Increasing Club Revenue

[viivvaa66]

Last night was a tiny step in the right direction.

To make Aston Villa a world wide brand name that can compete with the likes of Chelsea and ManU, would take years.

To get there we need to compete and perform at the highest level year after year, so we need to qualify for CL again this season, and the season after that, and so on.

Then we can sign those £40-60 million sponsorship deals, have millions of fans worldwide, and pundits would look silly if they don’t include Aston Villa in their pre-season top 4 guessing game.

[ender4]

Do UEFA get the advertising billboard space around the stadium for every CL match? 

I noticed it wasn't our usual sponsors but big brand names instead - Pepsi, Mastercard, Playstation, etc.

[delboy54]

I wonder how much Villa (Heck) would need to increase the seat prices in order to genuinely compete with the liverpool's and man city of this world?

If each seat was 1000 quid (I am joking - I am not Heck!), and every seat was sold, would that be enough? Or 500 quid...

What would be enough if we only looked at income generated by seats...?

Obviously this is all theoretical spreadsheet stuff.

[ender4]

5 minutes ago, delboy54 said:

I wonder how much Villa (Heck) would need to increase the seat prices in order to genuinely compete with the liverpool's and man city of this world?

If each seat was 1000 quid (I am joking - I am not Heck!), and every seat was sold, would that be enough? Or 500 quid...

What would be enough if we only looked at income generated by seats...?

Obviously this is all theoretical spreadsheet stuff.

Chelsea prices. Similar size stadium and they have matchday revenue around £70-80 million. We have less than half that matchday revenue.

Edited Thursday at 16:53 by ender4

[OutByEaster?]

24 minutes ago, ender4 said:

Chelsea prices. Similar size stadium and they have matchday revenue around £70-80 million. We have less than half that matchday revenue.

They have similar prices to us - the biggest difference in the two matchday figures is what each club chooses to include in them when compiling their accounts.

Our last published figures include 20 home games in the 2022-23 season - our average home attendance was over 40,000 - so around 800,000 fans.

We reported £18.7m - or £23.75 per fan. With the best will in the world, that isn't what Villa fans paid that season, especially as that figure should include all of the hospitality and boxes.

In terms of what we didn't include, it's difficult to figure out, the average adult season ticket was around £600 and we most likely sold around 24,000 of those (with the rest at concession prices) - that alone is £14.4m - add in the concessions and that might well reach the £18.7m on its own- perhaps that's what we've done and included matchday ticket sales, hospitality, food & beverage and everything else on another line - or perhaps we recorded everything else and put the season ticket sales on another line. Whichever it is, we seem to have chosen to report a big chunk of our matchday income on our commercial line.

Regardless, looking at this seasons prices, and the increased numbers and prices in hospitality, I'd reckon Villa Park probably generates something nearing £3m a game now and we'll have most likely at least 25 of those - as a like for like with Chelsea's figure it might be better to think of us at nearer to £75m in matchday income than it is to think of us at that £18.7m.

I doubt it's deliberate, but the way we report our matchday incomes has done a brilliant job of creating the idea that Villa Park is cheap and we can't compete with the likes of Chelsea and perhaps whichever other line we put the rest of our matchday income on looks much better in terms of boosting our commercial department.

 

[jones1328]

I bet Chris Heck is p*ssed off that he didn't put in place a a 'Royal Seat' option in GA+ prior to yesterdays match. Could have made a nice difference to revenue streams!

[VillaChris]

1 hour ago, delboy54 said:

I wonder how much Villa (Heck) would need to increase the seat prices in order to genuinely compete with the liverpool's and man city of this world?

If each seat was 1000 quid (I am joking - I am not Heck!), and every seat was sold, would that be enough? Or 500 quid...

What would be enough if we only looked at income generated by seats...?

Obviously this is all theoretical spreadsheet stuff.

Please don't give him or whoever has the job amongst the junior staff to read our messages and give him feedback any ideas!

Ultimately modern day football comes down to what you secure in sponsorship and we've seen the ones at the top increase revenue by getting sponsors on sleeves and the bogs on the training ground. Man. City done all of this legitimately...

Perhaps there's a limit to what we can do given location but you have to think we can surely get closer to Spurs in next decade. Even before their stadium move they had England's captain which was a big pull for sponsors and also they got a strangehold of Asia with the impact Son has had in the premier league.

I do wonder if South America is a future opportunity? A football mad continent and we currently have an Argentine World cup winner and arguably the most exciting young CF in Football who's also from the continent so there's plenty of marketing opportunities there. I'm not really sure how strong our Spanish offering on social media currently is but all the elite teams have X and Instagram accounts in many different languages so assume we're similar? Or perhaps maybe go and play a game in the continent if we have 2-3 games in the US in a future pre season?

It reminds me of when Raducanu won the US open and she said a couple of lines in chinese in the press conference. Are we for example showing highlights of the game in Spanish to market to that audience?

[allani]

18 hours ago, VillaChris said:

I don't think they're wrestling with the idea at all of the fans they want to attract to the games in the next decade but admitting to it would be an even bigger PR disaster than the £85 tickets.

Same as most owners would want to play prem games in the US sooner or later but we know the ramifications of agreeing to it so will probably wait for another league to attempt it.

The issue is this, for the area we're in is the demand really there? It's like JV saying the mass sponsorship is around the corner...we've been saying that for years but the big brands just want to be involved with Chelsea, Arsenal, Man. United and Liverpool. Winning stuff every year will eventually change that narrative.

People like quoting the thousands on the waiting list but they're waiting to buy a season ticket for 600-700 quid, they're not waiting to spend 200-300 quid on Terrace view and the other hospitality seats, that's just a select number as we're seeing by struggling to shift those seats for our top tier games.

If the demand is eventually there then we just shift to another sanitised and corporate atmosphere at VP which as Mark says we mock other clubs for.

I am going to take slight issue with this point - I do think that there are big brands that would quite like to be involved in something other than the "Sky 6".  Obviously at the moment they provide a much bigger pool of fans globally and so you get a lot of coverage / access for your money.  But at the same time all you are really doing in piggy-backing on the achievement of others.  Nothing you do is really going to make you part of the story.  Whereas I think Newcastle and Villa offer an opportunity for a brand to become part of the story - sure they're maybe a season or two behind being "transformers" but nonetheless there is an opportunity for someone to bake either of those clubs breaking into the "elite" and building a story about how they were there and involved in the transformation.  There's still a pretty powerful PR story to tell.  Plus I think we're both slightly outside the tribalism of the Sky 6 (for the moment) and so (as we have seen with some of the messages from other fans in the last couple of days) non-Villa fans can also enjoy our story.  Newcastle I think in the past have claimed to be everyone's second team.  If either of us do break the Sky 6 then that will change but we'll still have a few years of other clubs enjoying our success but it shows that there is hope for them too and there isn't an unbreakable stronghold with the Sky 6.  Newcastle do have a cloud on their backs because of their ownership issue and I think that will put off some brands.  So I do think we're in a fairly unique position here - we've attracted a hell of a lot of (very good) publicity with the kit launch video, finishing 4th last season, beating Bayern, etc.

One downside is that the rules are stacked against us - the PL and status quo don't want us or Newcastle to announce £80m sponsorship deals.  If we do (however legal they are) then you can be sure that those deals will be investigated and almost certainly some new rules will appear to claim that an increase of more than x% in sponsorship is "dodgy".

On the positive side - Atairos / Comcast haven't really shown their hand yet.  My gut feel is that they aren't involved to make 10-20% return on their investment and I don't think NSWE needed their money to continue developing their plans for Villa.  The deal on those terms doesn't make a lot of sense (it didn't have any impact on PSR for example).  I can't help but feel that there's a bigger play happening there - the Comcast empire is massive and absolutely includes brands that could make significant investment into Villa and / or contribute in developing those plans (through software, media, infrastructure, ticketing, etc).

[Czarnikjak]

14 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Please don't give him or whoever has the job amongst the junior staff to read our messages and give him feedback any ideas!

Ultimately modern day football comes down to what you secure in sponsorship and we've seen the ones at the top increase revenue by getting sponsors on sleeves and the bogs on the training ground. Man. City done all of this legitimately...

Perhaps there's a limit to what we can do given location but you have to think we can surely get closer to Spurs in next decade. Even before their stadium move they had England's captain which was a big pull for sponsors and also they got a strangehold of Asia with the impact Son has had in the premier league.

I do wonder if South America is a future opportunity? A football mad continent and we currently have an Argentine World cup winner and arguably the most exciting young CF in Football who's also from the continent so there's plenty of marketing opportunities there. I'm not really sure how strong our Spanish offering on social media currently is but all the elite teams have X and Instagram accounts in many different languages so assume we're similar? Or perhaps maybe go and play a game in the continent if we have 2-3 games in the US in a future pre season?

It reminds me of when Raducanu won the US open and she said a couple of lines in chinese in the press conference. Are we for example showing highlights of the game in Spanish to market to that audience?

South America is not an important market. Not enough money or disposable income to care about. It's mostly about Asia and the USA. 

Why do you think Premier League clubs go on mid season tours to US and Asia and not to Africa or South America?

[MrBlack]

13 minutes ago, Czarnikjak said:

South America is not an important market. Not enough money or disposable income to care about. It's mostly about Asia and the USA. 

Why do you think Premier League clubs go on mid season tours to US and Asia and not to Africa or South America?

Australia a largely untapped resource with a fair bit of money too. I can see us heading there with Gauci as our poster boy in the very near future.

Newcastle and Spurs probably helped themselves to a chunk of the pie with the farcical friendly last season, although it's the way things are going to keep going. 

[Czarnikjak]

2 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Australia a largely untapped resource with a fair bit of money too. I can see us heading there with Gauci as our poster boy in the very near future.

Newcastle and Spurs probably helped themselves to a chunk of the pie with the farcical friendly last season, although it's the way things are going to keep going. 

Yeah, Spurs are currently totally dominating Australian market due to Postacoglu. If you watch Australian Premier League broadcasts, Postacoglu is everywhere, left right and centre. Not sure how much of a role Gauci can play if he never actually plays for us.

[VillaChris]

18 minutes ago, Czarnikjak said:

South America is not an important market. Not enough money or disposable income to care about. It's mostly about Asia and the USA. 

Why do you think Premier League clubs go on mid season tours to US and Asia and not to Africa or South America?

Yeah I sort of accepted that in the post. We don't have a Son type in our squad we can get large swaths of Asian continent invested in. However we do have the World's best keeper and 20 year old CF who are both South American so can surely think of some more ways to increase engagement with that continent.

Maybe Messi's extended family want to pay inflated prices to watch Emi play, who knows. 

[MrBlack]

2 minutes ago, Czarnikjak said:

Yeah, Spurs are currently totally dominating Australian market due to Postacoglu. If you watch Australian Premier League broadcasts, Postacoglu is everywhere, left right and centre. Not sure how much of a role Gauci can play if he never actually plays for us.

If he's starting for the national team, and we want to give Emi a longer break, it's a no brainer to have him alongside Watkins and Duran on our tour poster when we go out there. 

I used Duran because combined with his exposure from the Bayern game, he's going to score a hat load more screamers this season and his season compilation will be everywhere.

[Cmac]

I would imagine they would have budgeted for possible 9-24th champs league finish and 2 legs off that but if we can get into top 8, surely that solve next summer PSR issues with revenue generated. 4.2m in prize money alone so far and the take from Wednesday night massive, surely be a club record. We get back to back runs in champs league for this and following season, think financially we will be able to start competing at top end of the market. 

[TRO]

Must be getting easier, by the game.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Cmac said:

I would imagine they would have budgeted for possible 9-24th champs league finish and 2 legs off that but if we can get into top 8, surely that solve next summer PSR issues with revenue generated. 4.2m in prize money alone so far and the take from Wednesday night massive, surely be a club record. We get back to back runs in champs league for this and following season, think financially we will be able to start competing at top end of the market. 

Do we have to?

even Bayern have some reasonably priced players.

Our forte, has always been just that.....I don't see the need for big money, to be spent, only on the odd occasion.

Our revenues need to be accrued, consistently, before we start going wild....and even then, I am sceptical, that its that wise.

Our Manager and backroom staff are well equipped for enhancing players.....That's the route, I favour, because they grow in to the club.

Maybe then, Entrance prices will be under less pressure....and we'll all be happier.

The biggest threat to club revenues, is transfer fee's and player wages.....I think we have been and can continue to be Canny with Fee's....and we fans are likely to benefit, too.

 

Edited 19 hours ago by TRO

[allani]

46 minutes ago, TRO said:

Do we have to?

even Bayern have some reasonably priced players.

Our forte, has always been just that.....I don't see the need for big money, to be spent, only on the odd occasion.

Our revenues need to be accrued, consistently, before we start going wild....and even then, I am sceptical, that its that wise.

Our Manager and backroom staff are well equipped for enhancing players.....That's the route, I favour, because they grow in to the club.

Maybe then, Entrance prices will be under less pressure....and we'll all be happier.

The biggest threat to club revenues, is transfer fee's and player wages.....I think we have been and can continue to be Canny with Fee's....and we are likely to benefit, too.

The top end of the market is not really the Monchi or the Emery way.  I think they said that in the summer we had three priorities when it came to transfers: (1) physicality, (2) a younger squad and (3) more complete squad / variety of options.  I don't see that changing much any time soon.  Number 2 is probably the key - buying younger players who haven't quite made it probably means you are paying lower wages, can load in more performance related bonuses and are more likely to see their value rise rather than fall.  Even when we sign "top" players I think they will be players like Onana who we might spend £50m on but know that if they have a couple of good seasons then they will be worth £80m.

Even ignoring the financial impact of this approach - I think it has another bonus too.  The Emi effect.  To be fair Emi shouldn't be at Villa (he was too good when we were struggling in mid-table) and I am sure that he's been approached many times over the last few seasons.  But he's made the point on many occasions that Villa gave him the chance to play for Argentina and win a World Cup and that he's wanted to repay that.  The added bonus is that his family now seems settled in the area and we're giving him the opportunity to play at the top club level too.  Unai and his team seem to be really fostering that kind of environment where players feel valued, recognise they are improving and are getting opportunities to play at the highest level either domestically or internationally.  I think it means that we're less at risk of players leaving at the first good offer that comes their way.  Not all of them and we know that we'll have to sell players to keep improving the squad.  But I don't think that I am wearing claret and blue glasses when I say that I think there's a different feel to Villa than other squads fighting for those top 6, 7 or 8 positions - maybe more of a connection?

[TRO]

1 hour ago, allani said:

The top end of the market is not really the Monchi or the Emery way.  I think they said that in the summer we had three priorities when it came to transfers: (1) physicality, (2) a younger squad and (3) more complete squad / variety of options.  I don't see that changing much any time soon.  Number 2 is probably the key - buying younger players who haven't quite made it probably means you are paying lower wages, can load in more performance related bonuses and are more likely to see their value rise rather than fall.  Even when we sign "top" players I think they will be players like Onana who we might spend £50m on but know that if they have a couple of good seasons then they will be worth £80m.

Even ignoring the financial impact of this approach - I think it has another bonus too.  The Emi effect.  To be fair Emi shouldn't be at Villa (he was too good when we were struggling in mid-table) and I am sure that he's been approached many times over the last few seasons.  But he's made the point on many occasions that Villa gave him the chance to play for Argentina and win a World Cup and that he's wanted to repay that.  The added bonus is that his family now seems settled in the area and we're giving him the opportunity to play at the top club level too.  Unai and his team seem to be really fostering that kind of environment where players feel valued, recognise they are improving and are getting opportunities to play at the highest level either domestically or internationally.  I think it means that we're less at risk of players leaving at the first good offer that comes their way.  Not all of them and we know that we'll have to sell players to keep improving the squad.  But I don't think that I am wearing claret and blue glasses when I say that I think there's a different feel to Villa than other squads fighting for those top 6, 7 or 8 positions - maybe more of a connection?

Revenues will inevitably rise in so many area's with all this on the pitch success, however, I do believe the club are now slick at exploiting every opportunity. Some of those moves, won't always appeal to everyone.

I think you are spot on.....I prefer their way anyway and the 3 priorities are exactly what I would have FWIW.

On to Emi, his character is formulated in many ways and I think Loyalty is a big one of them.

Fortunately for us, he has experienced the frustration of being overlooked at his previous club, and even then showed unyielding patience....who wants to go back in to the dungeon after being released?

He is a very family oriented guy, coupled with his undoubted ambition and where would he get more love than Villa Park. He can get all that with us.

Emi is like his manager, has had indifferent experiences at so called better clubs, only to realise they wasn't.

Playing for a successful Aston Villa is a great place to be and I think ALL our players know it.

 

Edited 18 hours ago by TRO

[TDR V2]

Don't we get £2m for each UCL win

[mikeyp102]

On 03/10/2024 at 13:02, ender4 said:

Do UEFA get the advertising billboard space around the stadium for every CL match? 

I noticed it wasn't our usual sponsors but big brand names instead - Pepsi, Mastercard, Playstation, etc.

I’ve no idea, but the blue looked so much better than the red has (which always gives me Man U vibes )