I remember thinking when it was built about the goldfish bowl effect, ie the goldfish will grow in size in relationship to its bowl. I started coming after the Watford FA Cup game in 87. If we had only then had the capacity to take 2-3000 more fans than our average league gate I probably wouldn’t have got a ticket. To convert big matches into higher league attendances we sorely need a higher capacity.
Point in case today, I going to try and use my season tickets to help get a co worker, who’s not been to a match before but was interested, and her dad who used to come down. Unfortunately too late.
1 Like
I think if you were to extend the away end & main stand the same as the home end, you could get the capacity up to about 15,000.
In my opinion, that’s not enough to be comfortable in the Championship - you need to be averaging 15k Crowds for that.
As the club is clearly on an upward trajectory, it should get approvals and purchase the adjoining retail park as soon as possible to build a new spacious stadium that doesn’t have the limitations to development of the present ground.
All being well the new facility would be ready in about three years, just in time to allow us to vacate the inadequate ground for first team fixtures, thus allowing our, by then, thriving U-21 set up to use the Poundland as their home for their Premier League 2 fixtures to meet customer demand.
The only stumbling block I can envisage is the public uproar over the necessity to demolish McDonald’s.
9 Likes
Dont forget Farmfoods!
1 Like
We are some way off talk of increasing the stadium capacity but I believe there are two very achievable objectives within 3-4 years:
-
Safe standing in the tower tier. This may not increase capacity but will certainly improve the atmosphere and therefore attract others.
-
Project 8k. An average of 8,000 home fans. It will certainly require a ‘successful’ product on the pitch, aggressive marketing/ community engagement and potential margin sacrifice but is certainly doable in my opinion.
Some may choose to shoot me down but we as supporters and our new owners should hold this ambition surely. Why not?
5 Likes
A lot more work with local schools and local kids teams along with reaching out to the vast Asian community is a must to achieve better attendances
1 Like
Agreed. We only scratch the surface when it comes to school/ further education engagement in my opinion. Huge potential.
A few players going to a different school once a week for an hour talking to the kids ,giving out free tickets. Would be a good starting point.
This is something I’ve thought a lot about.
In order for a club to be successful, it needs room to expand in to. Restriction in terms of capacity is symbiotic with achievement - so, if we have serious ambitions on breaking 7, 8, 9000 average home attendances (which is by no means is an unreasonable ambition), we need to be set up to do that.
Currently, the club is set up to accommodate approx 5000 fans per game. Any more and the whole thing becomes chaotic, fans get moved, food runs out, usual procedures are changed etc.
If we want to go beyond that, we have to be set up in such a way that an attendance of 10,000 is not a big deal.
For reference, an average attendance of 8000 in league 1 would currently put you in the bottom half of league 1.
So if we want promotion, this has to be a serious aim. But we are currently at ~5000, we need to increase that.
For one off games, like this it’s difficult, not many clubs manage it. There’s not many clubs that regularly host 5000 and can scale to 10,000 at the drop of a hat. It takes pre-emptive investment, “build it and they will come” kind of thing.
If we want to move to the next level in terms of attendances, we are going to have to do that - we are going to have to invest in a multi-million pound stand that expands the ground by several thousand. If this isn’t possible financially, then we are stuck.
The current family stand is completely lacking in quality and facilities by modern standards. An expansion here of 2 or 3000 and introduction of proper facilities for “floating fans” would help us massively.
11 Likes
2 things should happen:
-
Away end expanded to accommodate 4000 fans. This would cover all away followings in the lower leagues.
-
Expand the family stand so that it included facilities designed for families (like getting a drink without having to queue 25 minutes) and accommodate 4000 fans instead of 2000.
Result, a 15,000 all seater
3 Likes
And then the team go out and put in a terrible performance in the free ticket game and lose 3-0! Rinse and repeat.
No real love for Bescot. Does very well commercially which Trivela certainly wouldn’t be complaining about but never liked it much for watching actual matches.
Every time I go through the town centre I always think that bit over the canal where the flats have gone up would’ve been a fantastic place for a 15k ground. Right next to the station, 2 minutes walk from the cinema light complex and would’ve breathed a little more life into tired Walsall high street.
Perhaps could build it elsewhere but would likely just be as far out from town centre as the current one is with far poorer transport links.
3 Likes
When you have a former school teacher in a poor 80’s suit running the marketing side of the football club you get what we always got - Pheonix Nights. Whalleys modus operandi still lingers today, but I fully expect Trivela to expel that approach back to 1995 where it belongs.
I have said it countless times but you have to have more than just higher level football on the pitch to attract the punters. The club has always been totally clueless on how to market itself and increase the gates - and to be quite frank, has never really shown much interest doing so. Clubs like Doncaster and Rotherham were getting under 2K in the early nineties and have gone on to attract regular 5 figure gates because they have been clever in using the momentum on the pitch to grow the club as a whole.
15 Likes
Probably the best Walsall FC related quote I have ever read. So true. Synonymous with that era.
5 Likes
The upper tier is way better for overviewing the game plus good fir the cardio!!. The lower tier needs to be unseated and that may up the attendance levels. When its sunny its a nightmate seeing the game in the lower tier.
2 Likes
Even running on gas in the Championship a gate of 7-8 thousand would be the upper norm I think. We’d have to be an established side with genuine Premier prospects to attain anything over 10k on a regular basis.
2 Likes
At the moment we seem to @ 50-60% capacity for the average home game so at the moment I wouldn’t go beyond the planning stage for any expansion. I think it’s right that Trivela focus more on the actual matchday experience at the moment… In theory if that improves then the average gate improves. Maybe when we average 75%+ on a home game we can entertain genuine thoughts of some expansion - otherwise we’d just be taking funds away from the 1st team/academy/training facilities/community projects etc…
2 Likes
Don’t think we need to worry about capacity just yet, think we just need to improve what we’ve got (a lot).
We got that with Bonser in charge, so that’s a low bar to clear.
Regardless, expansion is a question for another day. Yes, we’ll need it; no, not now.
2 Likes
I don’t know if it’s just me but I really don’t get the narrative that the bescot is dated. Yes, it has its flaws like the stanchions, no away bar etc but its easily one of the better stadiums in league 2 and still holds its own in league 1. Some of the dives and tin pot grounds we go to on our travels puts it in perspective. With planning permission already been granted in the past to expand on the away end taking the capacity to 13-14k, you can see how the bescot could become a very decent stadium. Not to mention the links to the trains and only being a mile out of town. I’d take that any day over one of these new soulless bowls out of town on a purpose built retail park.
8 Likes
The case for building the away end:
- more tickets for big games, fewer disappointed fans. Increased chance of attracting more long term fans
- more money from pre season friendlies. Eg villa
- greater income from away fans especially if away end offers amenities
- likely to increase away attendances for all games as more away fans appreciate the better facilities.
- no need for segregation with home fans in the family stand. Likely saving money on police costs.
- increase chance of hosting England u21 games
Case against
-
cost of building stand. Obviously this is the key consideration and shouldn’t threaten financial stability of club. Hopefully could get a grant or similar.
-
disruption of building stand. Don’t think this is too much of an issue.
-
effect on atmosphere. Again a non issue. There’s no atmosphere when the likes of Crawley come now, so who cares if their 100 fans are in a bigger stand.
5 Likes