I was loving how confident you are about todays game. I think you should go and have a word with the boys before they go out!!! Thanks again. UTV!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeafyVilla Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 Hi General, I posted this comment below a few weeks ago but as of yet have not had a reply, please could you answer for me as my wifes side of the family are all Newcastle fans and would dearly love to get my son to support them.... Hi General, first and foremost keep up the very good work you do liasing with the fans, now down to business, I've been looking on the official site about how I can register my 3 month old son as a little Villain but i cant find any info etc, could you please be of any help to me on this matter....Thanking you in advance....UTV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterjrpowell Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 hello general My girlfriend is a big fan of the villa lion mascots hercules and bella. I noticed that bella has been absent recently and this upsets her so to see hercules without his wife. could you have a word. cheers pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCGB Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 Good evening General. I am absolutely fuming about how my young son & I were treated upon arrival at the ground today. Firstly we are season ticket holders who renewed to the tune of £580 for this season. Our seats are 194 & 195 HH Lower Holte. We arrived at the ground & proceeded to go through turnstile number 25 in the Lower Holte. I placed my sons' card in first & the orange/green light came on. The turnstile would not allow my son through. I stated this to the elderly on duty operator who said the card was not valid & you are not coming in. I said the turnstile is faulty but he was not having any of it. I then tried my card & no lights came up. Yet again the operator said you are not valid & not getting in. Yet again I informed him there must be a fault. He would not listen & stated my son & I would not be getting in. I proceeded to try our cards again & they both worked allowing us in. When I pointed this out to the operator no apology was forthcoming. When inside I complained to a steward who said that turnstile had been playing up & the operator was not the most cooperative. My son & I watched a few other fans trying to get through. They appeared to have the same problem. General, the attitude of the operator was not acceptable to a paying customer. Can you put a system in place that allows at least a steward to check the season ticket cards are valid if such a fault occurs? Also can you do something about that operators attitude? If I spoke to a customer like he did then I would be disciplined. I am not happy tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenjos Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 Hi general. Can i ask why in the lower north they were making all bottled beers be poured in to pint glass? It slowed everything down and then 2 mins b4 Ko they stopped doing it and gave out the bottles!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsay1874 Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 When the Villa played at Reading recently I had a problem with my ticket being read by their electronic turnstiles. A nice young man with a portable reader came over to my turnstile and asked if he could scan my ticket; which he then did. He concluded that the turnstile had acknowledged my ticket and marked it as "used" but had not opened the turnstile. He then "reset" my booking from his hand-held reader and he then waited with me to check that the turnstile would let me in. It was efficient and I always felt like a valued customer (even though I was an away fan as far as he was concerned). It appears that Reading understand that the technology doesn't always work so they have someone other than a turnstile operator on-hand to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 Hi General, Hope you enjoyed the game yesterday. I think that everyone will agree that we let 2 points slip yesterday because that was the best chance we have had to beat Liverpool in years! A point is better than nothing though and at least we kept a clean sheet and saw the great Dane back to his best This is the first time I have felt the need to complain about anything at the stadium but feel that I want to say something about yesterday. I queued for 15 minutes to get a beer at half time in the lower North stand. I was about the 6th person from the front of the queue when a couple of staff showed up with cases of beer. They started selling it to people who walked over to them who were at the back of the queue, without being behind the counter! After a few complaints from disgruntled fans the 2 women refused the other customer's who had gone to them and went behind the counter to help serve. After serving a couple of guy's in front of me they suddenly announced that they had run out of beer, which was very annoying given the fact I and a few other's had waited patiently in the queue. I know you say that the club is trying to improve the match day experience for the fan's but there seems to be an ongoing problem with the catering side of the business that really does need sorting out. It's not the first time we have not been able to get a beer at that end of the ground. I am sure there are other fans with issues regarding the catering side of Villa Park who would like to know how long this may take before being sorted out. A fella rom Coventry came to the game with us yesterday. He has no allegiance to any particular team so he comes to support the Villa with us sometimes and on other occasions he goes to the Coventry games with his brother. He claims that Coventry have introduced a card system whereby you put credit onto a swipe card and use that to pay for your food or drink. He said that he went last week and there were no queues whatsoever. I understand that they have not got as many fans as us and that there stadium is more modern but surely a Premiership stadium like ours can come up with something as technically advanced as that? Sorry for the complaint but I do feel the club could take in a lot more revenue through having a much better food and drink service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanpabloingram Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 One idea for the catering/alcohol area could be to follow the approach of what they do at the cricket, and have people selling alcohol using back packs into the plastic pint glasses OR just have basic stands selling beer bottles only? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bakerbob Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 Good morning general For your information we tried to buy white coffees in the upper DE at 2.00 pm and they were not available only black also no pies were available. No great deal but not very professional. PS the seat next to me was empty again and if we had junior prices in upper DE my grandson would have been there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark_b78 Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 ...It appears that Reading understand that the technology doesn't always work so they have someone other than a turnstile operator on-hand to help. This is how it also works at VP. If there are any difficulties with the season tickets cards, the customer should be politely directed to a supervisor who is located outside the turnstiles who has a hand held reader which will read the card and can explain exactly what the problem is. Unfortunately from inside the turnstiles, the operator is unable to know exactly what the problem is and so has to refer any problems outside, this of course should be done politely and not to try to irritate the customers further. If you have any individual problems, any comments (both good and bad) can be directed to Lee Preece, Matchday operations. Each turnstile operator has a name badge on display along with a jacket number so issues can then be ironed out and a better match day experience can be had by everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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