Chris Heck promises to 'protect' loyalty amid £400m Aston Villa plan

Aston Villa's president of business operations Chris Heck has promised not to exploit the club's most loyal fans while trying to drive up the club's revenue to £400m by 2027.

It's crucial that Villa's business department capitalise on the progress made on the pitch under Unai Emery, who led the club into the Champions League with a top four finish last term. Under Heck, Villa announced a new long-term partnership that will see Betano become the club’s new principal and front-of-shirt partner in a deal worth £40m, while he also tied up a deal with Adidas with the sportswear giant becoming the club’s official kit partner.

Villa's season ticket prices for the upcoming campaign were increased by just five per cent, but match-by-match tickets have gone up by up to 15 per cent, with Category A games set to cost £78 in price zone one seats. The club's justification for the hike of match-by-match tickets was due to their limited price increase on season tickets.

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Villa are also not offering any new season tickets while they focus on expanding Villa Park to also accommodate more premium seating. In an exclusive interview with the Telegraph, Heck said Villa are about to announce the biggest hospitality push in European football, which includes 18 new premium offerings, including private club space and other suites across the Doug Ellis, North and Trinity Road stands.

Villa's new general admission plus season ticket experience within the original prison cells of Villa Park called the "The Cells" sold out within a week last month. It will be one of one of the newly-themed offerings encompassing 5,000 hospitality tickets across different price levels.

“Premium meant [at Villa Park] you got a suite, 12 tickets and a rectangular table for a sit down like a family meal,” Heck told the Telegraph. “It’s wonderful and everyone enjoys themselves but that was the only option. My thought is ‘let’s give people more options and I bet you they are going to be interested’. There is not just one type of English football fan.”

Speaking with Crossing Broad Sports, Heck outlined how important it is for Villa to increase their revenue streams.

"Here [in the Premier League], you could have the richest owners in the world and it doesn’t matter," he said. "It’s how much you actually generate. So how do you do that without ticking off your most loyal fans?

"That’s the formula that we have found, let’s protect our season ticket base, our local fans first, the core fan, protect them, and then find new revenue streams to pump up the value of the club and the spending opportunity of the club.

"That’s the big difference between baseball and the Premier League. We actually have to make money as opposed to somebody going into their bank account."

He added: "One area we’re focused on is that we put a lot of money into completely changing all of our premium seating. It’s a big stadium and we have 5,000 premium seats, about half of which before were made up of suites.

"So we wiped them out and made restaurants, clubs, loge boxes, at all of these different price points. Some really cool things. We sold those in a much different fashion to generate a lot more money. Who does that affect? It affects the rich, so the common fan doesn’t get upset with that."

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