Home games - should i stay away or should i go?

All About Walsall
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I used to go to home games , and occasional away games when i could as i was growing up , and as i got older i started buying a season ticket every year which i did for a good many years which sadly came to an end when Dickie Dosh had his famous meeting with the Board to see if their plans , and ambitions matched his , and as history shows no they didn’t and he was gone .

Say or think what you will about Dickie i know he upset some supporters when he was criticising how poor the vocal support was , but hey he was not wrong , and is still a major problem at home , we only need to read reports in the press from players saying how lifted they have been when a large vocal support either home or away has got behind them , but i’m going a little off track .

When Dickie decided he was off thats when i decided i was wasting my time , and well earned wage on funding a club with no ambition or very little at most .

Everyone who supports a team have the dream of winning things , be it the league they are in or a good cup run or pushing for promotion be it automatically or through the play offs , but here this season again our little bit of excitement is if we avoid relegation .

I want a team to be proud of , a team that wants to play for Walsall F.C because they are ambitious as a club , and want to win things themselves not just to be used as a stepping stone or as a last pay day before hanging up their boots or just used as a shop window to move to a more ambitious club .

So people do we agree there needs to be change , and needs to be now ? but how is the best way to get this ?

I stayed away for a good few seasons waiting for that change which never came , and now i’m going back to watch them because i miss it .
But am i just prolonging the same goings on ?

I’m not happy thinking going along to support my team that i am just funding a pension fund , and still getting nowhere near the successful club i am paying through the teeth to hopefully get to see one day.

I feel guilty when i don’t go , and i feel guilty when i do , it shouldn’t be like this , and i know many many more supporters feel the same with split loyalties .

So what do we do ?

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I understand your indecision mate - many of us are in the same position.

I made the decision to stop attending home games earlier this season after many years as a STH and my son and grandson now don’t attend either…

It’s an awful situation and I (like you) feel bad for not going but I just can’t square off supporting the club when there’s no interest, ambition, leadership and direction from our No 1 fan…

The club is rotten from the core and that’s unfair on the players and staff because they deserve better - and of course so do the fans…

I guess ultimately it can only be a personal choice and I respect folks either way (stayers and goers…)

If you return I hope you enjoy it and we get the points we need for this very tight run in e5c

UTS

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If they get rid of all the cctv i will start going again :rofl:

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And that is exactly why my friend we never keep hold of anyone with a bit of class , be it on the pitch or behind the scenes because everyone knows how this club of ours is run , and it stinks , and cuts me to the quick that we as supporters keep conning ourselves we are ever going to be classed as anywhere near like our bigger rivals

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You’re okay mate they have moved them higher up the stanchions so you should be okay …:wink:

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My only manage about 2-3 home games a year. Usually do 6-7 away though (have got Sunderland and Wycombe on the list before season is out).

No boycott or anything but I just find home games with the state the club is in bit of a soul destroying experience as others have touched on with how poor the facilities have become for the average fan.

When I first started following the club I went to a few midweek ones and they were all awful performances losing to likes of Yeovil and Orient infront of barely 4k fans (similar to Wimbledon).

Of course you miss the odd gem like Bradford the other week (I did see 3-3 against same opposition last season which was good) but generally away is where it is at even if a defeat seems more likely.

Still will end the six month exile for either Southend or Peterborough I think as they will obviously be huge right at the end of the season.

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If you enjoy going, go. If you dont enjoy going ,dont…

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Agree the atmosphere is generally awful at home these days and so is the whole matchday experience.Sad that away games now look like a better option.i have 4 tickets for saturdays game and only 2 will be used.

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Well I’ve taken my kids for ages on the free ST for kids offer to encourage them away from the PS4 and to see live football. The signs are they will probably not renew for next season. If that’s the case it just will be the occasional home game for me. I’m sick that Walsall FC has become Pension Fund FC.

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Only you can really decide that. There will be good points made by people who go and people who don’t but if you miss it when you don’t go and are just wasting your day by not going then go and enjoy your hobby, the football.

I go and will continue to go but it’s more of a social event that’s why. It isn’t just getting into the ground at half 2 to watch the football. It’s the meeting friends at the pub at about 12, having a laugh then going to the football and I won’t let one mans greed ruin that and stop me from having a day with friends and that is what it’s all about, ignoring the politics of it for a few hours and having a good day out.

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Good post. I think ,as others have said,it’s your own decision ,and there are no absolute rights or wrongs either way. The Dann,Fox fiasco certainly had a lot to do with people becoming disillusioned, and remember that was a couple of years before we knew more of the actual Suffolk Life arrangements,and we probably still don’t have the full picture.

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I stopped going to the football for the what’s on the pitch a long time ago.

I enjoy spending time with my dad and the friends I have made by sharing the WFC passion.

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I go because I love the football. I get the chance to chat with other fans who also go for the football.
And win, lose or draw I will always go, because Walsall is my team. As I have said before it’s a rollercoaster and I love it. The wins would never be so uplifting if there wern’t losses and although I do feel down after a poor performance I’m always expecting the next game to be better. I don’t even come on here to read people’s comments if we’ve lost because I know that will only make me feel more down
Bring on Fleetwood.

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I also go because I love Walsall and I always want to support the team on the pitch, win, lose or draw (mostly lose). Like saddla, I enjoy chatting to like minded people and I revel in the occasional games - like the Bradford one - even more because they are so infrequent.
Yes, I agree that the Suffolk Life situation stinks and that the club will never thrive whilst this continues - but if I didn’t go I would feel as if I was cutting off my nose to spite my face. Just the way I feel - I don’t judge anyone for not going, it’s their choice.

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I have total respect for fans who stay away I did so for many years when we sold fox and dann on transfer deadline day when everything was going really well

.I have recently started going again under keates this time taking my kids and wife and have got that bug for it again .And we do enjoy it especially the kids .
What I would say is if you do enjoy going to support your team . Go and do it cuz bonser and his family will be around for a long time yet assure you of that . At the end of the day if your house doesn’t have a for sale sign outside it’s unlikely to be sold .UTS

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Its a life sentance, although some are currently on probation.

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It is a personal choice I respect the stayaways but will always go myself.
I have a ST and will continue even if we drop into non league I enjoy supporting the team and meet same people every game so it is more than the club.
Yes I dislike JB and hate how he takes out the rent but I believe rightly or wrongly that he would not care if Walsall FC folded he would still get his rent from the Venue.

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After 13 straight years as a season ticket holder which came to an end after the Scott Dann etc kick in the teeth I became a stay away quite soon after.

Every person that posts on our forum has valid feelings and reasons for going or staying away. For me, I returned for the first time in years to the Scunthorpe United game. It was completely depressing how we played as a team and the atmosphere. Yet as I have mentioned in a couple of other posts recently on other topics I came away feeling our club needs some love showing it. Yes that finger is and should be pointed at Mr Bonsor but also I think towards us a supporters also. So I decided I’d go again with my Son who was 5 the last time I’d taken him, he is now 21. Since then I’ve been to Rochdale and Bradford City.

So…

Just to sprinkle a tiny bit of positivity here in this topic, 2 days ago, I purchased 2 early bird season tickets for me and my Son behind the goal lower tier.

I’m not saying what I’ve done is superior to anyone else or my decision is the right one. I feel the same fury at our Chairman, the rent makes my blood boil every time I think about it. No number 1 supporter would tie one hand behind our clubs back before we start any season.

Ultimately, coming back to the OP, follow your heart and your head, look what is starting to happen at Blackpool FC now, we can dream that one day we can get rid of our cancer of a chairman.

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As many fans would agree supporting your team is a kind of drug that sometimes gives great enjoyment and sometimes great pain.
That doesn’t make it right but for me after being a ST holder for more years than I care to remember it would feel strange not to buy another for next season despite not being sure of which League we may be in.
The drug will continue to have it’s effect because my Dad and late Brother were fans and my Grandad played briefly for the Club in the early 1900’s so doing anything else would feel like a betrayal. Some would say that’s mad in this day and age but it’s a fact.
Like many I dislike the JB era and all that it brings as baggage. It’s a huge shame that whilst some of the business related off field activities have given us real security, the faceless Chairman with his underlings and the penny pinching style of the whole operation makes it feel like we exist from day to day on a miserly operating budget that is Dickensian in style and context. The only Plan that fans can see is based upon balancing a miserly budget that exists after paying an extortionist rent. That’s planning based upon an Eastern European diktat.
JB could now create himself a long term legacy where he recognises that milking the club and making himself a fortune has had it’s day by bringing about a change in ownership style and funding. Will he do it? Don’t hold your breath is good advice.
But change does happen in any walk of life so the fact that the Change has not yet happened won’t stop me remembering the likes of Tony Richards, Allan Clarke, Jimmy Walker, Alan Buckley, Dean Keates up to today’s names like Andy Cook. No amount of JB style and crap will stop that for me.
Add to that, whilst currently it is nearer for me to go to Derby I have managed to install that same Walsall fan pride in my Grandson who tells others he wouldn’t go and support anyone else despite the “small club” jibes that he has heard for years.

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The point i was trying to make with this thread was that i believe nearly every Walsall supporter feels a certain amount of disdain towards our Chairman , yes he has been at the helm through some pretty successful times in the clubs history but he has left that now to stagnate , and sour our minds towards him and the way he runs , and funds the footballing side of his little empire , and i know Rob Harvey , and a few like minded supporters are doing what they can to force or for the want of a better word try to encourage a better working relationship between club , and supporters , and to try to get the Chairman to realise that we as supporters want more success , more ambition from the club.

If as i feel they will not be able to force or persuade our chairman to spend the amount of money required to make us as a club more competitive in this league or in even the league below if the amount being spent by other clubs is anything to go by is true what is the best thing for us to do to force the change as supporters ?

This is the question i was trying to get across …

Do we not go to home games , and try to force him out that way ?

Will that work , will that really force his hand or would he still be able to carry on without the supporters revenue if we stay away , and then if so would i , and any others that stay away make any difference whatsoever or would we just be cutting our noses off to spite our faces , thats what i was trying to ask everyones opinion on .

I understand that fans make a match day more than just turning up ten minutes before kickoff , and then just driving home after the final whistle , i get that but do we really have to go to a football game that is becoming worse and worse each , and every season because of one mans greed . Why not just spend the afternoon in the pub with our mates that we meet up with at the game ?

What i mean is if people just use the game as meeting up with mates , and making it a social event why go , and watch an inferior team 90% of the time , why except a poor showing week after week when you could still be having your social time together somewhere else

I have missed going to watch my team , and have as i’ve said returned but my feelings are starting to tell me to stay away , and try to force him out if we all were to stay away WOULD THIS WORK ?