As a Walsall supporter of 70 years can I make a suggestion.Why don’t we buy him out?.2,500 fans putting in £2,000 each is £5K.I would be more than happy to contribute and I’m sure there must be others of you prepared to help.
This seems to be the only way since there is nobody to buy the club and he will no doubt leave it to his son in due course.
Nice idea but I don’t think there are 2500 Walsall fans with that kind of spare cash hanging about. Plus we’d still have to pay him rent…
Why would we have to pay him rent?.He doesn’t own the whole club,it was mainly funded by the sale of Fellows Park.
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Delboy I think you mean that would raise £5 Million.
I mooted an idea about a year ago along these lines, with some kind of offset against future season tickets, maybe financed by a “fan friendly” third party finance company. I like the idea but I fear we don’t have the numbers when it comes to the fanbase or enough fans who can lay their hands on a few grand. Hence the finance company suggestion.
Ball park estimates seem to be that circa £10M is going to be needed to buy the ground and club. Perhaps if the fans could raise a proportion as a kick start it may generate serious interest in a consortium of wealthier fans pitching in to match “everyday” fans’ contribution.
Some clubs have gone down the route of fan ownership, even on a partial basis, I believe and something that needs further exploration.
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Could be well off the mark here but I fancy JB’s valuation of the lot would be well in excess of £10M - more like £13/14M I reckon, so Its hard to see that any fan based optimism/finance effort is likely to shift him any time soon.
What about us setting up a crowd funding effort to rent advertising on the M6 screen - ‘ Bonser Out - No more rent’ could be the ad… Highly likely Jeff and his cronies would take the dosh for the advert before they realised it was aimed at him! 
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Something more subtle like ‘Problem Landlord? Don’t Gamble with your happiness’
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If everyone back in early September had put 100 quid on Walsall to be relegated then the 5M would’ve been comfortably raised. 
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Hope you are not an accountant by trade
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Even if a fan collective managed to wrest control of the club from Jeff they would also need a fighting funding in the bank to keep the club going. Cannot imagine we would be very profitable in League 2, plus would need a fan injection of cash to change the direction of the club. A lot is said about the £400K rent but in football terms what does that actually buy us … not much !
But it would put an extra £50k on the annual salary of 8 first-team players. That would facilitate quite the upgrade in quality.
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Anyone know how much we earn from the advertising board?
If he would sell up for £5k sell hello your new chairman! My first port of call would getting you in as an accountant to report taxes
#gambleout said the advertising board made enough to cover the rent. I think it makes enough for some nice custard creams and Yorkshire Tea ready for when the natives get restless
If this is the case then to say we’d be better off with an the extra £400K is wrong as we’ve probably been benefitting from the extra £400K for the last couple of years.
2k each ??? Half of our fans struggle to afford a pint and a bag scratchings… next!
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The only thing that can get rid of Bonser is a change of heart in the man himself. It must be hard and tiring being the perpetual baddie and at some point he might just decide he doesn’t need it anymore.
The problem is whether the wider Bonser clan see this as some kind of family security blanket. A tax efficient financial asset that can remain in the family for at least another generation.
The opportunity sits in whether there is anybody out there who is willing to pay over the odds for a failing fourth division football club, whether that be in part (just the football club) or everything including the land. Sounds unlikely but there are a lot of rich people out there who fancy a pop at football. But letting anybody past first base in terms of buying us is very much at the whim of the current chairman/owner/landlord and whatever pressure his family exert.
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Oh, and whilst Bonser and the financial structure is the biggest issue, that doesn’t mean his underlings should get a free pass here.
I read so much about the budget but I’ve seen us doubled by Accrington Stanley this season and seen us comprehensively outplayed on our own pitch by Wimbledon and Rochdale. Three clubs who have a lower budget than us. If the board beneath Bonser make the big football decisions then they have had an absolute shocker. From the appointment of O’Driscoll onwards they haven’t made a single good move.
Nowt against O’Driscoll either. That was the right man at the wrong time. We needed someone just like him at the end of that season, at the end of last season and now.
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Agree with everything you are saying PT as usual a nail on the head post, I think it’s absolutely imperative that whoever comes in next as manager has to be the right appointment, if not I really fear where we will be in a few yrs, but given the decisions made by whoever over the past seasons doesn’t fill me with any confidence.
100% this, budget aside the decision making and running of the club has been woeful.
Had the matchday experience been enjoyable/acceptable then I’m guessing our relegation may not be as toxic as it is.
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Some Walsall fans are far to interested in being martyrs by renewing their Season Tickets and paying their hard earned money to an organisation that mocks and belittles them on a weekly basis.
There are more and more fans now saying they’ll go when this regime goes. The regime means Bonser, Gamble & Mole.