Like others have said, I think we are no worse or perhaps better than most lower league teams
Without moving away fans closer to the vocal home support, which the club won’t do, the only other thing that realistically improves our atmosphere is attacking football that gets fans off their seats
We had some decent atmospheres that ‘nearly’ season under DS - Gillingham & Burton to name a couple were great games but they were games that were entertaining with goals, chances, red cards, late winners…
Would also say the lack of pubs around the ground where fans congregate and build up an atmosphere pre walk up to the game don’t help
The club needs to try to appeal to fans with the necessary skills or some kind of sponsorship deal with a company who would be willing to volunteer to help sort out the Saddlers club and get fans back in there before games
They could actually get beer stands / tents outside the ground , and food stalls.
I went to Manchester city champions league last game and the outside catering I.E burgers stalls, fish and chips stalls and beer tents around the outside before you even went inside the stadium was really busy .
This idea would also relieve some of the pressure inside the ground for drinks before the games and kiosks not being overrun.
Create a carnival atmosphere or an experience that makes people feel happy to attend the ground - make them feel that they are attending the ground for a good day out as opposed to just 90 minutes of dour football - improve the match day experience so people are not rushing in 5 minutes before kick off - make the experience as much a part of the day as the football! Ditch the ■■■■■ music and announcers that have been there since Bonser - shake it up! It doesn’t cost much and its doable. Just takes a bit of new direction and more importantly, effort.
If you do the above people will feel more inclined to sing and create a bit of noise just from being bloody happy to be there instead of being utterly miserable!
Oh and I have sat in the away end for a fair few games in the last 10 years, unless the F2G is fairly full, the atmosphere is like playing on the moon.
On my Facebook memories from 4 years ago today it showed me a video I took when we beat (I think it was Chesterfield?) on penalties when we got to sit in the away end. Is this something we could try again to generate a better atmosphere? Stick the away fans in the side, obviously when we’re expecting a big away following I’m not sure what we’d do but couldn’t it be an option? I’m a season ticket holder in the lower but if I was given the opportunity to release that seat for a game and get to go in there? Especially while the Bescot Bar seems closed too it might make more sense than have everyone going to the Stadium Suite at half time as there is a bar in there isn’t there?
The only problem there Dan is a real threat of reducing , watering down of the singing we do in the lower .
If it wasn’t for lower 3 and 4 I don’t think anyone tries anymore , and if we all move to the other end I think the main home stand is in serious threat of falling to sleep
Yeah that’s a fair point. I did think how many people from lowers blocks 1,3,4 where most of the singing is from would actually move. But a lot from each of those blocks know each other, if the club put it out there and a few considered it I wondered whether the rest would follow. They’d all be closer together, lower roof.
Although with the club now looking like they’re going ahead and extending the Bescot Bar I doubt they’d be up for us all preferring the other end
Beauty of early Bescot was that we could really make a din under the low roof in the GA, and we were right on top of the pitch, think moving the more vocal support to the ‘away-end’ could help to revive that.
Issue is persuading people to put up with the stanchions and the potential issues with away coaches etc after games against larger away followings. Suppose there’s potential to make the Lower Tier more of a family stand, too?
Has to be some competitive advantage to shooting towards our own fans both halves, too.
It’s also embarrassing watching highlights around the empty stadium , the supporters are so spread out it looks crap , wish we could get more to attend the games , and that on it’s own would create atmospere.
I am a season ticket holder but would back the club introducing some real cheap ticketing deals to get bums on seats , this would generate more income , as long as the club sorted the catering with more people attending.
Fans have raised the issues of the supporters club cost of repair and then the six days a week when it would be standing idle and not recouping any outlay . It could be knocked down and the space used for a sheltered serving area.
I really think there is legs in setting up mobile / stalls selling food , be it hot dogs , burgers what ever and beer tents around the stadium for the fans that are not bothered about sitting in the suite watching the TV and endless queuing to get served .
The same could also be done for the away fans at the away car park .
I would say the only way to generate an atmosphere is to put a ■■■■■■■ shift in fans will always get behind a team that puts effort in no matter what the quality is
Really think the saddlers club needs sorting sooner rather than later before it falls into a state of disrepair… maybe instead of Issa using the railway they could make this there base if a fund raiser could be organised with other supporters groups and the general Walsall public . It just seems such a waste of a good spacious building.
On Saturday, my husband (a Wolves season ticket holder) came with me to our match. We parked in the car park at the back of the home end and walking to the stand it was so quiet we actually questioned if the match had been called off. There was hardly anyone around (2.50pm) and you could hear a pin drop. I sit in the family stand and he described the atmosphere in there as dead. Even people clapping to the music were doing it half heartedly. I was thinking back to the Fellows Park days and how exciting match days were then, regardless of the result.
I’ve just seen that the great Alan Buckley’s grandson Brandon Buckley plays for Grimsby - totally random I know but in my head it linked to my previous post. From their site - The attacking-midfielder likes to run with the ball, use his tricks to beat defenders, and contribute with plenty of goals and assists.
The midfielder has been with the Mariners since under-nines level.
I dunno though. There were plenty of games at FP when you could have heard a pin drop. There were a lot of sub 3000 crowds in the early 80s. We weren’t very good and there was a terrible recession. We once played PNE three times in a week, two of them at FP and I think the combined total of both crowds was about 4500.
I think when we’re good, the atmos is good, and when we aren’t it isn’t. Or to put it another way, play better for gawds sake and sort it out Clarke.
I think it’s natural to remember the good things. When I think of that time, I’m much more likely to start boring on about the night we beat Swindon 5-0, or when Mini tore Brizzle Rovers apart and we beat them 5-0. But there were a lot of dull, lifeless games as well, in front of low crowds.
I’ve a feeling the one PNE game I mentioned was our lowest post war crowd at the time, and for a few years after. Can’t remember if it was the cup game or league game that set the record.
I think I was once young and enthusiastic. What happened?
There are always going to be exceptions to the rule. My memories of 90s and 00s Bescot (before the development) was the terrace was always pretty vocal, we sung each players name before the kick off and generally there was some hilarious banter.
There was the odd exception as I say. Grimsby at home under Big Fat Jan - think we just scraped above 2500 and if it wasn’t for the 50 or so away fans, nobody would have known there was a game on.
However, the exception has now undoubtedly become the rule - more-so! Sometimes you are lucky to hear a song in the first 45 minutes. The new stand signified progress but did kill all the vibe, a terribly designed stand for acoustics - as usual at Walsall the football was seemingly the last consideration.
