It is an interesting debate. I occasionally go to watch my local non-League team (Marine) and want them to win. So both financially and in my pulling for them in the Stadium I would say I “support” them. But that pales compared to my 45 years of support, ongoing season ticket and huge travelling to both Home and Away games with Walsall. So I think it is possible to support two teams but I’d also say it is only possible to be a “fan” of one. I’ll never feel the same jubilation or indeed heartache with Marine as I do with Walsall. That’s impossible. There’s just not enough room in my heart.
But what the debate also throws up is the old chestnut of what “support” actually entails. For me I would say it is the either attending games to lend the lads your visible and/or audible support or it is supporting the club financially through other means. Or indeed it is a mixture of both.
But some would say looking out for the results and hoping they have won is support or indeed a legacy of having attended games and ploughed money in in the past makes you a supporter.
It is quite emotive because people get quite irate when you suggest their support is past tense rather than present tense. Often it leads to a ream of qualifications ( “I never missed a home game for 35 years or used to travel everywhere, Maidstone, Halifax, Carlisle - everywhere I tell ya”). I find lapsed catholics more willing to declare their lapsed status (without feeling the need to document how many masses they went to between 1985 and 2006) than it is for football fans to say “I used to support Walsall but don’t anymore”. I’ve never really understood the reluctance to be honest. As adults we can spend our spare time and money on whatever we like. Having had an interest in the past from which you have moved on from is fine. Absolutely fine. And certainly not worthy of the irritation when somebody points this out or the requirement to keep justifying yourself. It’s fine.
I can only speak for myself of course; but the reason I am still here atm is that the whole experience I have outlined above is still quite raw. My old man (72 years old) stopped going last year, my lad was cherry picked by Blues ‘young persons’ prices at the beginning of this year - and I am still pretty ■■■■■■ off with the negligence of our board - on top of everything else that is going on (crumbling stadium, saying they want to reach the championship, dwindling crowds, low budget, 400k rent…)
In a years time I daresay I will have drifted a lot further than just not watching the team play and like so many others, will become a lapsed supporter that no longer thinks about Walsall Football Club, Jeff Bonser etc or is bothered enough to contribute on message boards etc.
I have been harsh on some people that still want to go as a social outlet; everyone is very different and if you have been doing something for 50+ years and still have a laugh with mates at the ground and get something positive out of the matchday experience, then you know what fair play. What I won’t accept is someone questioning what me and my family have put in to Walsall since my Dad started going - and insinuating that is somehow our fault that we no longer wish to go and can no longer be considered as Walsall supporters. We have been pushed to a point where we feel we are being insulted - again, not everyone has been so effected by the boards utter negligence, so opinions do vary! Those flippantly dismissing stories like mine or the many others that are walking away - as more and more empty seats around you appear maybe then it will be something you finally worry about…
These days I live abroad and I regularly go to watch other teams and enjoy groundhopping. I suppose that means I end up ‘supporting’ other teams but it never gives me the same buzz and passion as a day watching my beloved WFC.
Walsall Football Club can confirm that we are in advanced talks with a reputable credit provider in order to allow supporters to purchase their 2019/20 Early Bird Season Tickets via a monthly instalment facility.
Last week, the club revealed that Zebra Finance, who had previously supplied this service, were no longer accepting credit applications from new or existing customers.
Upon receiving this news, the club engaged with a new credit provider and hope to have a new scheme set up in the coming weeks.
As a result, there will be a short window of opportunity, after Saturday’s 6th April deadline, for supporters to purchase their 2019/20 season tickets at Early Bird rates.
Further details will be communicated in due course
Not patronising you just pointing out the fact you no longer support Walsall. Looking in the paper for the results is not supporting a football club. If that was the case I support every club in England, Scotland and Wales on Sunday when I read the sports pages.
The pricing strategy on the website was clear as mud. So I rung up and asked the best deal for my son and me. Got my son a free season ticket for three years and now he gets £3.00 back when he goes to matches. Shame it took you 4 years to work it out.
The way that you describe how Bonser and his cronies have forced you and your family out of the club is mawkish drivel. You dont like to go to matches anymore so instead you’re doing something you enjoy more. Fair play, I would do the same. But, its got to be said, the whiff of burning martyr that eminates from your posts is all rather nauseating.
Belittling those who continue to go is hypocritical. They go because they love the club, to support the players wearing our badge and, as you put it, its in the blood. It just runs a little bit thicker in the veins of those who still go than those who chose not to. They go inspite of Bonser and his cronies and it does hurt to think a fair percentage goes into his pension pot. We bite the bullet. But then again, as we live in consumer society, somewhere down the line much of our hard earned cash ends up lining the pockets of some undesirable parasite. Some even more heinious than Bonser et al. Its just more transparent down at the Banks’s.
The 3k faithful will keep the club going until this fabled new chairman gallops into a view and brings untold success to our club. When that happens and, as you come crawling back as a supporter, we will clear our throats in readiness to sing “Where were you when we were ■■■■!”
Ouch! but rest assured FHTF will come back at you toot-sweet!
I’m in your camp by the way, working hours, and my home address dictate that I cannot get to many matches, but if I still lived in Walsall I too would try be at every match, like many true supporters on here.
Currently I fear things will never change at the Bescot. Bonser and/or his family will still be in charge long after I have shifted off this mortal coil.
The feeble WSC have as much toughness as a gone-off banana.
So it needs some folk with a bit of grit and determination to try to rid us of this parasite. One day perhaps they may surface.
Got to the ground at 2.40 and there was a very long queue stretching well round the car park, plenty of naive walk ups who obviously thought they could roll up and still see the kick off but seems another window was open so I’m guessing there were early birds renewals and there was good 25-30 in that queue.
Who knows how low the number has fallen but it was reasonably busy so guess some just rise above the politics of the club and just want to continue to watch a game of football.
Problem for me is I dared to again naively believe things would be different after the promotion near miss of 2016. Building up to that season you had a few years of trusting a young manager and letting him get on with things and learn from his mistakes, promoting plenty of young players into the 18 and also signing talented young players released in local area (Flo, Mantom, Sawyers, Downing). Plenty to get behind and seemed clear the club had a plan.
Dean Smith did anyway and pretty much all the decisions the club have made since 2016 have been wrong and backward. The club got a massive warning last season and still didn’t learn from it.
It’s difficult to get behind something fully when you see all at the top aren’t actively trying to make the club or in 21st century speak “the product” the best it can possibly be. Not just on the pitch but the contempt of facilities which was reported on Boxing day and the reactive way they deal with actually attempting improvements e.g. wait for supporters to write emails to them!
You reap what you sow and the board fully deserve what’s coming to them, not the fanbase.
Haha mate…you chat absolute beans. Its actually astonishing. To call my posts nauseating and then come up with…that…just wow.
Please tell me what you consider Walsall FC to be as an ‘entity’. Explain to me what it is exactly that you are so steadfastly proud of? Is it the players representing the town? Representing the club (whatever the ‘club’ is these days)? Representing us, the fans? You’re proud of this mess? I love the club but man, I am not proud of this and I want change! If a parent has a serial killer offspring there’s always that one that refuses to believe what a mess their child is - visits them in jail, bakes them their favourite cake because its what they have always done since they were 5 years old, speaks up for them in the press. Then there are the realists, they know what their child has become and they have the balls to front it and make a stand. All you are is stuck in your ways with not a clue how to be any different or do anything different. I have no problem with it but it’s not support, either - its allowing this stagnent mess of a football club to continue lining Bonsers pockets while the club itself sinks.
All I see now is business model 15 years past its sell by date, limping along not representing anything other than Bonsers profit every year - no love, no attention, no respect for paying customers, and blatant, bare faced, asset stripping. I found it very interesting somebody posting about the history of Doncaster and how their board rode the crest of the wave to build the football club - they quadrupled their fanbase. They aren’t the only ones - there’s loads that have bypassed us. We got lucky with 2 appointments and our board were rabbit in headlights, not a clue how to use the momentum to grow the club.
You seem to be stuck in a timewarp - football has moved on. What Walsall FC is, is a business. Why can every other club in the football league have a fully operational website where fans can purchase tickets, including tickets for special offers? Why do other clubs market these offers using modern platforms such as boosting on Facebook and strategic advertising campaigns? This is 2019 - why the hell should fans have to phone the offices to work out the godforsaken mess of a ticketing structure - that’s not how marketing works now and its not how marketing has ever worked! Kids under 20 don’t use the phone? Completely and utterly out of touch - a shambles, from very top to very bottom. So tell me what exactly is it I am meant to support and get behind here??
I stopped going this season, I chose to yes BUT I was pushed there - whether you choose to accept it or not. This thread is full of people with differing reasons…the choice is theres but only after they have been pushed there by the actions of our beloved board, our board that represent us, our Walsall FC.
I think we are just going to have to agree to disagree…maybe its a generation thing? How that video answers the points I’ve made is beyond me.
Nobody will remember that Bradford result, but they will remember that those players went down. The odd result and performance in 46 games during a relegation season is enough to fork out £200+ to watch your club sleepwalk into oblivion…alright then.
Walsall is a sad place to watch football these days. Back in the 90’s there was terrace humour and camaraderie when things were ■■■■ on the pitch - thats all but gone - with our ‘modern’ stadium with 7k empty seats your lucky if you’re sat next to anyone! Out of 23 mates in 1997 I think 2 still go. Personally, last week I had a top day with the lads at the races and this week I worked up in Sheffield & Manchester, teaching the next generation of DJ’s - a lot more rewarding than tossing £26 down Bonsers fat gullet while tearing my hair out watching the club I love die. Funnily enough I was on the train with a group of 15 - 20 Villa fans and it reminded me how it used to be following the Saddlers…fun!
I agree fully with you , and I’m sure if the club show improvement or change for better then the likes of yourself and many others will return.
Personally I pity those who let sit back and allow the club to take the ■■■■ , With the only viable reasoning being “ it’s out club” “it’s in our blood”
If you continuously let people take the ■■■■ out of you then you have no self respect… just my opinion.
There is no need to insult those of us who support our team and will continue to do so. Yes JB should go but I cannot live my life worrying about when and who will take over.I don’t want your pity because when we bounce back as we will I will be the one smiling and loving every minute of it. I have never quit anything in my life and am not going to start now. You see despite everything I still enjoy going.I meet many old friends and have made some new ones. The banter is good and some of the discussions not just on football are interesting.Life is what you make it and if those of you who have stopped supporting our team want to go elsewhere then go. but please stop ramming it down our throats . It gets rather tedious.
It’s up to the individual how they choose to respond to the current and long-term difficulties at the club. Some have chosen to pack it in, others to plow on despite everything.