Souring a Champions League Season Villa Fans Have Eagerly Awaited
While Unai Emery talks in his post-match interviews about connecting with Aston Villa fans, the club’s commercial department and business side seems to be prefer exploiting them. Villa fan Andy McKeon wrote in to My Old Man Said, wanting to get this off his chest.
By Andy Mckeon
On the day that tickets went on sale for Aston Villa’s first home game in European football’s top competition in four decades, you would expect excitement and a buzz of anticipation among the fan base. The prospect of European giants visiting the hallowed turf of Villa Park should be generating pride and passion, lifting the spirits of thousands of supporters who, just five years ago, watched their team struggle in the Championship.
Instead, this excitement has been tainted with disappointment and anger. Rather than building on the goodwill and aiming to create a fervent atmosphere for the games to come, the club has chosen to maximize revenue with high ticket prices. Fans aren’t eagerly discussing line-ups and score predictions; instead, with adult tickets ranging from £85 to £97 for non-season ticket holders, they’re wondering if they can even afford to attend. For comparison, Liverpool’s highest-priced ticket is £61, which is £9 less than Aston Villa’s lowest-priced ticket for even season ticket holders.
Aston Villa could have been basking in the limelight of the Champions League, representing the Premier League on the continent, with media headlines full of praise and anticipation. Instead, all the talk is about high ticket prices, exploitation of a fanbase and the ill will they’ve generated.
To a large extent, it’s not just about the money, although that plays a significant role. It’s the growing disconnect between the club and its fan base. Is this really what’s needed for the club to succeed? And at what cost? The constant excuse of Financial Fair Play (FFP), trotted out as the reason for high prices, is becoming an increasingly hard sell to fans. The notion that success can only come by forcing loyal supporters to spend more and more of their hard-earned money to pay multi-million-pound salaries seems harsh.
This isn’t the first time the club has made decisions that seem to devalue its supporters. In recent years, several unpopular choices have been made in the name of maximising revenue. One example is the removal of season ticket holders’ access to pre-game venues (after they had paid their season ticket money) to create more corporate offerings, such as the Lower Grounds and the Terrace View in the Holte End, which reduced the availability of standard-priced tickets for fans.
Before these changes, a fan survey was conducted to gather feedback and drive improvements at Villa Park. Fans requested reasonable improvements, like better toilets, more staff, better organisation at food and beverage outlets, and a better Wi-Fi signal. Essentially, updating the stadium concourses to the 21st Century. The club did respond, but only for those willing to pay a premium for the privilege of having facilities that are considered standard in Spurs’ stadium, by purchasing one of the aforementioned packages. Instead, at the first game of the season this year, the general admission fans got queue chaos and toilets overflowing before kick-off.
Another example is the club crest— arguably one of the most sacred symbols of any football club and considered a protected heritage asset by the government, FA and Premier League. Aston Villa has had three crests in the past three seasons. A few years ago, the club commissioned a consultation process with a supporter vote to deliver a new badge, and one was selected. However, it became clear the club had other ideas. The new badge was never fully adopted; the crests displayed around the ground, on commercial outlets, and by broadcasters continued to show the old version. The new crest only appeared on the kit, and that’s where it stayed for the entire season. By the end of the season, the club had announced a new crest—without proper fan consultation and flaunting the FA rules.
As Villa fans, we watch the game for the sport—the excitement of a goal, the thrill of the challenge, an escape from everyday life. For some their allegiance has been passed down through generations of family and it forms a central part of their life, they increasingly struggle to afford. How unfortunate it is that, for many in football’s commercial sector, the passion seems to lie exclusively in chasing revenue and profits, with little concern for the tradition and soul of the club and it’s supporters.
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I don’t disagree with any of the comments made but I do feel that what is happening ultimately highlights the nature of the modern football beast. We’ve craved ‘success’ for so long & Unai Emery has unbelievably managed to deliver significant progression in such a short space of time – but the outcome of that is the situation we now find ourselves in.
Why should a club that’s just qualified for the Champions League – with no debt and a billionaire owner who wants to invest find itself unable to significantly do so when – just as an example, a so called ‘big’ club permanently in debt that didn’t qualify for the champions league this year can continue to spend as they wish?
And that’s why we have the necessity for the Hecks of this world. The game is fundamentally broken, but I feel that NSWE saw it coming and are trying to do something about it. Maybe the current situation does all seem a bit mercenary, but you clearly can’t put that down to greed. NSWE don’t need the money, they’re just trying to grow the club within rules designed to keep the status quo.
The fact is that elite football in the 21st century comes at a cost, AVFC are playing catch-up & we need to be careful that we don’t forget to enjoy the moment – & the overall experience just because we perhaps can’t afford to go to every Champions League game – disappointing though that might be.
UTV
More exploitation of a fanbase than greed.
I’m not certain about ‘exploitation’ tbh. Everyone has a choice, we can’t all go & they’ll be on TV anyway. But like it or not (it’s clear NSWE don’t like it), if we want success going forward, the inherent structure of ‘turnover’ financial rules means we’re ALL going to have to pay for it one way or another – including the attraction of & sharing the love of Villa with new fans – with money to spend on Tickets, Shirts, Corporate, whatever. I was fortunate to see Milosevic curl one into the top corner at Wembley in ‘96, but that was 30 yrs of mediocrity ago & we should be careful not to get too bogged down with this & put too much of a dampener on what promises to be a great season. UTV
The club has one Heck of a problem. The guy’s a deluded be113nd. His comment about the new club crest for the next 150 years in particular. It will be gone the moment he’s out the door and back to something more palatable with more claret. The current crest will always be the loathed Chris Heck badge. He’s a coward for refusing to engage with fans. Maybe his schtick worked in the US but it won’t wash here.
He scrapped Purslow’s plan for VP precisely because it wasn’t HIS plan. Instead, the fan base is being shafted every which way. It makes sense to increase the capacity (or build a new stadium) and spread the load across more people. Instead, ST holders have had to make way for the Prawn Sandwich brigade. Arsenal are looking to go beyond 60,000 at the Emirates. Everton will have 55,000. Liverpool are at 62,000, United want 90,000 or 100,000 and we are stuck at 42,000.
A new stadium (Perry Barr, NEC?) makes sense as the hospitality facilities would be built-in rather than having to dislodge season ticket holders. If the club want more revenue, then accomodate those on the ST waiting list rather then emptying the wallets of existing fans.
If Heck wanted a quick win, the club could’ve bought avfc.com to strengthen the brand. All of the global superclubs (Real, Barca, Barca, Utd, Liverpool, Milan etc) are .com (the defacto gold standard) whereas we’re only .co.uk. Even Small Heath are .com FFS!
The CL ticket pricing indicates that the Club / Heck think the fans are just a commodity to be milked dry. The increase for disabled parking was vile and despicable. It shows just how out of touch and disconnected Heck / AVFC are with the working-class fan base.
Rant over. Sorry, but had to get it off my chest.