Getting rid of Bonser

@mickysaddlerthe silent protest is getting louder. All those unrenewed season tickets…

We don’t have the fan base to stage a protest of any note.

If that’s a problem don’t buy a football club :man_shrugging:

Or don’t expect the fans not to get upset if that investment isn’t at the same level as your rivals.

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…and don’t spread rubbish information years ago to justify a position then give no information for the next 25 years because it suits you.

£8,059,000 anybody?

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Not sure we have actually seen a figure the club make from the advertising board, they stated a figure of what the boards turnover was but isn’t it managed by someone else? And Walsall actually advertise on it themselves which would surely cost them?

Regardless of what’s gone on in the past, it’s abundantly clear that the football is only going backwards under Jeff Bonser’s current approach to ownership.

It’s only stumbling upon Dean Smith, who turned out to be a relative visionary, that delayed the issues the club is currently facing for a few years.

If he really has the club’s best interests at heart, Bonser needs to change his approach or find a buyer who has a genuine ambition to try and move the club forwards.

Is he willing to do either, when the current setup appears rather nice for his persons finances? I’m not sure.

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Given that he appears to have arranged it exactly so I’m 100% sure he’ll change nothing unless he has to.

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Perhaps we get 10% off the going rate.

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I’m pretty sure that when Bonser saw the income generated from the electronic advertising, he had the ones by the company taken out and installed his own which we run. I see to remember at the start/end of one season the screen panels being taken down and new ones installed.

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Fantasy.

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I just stained my bottom half attire :balloon::balloon:

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Oh dear…:joy::joy::joy:

is it on some football game format like fifa?:rofl: or football manager :wink:

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Exactly. He doesn’t even hide it.
Remember the whole Fox/Dann saga produced the infamous “Why shouldn’t I?” interview quote where he disclosed that he was taking a load of the incoming money from those transfers to pay off some of his loans.

I think he actually believes the “saviour of WFC” tosh and thinks the club owes him. That was always the impression I got from Whalley’s defences of his boss too. That we shouldn’t moan about him taking money out of the club because without him there wouldn’t be a WFC so we owe him and should be grateful for what we’ve got and ask for nothing more! :roll_eyes:

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I agree with many of your musings, both on here and the old site (if I’m remembering correctly who you were). On this subject, however, I disagree.
Many, many owners of lower league clubs put money in as as labour of love, rather than take it out. Bonser is an exception. He has become extremely wealthy owning a lower league club. Generally, others that have profited in such a way at other clubs, have been either criminals or moral delinquents.

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That’s my understanding too.
The original board was supplied/managed by Elonex, with the club taking a percentage of the income or fixed fee.
That was taken down and is now located at Star City and can be seen off the M6 south of Spaghetti Junction.
I’m sure Gamble said at the last fans meeting that the Pension fund had lent the club £250k to set up the new sign and the income from it was £500k.
This was the justification for the latest hike in the rent.

I think these are deliberately misleading figures as surely the £500k income doesn’t take into account the costs to run it and therefore it’s the profit that is supposedly going into the club, along with the income from the market, conference facilities, boxing events etc. to firstly cover the rent and clubs overheads, before anything, if any goes to the team.

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Regards the purchase of the freehold, I think I’ve posted before that this happened in 1995, which was of course a promotion season. It was also a season when we had two decent cup runs, one of which included TV money and record gate receipts (£98,828), and a replay (Leeds). That was also the season that the supporters club paid MOC’s transfer fee I believe. We also ended that season with some very saleable assets on the playing staff. For example, Scott Houghton and MOC left the club for Peterborough for a combined fee of £410,000 in 1996, Kyle Lightbourne was eventually sold for £500,000. Its a ludicrous statement to say the club couldn’t have raised £200,000 to buy it and that “every avenue was explored”.

Also regards the Gilman/SevernTrent (property ltd) cosy up, this is always worth a read.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/gmi-sells-thorpe-park-stake-1-2412953

GMI and Severn Trent Property Ltd…thick as??

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The whole thing stank and still stinks.

The internet came too late, unfortunately.

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Just been reading an archive UTS thread from nearly ten years ago. The parallels to today are uncanny. Here’s a post from @geordiesaddler back then

I would say that many of the problems at Walsall FC, as a football club and a business - the lack of communication, abysmal customer relations, shareholders and supporters groups treated like scum, etc. have all been born out of the present board’s need to keep people at arm’s length to avoid the possibility of having to discuss issues in this thread" (the thread was about the move to Bescot and how we ended up not owning our own ground - very interesting reading, but sadly I only have it in hard copy)

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