[The Athletic] Aston Villa refuse request from fan advisory board to cap Champions League ticket prices

Another good piece from Jacob Tanswell for the Athletic here (does not appear to be paywalled).

Some excerpts below, I've cut out most of the bits that are just explaining the prices but those are being discussed in the threads here and here. Also because it's just worth giving the full piece a read. Key quotes below though:

Aston Villa refused a request from their own fan advisory board (FAB) to cap the price of Champions League tickets with the cheapest adult entry now starting at £70.

The club are set to return to European football’s premier competition for the first time in 42 years having finished fourth in the Premier League last season.

In that meeting with FAB, with chief operating officer Ben Hatton in attendance, the advisory group made a request to cap Champions League prices at Category A Premier League prices. However, this was refused. President of business operations Chris Heck did not attend the meeting with the FAB saying they were “disappointed” by his absence. “Since this consultation group started eight years ago, Villa chief executive officer (or the equivalent position) have always found time to attend such timely meetings,” a note from the meeting read. “With the amount of transformation expected at Villa Park over the summer, it would have been a key time to communicate to supporters directly.”

Wednesday’s confirmation of the ticket prices has been met with criticism from supporters, having noted the cheaper ticketing pricing of other English clubs who will be competing in Europe’s blue-chip competition this season, such as Arsenal and Liverpool.

At the start of this season, Villa came under pressure at the start of this campaign after 900 supporters were moved out of their seats due to the club increasing the number of hospitality and corporate areas in the North, Doug Ellis and Trinity Road Stands. There were also issues with some of the toilets in the stadium during the first home game against Arsenal, with overflowing urinals flooding the floors, contributing to the unhappiness from some sections of the fanbase regarding the worsening experiences of matchdays.

Aston Villa Supporters Trust (AVST) are part of the FAB and issued a statement expressing their disappointing and their fears that the move will “alienate fans”.

“As part of the Fans Advisory Board, the AVST met with the club towards the end of last season to discuss season ticket prices including the Champions League if we were to qualify, and made clear pricing should be no higher than that of a Category A game if we did,” it read.

“For the club to announce Champions League ticket prices well above this season’s Category A is extremely disappointing, especially given the recent match day experience with delays of over 30 minutes getting into the ground, issues with access to seating and toilet facilities

“When compared to other English clubs in the Champions League this year and indeed UEFA’s own away ticket price cap, today’s announcement is out of touch. Loyal Villa fans who’ve waited as long as 40 years to celebrate this momentous season are being punished and exploited at the expense of the club’s compliance to PSR, ESR and publicly known revenue generation targets.

“The trust fears the club will alienate fans with these prices and urges the club to rethink ahead of the first home match against Bayern Munich in October.”

Credit to Tanswell for the write-up, and fair play to the AVST and fan advisory board for having done their best to put up some kind of pushback to this, glad they're trying to do what they can and it sucks that the club will just plow on regardless.