Does Walsall FC have an identity crisis?

I think there are some valid points raised above, certainly worthy of discussion with the powers that be; both with a view to continuous improvement and for Pomlett to improve his own brand and distance himself further from the previous regime.
Isn’t that one of the purposes of the WPMs to be able to present and discuss these opportunties.
I’m not sure what real benefits have been achieved to date from these meetings. Certainly the squabbling between some of the groups can’t help but, nevertheless, the opportunity to raise these views should not be missed whilst the vehicle exists to do so.
Just prior to the last WPM Rob Harvey posted to ask if anyone had anything they would like raising at the meeting. I think most of the replies were frivolous and yet there are points in this thread that would be worthy of discussion. As I said… missed opportunities?

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If anyone wants something asked on their behalf feel free to DM me. Always happy to try and help.

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Turkeys at Christmas when Ramsden took over👌🏻

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Yes it does

Easy Rob,

Feel free to take what I have said to one of these meetings, mate. I do feel there is a lot more gassing around Walsall, but still very little changes. Baby steps I guess…

They defo need to improve the marketing and or the communication; the rebranding of the venue at the Banks’ should have been shouted from the F2G rooftop lol - again, a massive missed opportunity.

Personally I would like fresh bodies in the operations but, I can’t see it happening. Lucky pair, they would not still be involved in most businesses, based on any kind of track record that they have with us!

I think I have more faith giving any concerns to Rob as opposed to that supporter liaison bloke haha. Don’t know where they pluck these characters from…

Those turkeys were bought on HP, and we all know who eventually paid for them!

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They were all gobbled up though…

I think a large part of the issue here is you’re looking at it from the POV of a football fan and the majority of the commercial side is aimed at external people.

It must be doing something right given it brings in a substantial amount of income… although a lot is swallowed up by the rent. :thinking::confused:

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Well yes, say the commercial side is successful…who exactly is benefitting? Who cares if it is successful when we can’t afford to put a competitive side out in football’s basement division.

Surely a football club is judged on its on-field success and its relationship with it’s supporters; I’m not going to celebrate the fact that 500 of Bonsers business chums turn up for a circle jerk on a Wednesday evening.

This again, is harping back to everything that is wrong, intrinsically linked to the two bods that are head of ops at the football club.

The point is that just because the football side isn’t seeing a lot of the money, doesn’t mean the commercial side is not raising enough.
It’s that it’s going back out the door because of the other issue.

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Ikea Wednesbury is Birmingham according to Ikea, so if anything savvy

Some filthly rich Londoners who google “Birmingham (second city) Conference facilities with accommodation near M6”

Pay Dirt ( if we ignore Covid-19 )

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Wattle you on about?

BornASaddler

DanG_WFC

2h

Ikea Wednesbury is Birmingham according to Ikea, so if anything savvy

Actually IKEA is just inside the Walsall Borough boundary.

But the missing bits from your flatpack massage table , will be in Brum.

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Ain’t that his point though that although it’s in Walsall like our conferencing & events, they also class it as Birmingham for marketing purposes?

IKEA doesn’t have supporters that go absolutely nuts if anyone dares call them Brummies :man_shrugging:

I have been at games where people around me have had meltdowns when away fans have chants that include calling us Brummies. They had probably just walked past Birmingham: The Events Venue on the way in, and wondered what they had said to upset us :joy: :man_facepalming:

Maybe it was Bonzo sticking two fingers up to us? Anyway, that particular nonsense has gone - it should have been announced.

The town and the football club are like two different things. Very few people’s Walsall FC experience has anything to do with Walsall the place.

Most people get no sense of Walsall when they go to watch Walsall.

The club and the council need to work together.

I’d also like to see the club and maybe one or two of the fans groups reach out more proactively to all the communities of Walsall.

As a starter there could be a recognition that at this time of year Muslim maghrib prayer (this is the prayer at sunset) will be during a Saturday game. At the moment that could rule out many Walsall residents from attending the game. There is a ton space around the ground so why not have a discrete space? Doesn’t need to be ostentatious or even be faith specific just a safe space for reflection and prayer. Now I don’t know whether that would make a difference but has anybody asked the question of community leaders? Does anybody want to ask the question?

I know that could rankle with many, but this thread is about identity. If we, as contributors to this thread suggest define ourselves as “not Birmingham” then we have to define ourselves as Walsall. So what is Walsall and who is Walsall? If we start then sub-dividing and excluding some of the communities of Walsall then our identity becomes very narrow indeed. To the point that we may be at which is a fanbase consisting of descendants of people who lived in Walsall between the war and around 1970 which includes a sizeable diaspora of folk like me. If we can’t talk to the Walsall of the 2020’s then it will get even harder to sustain a meaningful football club to represent the town.

So I think there is a choice. Both require lifting our horizons. We need to either try to assimilate a broader identity by accommodating the whole urban sprawl of which we are a part (so harnessing a greater Birmingham or West Midlands or Black Country identity) or reflecting upon how we harness the communities that live in Walsall today. Or somehow both. If the answer, as I believe it is for lots of our fans, is neither then we are probably becoming the club we deserve to be.

That is all quite heavy but there are lighter things. The reintroduction of green into our colours, as others say, makes us unique and helps feed an identity. And it is about this time of year that I moan about the Christmas decorations around the place which for the last ten years or so have been blue and white. If only the team colours were a bit more Christmassy than red, white and green eh?

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I find it completely and utterly bizarre that anyone gives a ■■■■ what our conference facilities are called. They could have called it The Venue - The Moon for all I give a ■■■■. It’s literally to make connable business men give us more money and has literally zero impact on the bit I care about, the football.

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Fully agree, we are known for being a Football club not a conference facility.

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One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is the Bonser Suite. If I was owner the first thing I’d be doing is taking that narcissistic leeches name off the ground and renaming it after a Walsall legend.

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