The Holte Suite

[Meanwood Villa]

Is it 70 quid all you can drink?

[PeterWithesShin]

It may not be prime Trinity Road style corporate, but if it would cost you over 2k for 19 home league games, when you include ticket price, then for me it's closer to corporate than it is your average fan.

[pauliewalnuts]

Price-wise, yes, definitely, but I bet the standards in there are nothing like corporate.

I don't mind them trying this on if they thing they can make it work, even though I'd never pay that, but it pisses me off hugely that elsewhere you have people paying 60 odd quid for a ticket yet encountering overflowing disgusting toilets.

It's like there's a certain level of shit service they do not give a fuck about, so long as people keep ponying up the money.

The answer for them seems to be all about getting people to pay more money based on "this new thing is better than what you'd get otherwise with the bulk of the fans" rather than improving general standards.

"It's hard to buy food at half time, but look, if you can pay another 50 quid (or whatever) you'll be able to get some food" rather than just making it easier for more people to get something on the concourses.

[PeterWithesShin]

I reckon for £70 you'd get admission, decent quality buffet and then you pay for any drinks. As you say, the problem is their solution to shit service is to improve it in small areas, charge way more (more than ticket price), and for good measure, take away something fans have been able to use as part of their ST for years. We just seem to be walking wallets to them these days.

[Risso]

Assuming the rumour is true then £70 a game will mean it's corporate. So on top of the massive price increases of the last 2 years there's losing the free cup game and access to The Holte Suite.

I think they are blurring the line between corporate and 'normal' or at least are trying to, with things like this and the Terrace View, they're going for the average fan with more money than sense rather than lowering the standards for corporate.

In that regard they're just trying to catch up with the likes of Spurs and Arsenal. I might have mentioned before that when I went to our first game back in the PL away at Spurs, the only tickets we could get were in the hospitality seats in the Tottingham stadium. Me and my daughter got talking to a Spurs fan and his son. They'd paid something like £80,000 each for a ten year season ticket in area where you were kindly given one free bottle of lager and the choice of a few sandwiches, and then you had to queue up at a nicer bar for anything else after that. The seats being slightly padded was the only other benefit. There wasn't even enough room in the bar for everybody to sit down.

I've got another mate with something similar at Arsenal, and he pays about £5k a season, and gets nothing for free at all. Again, just a slightly posher seat, and the chance to buy a beer and some scran in a nicer looking bar with smaller queues.

I'm guessing the club have paid a consultant to do some "benchmarking" and then decided that Villa fans need to be similarly rinsed.

[Holte L2]

Assuming the rumour is true then £70 a game will mean it's corporate. So on top of the massive price increases of the last 2 years there's losing the free cup game and access to The Holte Suite.

I think they are blurring the line between corporate and 'normal' or at least are trying to, with things like this and the Terrace View, they're going for the average fan with more money than sense rather than lowering the standards for corporate.

In that regard they're just trying to catch up with the likes of Spurs and Arsenal. I might have mentioned before that when I went to our first game back in the PL away at Spurs, the only tickets we could get were in the hospitality seats in the Tottingham stadium. Me and my daughter got talking to a Spurs fan and his son. They'd paid something like £80,000 each for a ten year season ticket in area where you were kindly given one free bottle of lager and the choice of a few sandwiches, and then you had to queue up at a nicer bar for anything else after that. The seats being slightly padded was the only other benefit. There wasn't even enough room in the bar for everybody to sit down.

I've got another mate with something similar at Arsenal, and he pays about £5k a season, and gets nothing for free at all. Again, just a slightly posher seat, and the chance to buy a beer and some scran in a nicer looking bar with smaller queues.

I'm guessing the club have paid a consultant to do some "benchmarking" and then decided that Villa fans need to be similarly rinsed.

The difference with those clubs is London. You can get away with charging a premium in that rip off City.

[PeterWithesShin]

Maybe they'll do a more expensive option to try and palm off some of the Terrace View tickets that go unsold each home game.

[Risso]

The difference with those clubs is London. You can get away with charging a premium in that rip off City.

I don't really agree with that. The difference is demand. They had it and still do, we didn't and now increasingly have. When you have a big excess of demand over supply for a product like football where people are emotionally invested, it's an amazing opportunity to make more money than you were before.

[pauliewalnuts]

One thing they do know is whether they'll make a decent profit on it, and they wouldn't be doing it if they felt the demand wasn't there.

[simboy]

As someone said, we are 2 miles or so from the city centre. I can go to a city centre pub have some scran and a proper pint or two (without pipe cleaner in) , share a taxi with my mate to get to the ground 20 minutes before and have quite a lot of change from £70.

That’s the difference from spuds or Arsenal … there’s a close diverse alternative.

[PeterWithesShin]

London prices do make a difference. Biggest difference for me though is they did in new builds, we're just taking stuff away from fans and then charging more to be able to use what they were using for years. While the service in the rest of the ground is for the most part, utter shit. If we had an area in a new North Stand for seats that cost that much I doubt many would complain, probably just think people are saft for paying it.

[PeterWithesShin]

Is the demand there though as the Terrace View isn't close to selling out for any game so far?

[Risso]

As someone said, we are 2 miles or so from the city centre. I can go to a city centre pub have some scran and a proper pint or two (without pipe cleaner in) , share a taxi with my mate to get to the ground 20 minutes before and have quite a lot of change from £70.

That’s the difference from spuds or Arsenal … there’s a close diverse alternative.

Arsenal is a five minute walk from Islington which has got hundreds of bars and restaurants, and that section of the A1 is literally rammed with places to eat and drink. It's also one stop and five minutes on the tube from Kings Cross/St Pancras and everything going on round there. They've probably got 50 times more places they can go than in Birmingham. It's ridiculously easy to get to, and because there's so much choice nowhere is overly busy, unless you get the away fans deciding to take over one or two pubs. And yet they still sell out the posh bits.

[simboy]

Yeah.

The two, use of facilities we as fans can use prior to the games and the facilities within the ground, which are quite frankly shocking - should not be mutually exclusive. We are getting things so right on the pitch but it’s a pretty 1980’s experience in the ground for the fan … unless you use the 1874 area.

Did they put the box prices up £5,000 this year as well?

[pauliewalnuts]

Is the demand there though as the Terrace View isn't close to selling out for any game so far?

It depends what criteria they are using as success at this stage, i guess, it might not necessarily be to sell it out on launch.