Villa's business strategy to back up on pitch success

Aston Villa has been owned since 2018 by V Sports, a joint venture between billionaire US hedge funder Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, an Egyptian billionaire investor who is one of Adidas’s largest individual shareholders. Last month, Atairos, a US investment group run by former Comcast executive Michael Angelakis, agreed to buy a minority stake in V Sports.

In the year to May 2022, Aston Villa generated revenues of £178 million and a profit of £400,000. Last year, the league’s biggest club, Manchester City, reported revenues of £713 million and a profit of £80 million.

Not very long ago, a club with an ambitious or carefree owner could force their way up the league by spending big. Nowadays, Financial Fair Play rules — introduced to stop clubs from over-investing and running up large annual losses — mean that this is not possible. And for Villa, lower revenues mean less money to pay for top players who might help their continued on-field success.

Chris Heck is head of the business side of Villa and  his plan is to use the heritage of Aston Villa — one of England’s oldest clubs — it turns 150 this year — to transform it into an international brand. “When I started here, this was a very proficient and well-run group,” he says. “But it was focused, at least in my opinion, on the Midlands. We are now focused on the world.”

Heck has a number of ideas up his sleeve that he hopes will propel Villa towards his goal. He wants to double sponsorship sales — earned through adverts on shirts, in the stadium, and online. He wants to improve the club’s social media presence. He wants to ensure Villa-branded merchandise is sold far and wide — a benefit for both retail revenues, and for aspirations of taking sponsors’ brands on shirts further afield. 

One of his biggest challenges at Villa, as he seeks to build it into a global brand, will be keeping the club’s Midlands fanbase happy; football supporters have learnt to be suspicious of the people running their clubs.    However, as long as there is success on the pitch, and the business side complements that, fans may be happy.

f Villa’s form does continue through to the end of the season, I suggest, the existing Big Six in the Premier League — with their superior revenues and ability to pay higher wages — may come knocking for Villa’s best players, striker Ollie Watkins most prominent among them.