Aston Villa slammed over communication ‘fiasco’ that was ‘close to a disaster’
Dan Bardell has criticised Aston Villa for their season ticket rollout and lack of communication which has caused plenty of controversy on social media.
On Monday (3 June) the club began to allow fans to renew their season tickets, a yearly process which every club goes through and should be simple.
This was far from the case for the Villans as many fans discovered that their seats had been moved as safe standing and hospitality seats were added to Villa Park.
Add to this a hidden seven per cent interest added on to the “eight-month interest-free” finance payment, fans were left unhappy and so took to social media.
Sky Sports and talkSPORT journalist Bardell is a Villa season ticket holder and has slammed the club for their treatment of loyal supporters.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News, Bardell said: “As season ticket roll-outs go it’s probably as close to a disaster as it could have been. The club hasn’t come out of this looking good at all.
“I completely understand why supporters who have been affected are upset by this because there’s a distinct lack of communication. There’s been the stuff around the additional fee for finance that has now disappeared so we’ll never know if that was a mistake.
“You can’t just move people and break up families and friends that have sat together for ages and not communicate that. It is not acceptable.
“Obviously, I understand that the club have to do what they have to do in terms of rising prices, although I don’t agree with it, I have some understanding of why they are doing that but there’s zero excuse for doing these things and not communicating.“
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It has to be said that the work of Unai Emery has accelerated Villa into an excellent position that fans could have barely dreamed of years ago.
Just six years ago the Villans were in the Championship, two years ago were in a potential relegation battle and are now in the Champions League.
To keep up with the sides around them, Chris Heck and Co. have had to find a way to increase revenue to deal with FFP and PSR concerns.
Despite achieving a top-four finish Villa are still in a position where they need to bring in some additional funds to be able to compete in the transfer window.
With that being said, that is no excuse to alienate fans, extremely loyal fans at that, by making a simple process into a controversy.
With the famous waiting list at Villa Park, the large majority of fans will have held season tickets for well over ten years.
They deserve to be treated with respect but no. A focus on hospitality and corporate is the decision that has been made to the detriment of your average fan.
It is a poor situation for a Champions League club to find themselves in and is something that should have been sorted out a long time ago.
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