Following a fan consultation meeting, Aston Villa have provided an update on the new club badge, which has been reacted to.
This week a fan consultation meeting has taken place where various fan representatives and supporter groups have met club officials.
This saw many different topics be discussed from the North Stand development to the commercial strategy of the club. One of the fan representatives was the My Old Man Said blog who have transcribed the topics of the meeting.
The one topic that will catch Villa fans’ eyes is the conversation about the new club badge and its potential release date.
What have the club said about the new badge?
Despite only changing the club badge last year, the club have opted to change it once again. This as the club looks to celebrate its 150th anniversary, coming up next season.
This was a process helped by fans to create a badge which was representative of what everyone associated with the club wanted.
Talking about the process, the club said: “A video was shown to the group which outlined the results of this process and introduced the new crest. Discussion was held around the consultative process, and the club confirmed that the FA have been consulted throughout.
“The video highlighted that the Club had 16,000 responses to the 85,000 survey mailings with the suggested crest being designed as a result of those responses.”
With all those responses, the club have plenty of insight as to what fans will want their new badge to look like moving forward. As a result of this, an approximate date for the release of the new badge has been announced by the club.
On that, it was said: “Having now completed the detailed consultation process, the Club will look to announce the new crest in approximately two weeks from the meeting, and the crest will then be rolled out across the summer.”
How did the Fan Advisory Board react?
It must be said that the previous fan consultation meeting had left fans slightly bewildered, such was the lack of fan input.
Discussing that point, My Old Man Said added: “At the meeting (and in previous recent meetings), Chris Heck and Ben Hatton, at no stage actually asked for any suggested changes on the crest from the FAB. They didn’t even ask, if group members liked it.
“In fact, in previous meetings, it had been stated that no feedback would change the badge that is presented, as it would be ‘left to the professionals’.This contradicts the statement made in the recent Chris Heck interview that the badge is now with fans for feedback before its unveiling.”
It is clear that none of the 15 fan representatives had been asked for their feedback at any point. This is despite the club suggesting feedback had been gained from fans.
With that being said: “The FAB voiced it’s concern with the consultation on the badge, stating it specifically was not as extensive as for the previous new badge.
“The FAB voiced its concern on the shape of the badge not being right for Villa. In essence, it’s an update on the current yellow lion shield. Also, a move from a yellow lion to a claret one was clearly stressed throughout the badge consultation process and embraced by the club.”
It is clear to see that there has been some friction between fans and the club regarding the new crest in recent weeks. With the badge set to be released in the next two weeks, it will undergo trial by public opinion. This will be the true test of the longevity of Heck’s work.
