Greetings,
The Euros are over, and from an Aston Villa perspective, while the minutes for our players have been minimal, it should have a big positive impact on the season ahead.
While Scotland ultimately flopped in the tournament, at least John McGinn gained the experience of a major international competition. Expectations were low regarding the involvement of both Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins for England, but they both had significant takeaways, with Konsa starting a quarter-final on top of his substitute appearances and Ollie Watkins getting an iconic Hollywood moment with his last-minute winner against the Dutch in the semi-final.
In terms of the Champions League to come, all three players will have had a massive confidence boost and believe they belong at Europe’s top table.
So, with the new season about to start, when are we going to see Villa’s kit for the 2024/25 season? Well, apparently not in the first preseason game…
Villa Kit Launch
While many of us have seen the kit design, it won’t be officially launched until next week. Back in May, I was originally told the kit was slated for a July 15th release, but such releases do tend to be subject to change.
When you factor in the crest change and the switch of supplier into the long lead times involved in designing, producing and shipping a kit, you were always looking at a later release time for Villa’s first Adidas kit.
With little time to work with in terms of design, it’s a pretty straight-up template number.
Potentially, you may see the release of some Villa training kit this week, ahead of the kit release the following week.
Temporary Poundland Shirt
According to information, I was told last week, Villa will play in a one-off kit against Walsall on Wednesday night (the club since released image, added below). That kit will then be auctioned off after the game, with proceeds going to the Aston Villa Foundation.
Update…
The Sweat Test
After both Aston Villa and Newcastle United ditched Castore for Adidas for the 2024/25 season, with Villa effectively ripping up their contract, the sportswear brand has been fighting to rebuild its reputation in English football.
While Castore provides kits for the Ireland national team and European clubs like Bayer Leverkusen, Sevilla, Athletic Club, Feyenoord, Club Brugge, and Rangers, they have faced a damage limitation exercise concerning the Premier League this season.
Next season, their only Premier League team will be Everton, which Castore is promoting as 'The Originals.' They also managed to get relegated Burnley on board, causing some concern among Burnley fans. In Burnley's recent Fan Consultation Group meeting, fans raised the issue of Villa’s experiences with the brand.
Burnley reassured their fans, stating, “We have been reassured that the same thing will not happen with us. One of the benefits of working with Castore is that they are so advanced and would continue to offer kits and options we’ve not seen before.”
What like the ‘wet-look’ option? Villa fans certainly hadn’t seen that before.
Speaking of which…. during the Euros in Germany, Villa’s new kit provider, Adidas, had Villa fans sweating a little when Belgium’s dark red kit replicated the Castore ‘wet-look’ during their games.
Is Villa’s shirt release date being pushed back related to this?
Adidas’ share price today registered a two-year high, so they will certainly be hoping to avoid any shirt scandals similar to Castore’s this season. Meanwhile, interestingly, Nike’s share price is the lowest it’s been in over four years. Adidas’s move to partner with the Premier League’s two most likely teams to challenge the Top Six is perhaps symbolic of their forward-thinking approach while Nike seemingly struggles with fresh innovation and markets.
Stretford End Lessons for the Holte
In the early stages of Villa's obsession with General Admission Plus (GA+) hospitality, when Villa was first planning the Terrace View, which was originally going to be a simple £25 match-day bolt-on for fans, Manchester United was seemingly moving in a different direction.
With United’s equivalent to the Holte, the Stretford End, the club had agreed to fans continuous requests to remove the executive seats from the Stretford End in an attempt to help revive the atmosphere at Old Trafford.
'Following requests from fans, the club worked with its Fans’ Advisory Board to review the presence of executive seating within the Stretford End, in support of successful ongoing efforts to enhance the Old Trafford atmosphere.'
When I mentioned this fact to Chris Heck in his first Villa Fan Advisory Board meeting, the attending fans were told that we were not Manchester United in terms of income.
This was fair enough, but I added that once the Holte stood as Europe’s biggest single top end stand, and the club, in its short-termism, was perhaps missing the revenue-boosting and profile-building potential of being the Premier League’s answer to the iconic Yellow Wall of Dortmund.
To be fair to Heck, the Terrace View wasn’t his initiative, although his team put the lipstick on the pig, in terms of velvet ropes, hostesses, and lanyards, turning it into a venture that takes away normal season tickets and match-day tickets from the fanbase.
The Lower Grounds initiative was under his watch, and while he has since admitted that they learned not to touch the Holte, the damage had been done.
Going back to Heck’s comment on United’s income, bridging the revenue gap is understandably his prime motive, but there are lessons to be learned here.
By removing the hospitality from the Stretford End, United hasn’t suddenly decided they're not interested in its resulting revenue, but rather how it could potentially impact the overall bottom line and the match-day ‘product.’
It’s a cautionary tale in how success ultimately impacts the demographic of your match-going fanbase to the detriment of the club. It took United 20 years of lobbying by its Supporters Trust and a five-year campaign to ‘Reclaim the Stretford End’ to learn it. Hopefully, Villa will heed the lessons quicker moving forward.
UTV
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Personally, I would like to see the Hokte a single bank again but with a wing on the Trubuty Road and Witton Lane are. This would make it so imposing. Then at the very highest section by all.means put in some corporate because the capacity would be increased by around 6,000. They could have a pub /corporate area. Effectively use the same structure as now, remove the top tyres, use existing supports, then build at the back outside the Holte, effectively constructing around it to minimise construction time.The concourses would be much wider, speed up service and entice supporters earlier to the game. The car park would predominantly be reduced but revenue much greater. Also, open the Holte after the game lihe Brighton do.utv.
While it was agreed with the club not to mention the actual release date of the kit, so they could communicate it to the fanbase properly, Chris Heck has since announced the date during the Walsall game on his Twitter account. It's 23/07/23.