Aston Villa chief who spearheaded rise to Champions League leaves for LIV Golf

Telegraph

30-04-2025

The Aston Villa president of business operations, Chris Heck, is to leave at the end of the season to take on the same role at LIV Golf, Telegraph Sport understands.
The US executive will depart after two years in the job in which he was tasked by owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens with raising the club's revenue to £400 million by 2027 from a base of around £218 million last year. The expectation is that the club will announce annual revenue for the current financial year ending June of about £375 million.
Villa 's revenue has been boosted by Champions League qualification but includes major gains in other income streams. Those results will be announced next year, by which time Heck's successor will be in place.
Heck, 56, has been the de facto chief executive of the business side of the club and will now build the same corporate infrastructure at LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed PGA Tour breakaway.
Under Heck, there has been major change at Villa Park with plans for a new North Stand announced this month, following a complete upgrade of hospitality last summer for Villa's return to European football's top competition for the first time since 1982-83. There was a supporter outcry at the raising of ticket prices for the four Champions League home games in the league stage for which Heck took much of the fire.
Nevertheless, the rebuild of the North Stand is a major step forward that has been high on the supporters' list of priorities for some time – the current stand being a rather meagre effort to fill that part of the ground. The new design will use the current North Stand structure and eventually raise its capacity by 5,000 to more than 12,000 without any disruption to the use of the stand in the meantime.
The changes are in addition to the new venue in the north car park, The Warehouse, a 4,000-capacity entertainment venue.
Aston Villa's ambition under billionaire owner Sawiris knows no limits and to get there quickly under the Premier League profit and sustainability rules [PSR], the club needed to make major gains in its revenue.
That was where Heck came in, formerly of the NBA franchise, the Philadelphia 76ers. For any executive it is a hard path to walk. Villa were newcomers to the modern format of the Champions League and as such a long way behind the big hitters of the English game and those in Europe. In the 2025 Deloitte world money league, an industry benchmark, Villa were a long way from the top, ranked 18th – still behind the big three in Serie A, as well as Newcastle United and West Ham.
Under Deloitte's calculation for equivalent annual revenue, Villa were on €310 million. Bayern Munich, the club they beat in the 1982 European Cup final, who have missed just five Champions League seasons since the new format began in 1993, are on €765 million. Even they are some way behind the leaders Real Madrid who allegedly generate more than €1 billion annually.
The club believe they may be four or five places further up when the next Deloitte analysis is completed.
Heck's challenge was to raise revenue to £400 million in four years. Along the way he had to make some hard calls. Villa Park had gone a long time without major investment, its premium hospitality offering was a long way off the modern Champions League standard and that had to be addressed swiftly when Unai Emery's side finished fourth last season. The club's commercial operation had to respond accordingly. The other margin was in ticket prices. While Villa could not shift PSR loss-limits, they could raise ticket prices.
Those kinds of decisions will never be popular, nor will the people who make them – as Sir Jim Ratcliffe is discovering at Manchester United with their current round of ticket price rises and supporter relocations.
There seems to be a determination at Villa that they will be one of the new generation of clubs who establish themselves as Champions League regulars – although given the competitiveness of the Premier League that may not be every season. Heck launched Villa on that mission, and every step of the way and incremental rise in revenue for his successors will be just as hard.