when we played at fellows park what other options were available for saturday afternoon entertainment.Don’t get me wrong but sticking a portable radio to your ear for results or waiting for the pink star have long gone.
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https://www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk/stats/Report/gate/a1985-86.html
https://www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk/stats/Report/gate/a2023-24.html
No science in this bit look how we’ve plummeted down the attendance tables in the last few decades
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.
One other feature of the stadium that makes it unattractive for fans in the main stand are the lavatories. When I was younger I did not visit the club facilities once during a season. Now, a trip before the match and during half-time is essential for me, but they really are a step back in time.
For women the situation must be worse: when we had a big crowd on Boxing Day there was a long queue outside the ladies’.
Someone who has paid nearly £30 to sit behind a post in the main stand and then has to visit facilities that were outdated and unacceptable in the last century is not likely to return.
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Its worse in the lower tier, a real bug bear of mine. Drives me up the wall, but i dont think it will ever be rectified.
I dont mind queuing but it causes problems in those corners really. Its not exactly pleasant. Theres even pillars in the way there.
I fail to see how it passed the design stage even in the 90s.
Some will still not believe these things are an issue though.
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I’d prefer the stanchions gone too but personally, I don’t buy the ground being the wrong configuration as a reason for the current attendances…
On away days and by direct (league level) comparisons, you can see that our ground is in many respects, very good when compared to others… look at the shithole that is vale park - absolutely disgraceful with away fans treated like crap from the approach to the ground to the overall experience…. 1970’s facilities that should be shamed in footballing circles in my opinion…
On balance, admittedly you’ve got some grounds probably considered much better in this league (notably County, Chesterfield, Donny, MK and the Dons) but being fair, 4 of those are significantly newer than ours and in some instances and arguably, built for so called ‘bigger clubs’ with bigger associated attendances…
Bescot is somewhere in between but could be improved by sorting out some things that aren’t impossible to resolve such as catering provision, better access and traffic controls (those lights are a blight on us…) Either way, I’d take some convincing these would improve crowds….
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Big Albion areas around Bescot also.
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All Albion if you walk past Leckie. Our “designated away pub” is an Albion stalwart. 
You wouldn’t do it on all the stands at once though. The construction of the ground was in distinct blocks. This is why they could move out two stanchions from the main stand a few years ago.
For me, if capex money is tight and therefore we can’t afford any major ground expansion I’d start with taking one or two out of the family stand using the same engineering we used in the main stand. I’d suggest that on the basis that if we ever wanted to expand the ground, that is the side that would struggle with planning permission given the proximity of the housing behind.
If we could afford to expand somewhere, the away end would be the obvious starting point. Double the size of that with cantilever stands and efficient food/dinks concessions then it creates clearer lines between home/away and enables us to add a few hundred each season (at the higher level) towards the 3,000 extra spectators we need to compete. And by definition it would be a few hundred who spend more per head than home fans.
Ultimately, be nice if the main stand became like the ones at Wycombe or Northampton.
All pie in the sky of course in respect of the near term but if Trivela are serious about this being a decades long investment they can’t ignore the stanchion shaped elephants in the room. The new fans we want to attract wouldn’t tolerate obstructed views at the theatre or pictures and expect the same at the football.
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I do think if the club ever get back in the championship and became more of a yo yo team between that and league 1 as happened in late 90s/early 2000s the away stand would be extended 100%.
Gets the capacity up to 13-14k and 75% of the division would fill it.
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It might over the long term. As I said, increase in match day revenue from various sales and then when the higher fan base is more established then you can gradually increase the prices knowing fans are hooked.
So we would depend on away supporters.
If we got in championship bottom half
I think we might get 7500 and that wouldn’t pay the wages so back down we go.
I seem to recall that Bescot was designed for a 14-16,000, but ground regs and all seating put paid to that.
I think that we did have planning permission to extend and cantilever the family stand, but that has long lapsed.
Actually apart from the obvious away end, the Main stand could be extended back and up without a great impact on the footprint of Bescot - a bit like PV. Now it’s been completed, Vale Park’s wasn’t too shabby. It would be nice to have a proper TV gantry too!
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You must have been in a different part of it to the rest of us then 
🫨
I’m from south (east actually) of the Broadway mainly Villa, some Albion and some Walsall.
I have a DE postcode now and it’s mainly Villa, quite a few wolves, Derby, and the odd Burton and Walsall fan here and there.
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I think it was Davenmoor/Denglen wanting to do it on the cheap that put paid to the original designs. In 1989 it would have only cost £250k more for the whole ground to be cantilevered.
However high we ever got up the pyramid, I can’t see us ever needing more than 11,000 home spaces. Which is why an away end of 5,000 would be desirable as 16,000 enables you to just about compete in the second tier.
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Wrexham brought 1400 "that day. No sign of any celebs with them either.
1,369 to be precise😉
Football will get more expensive, like much else, despite all the wishful thinking on here. Think NI increases, energy costs, the inevitable wage inflation for players and management. It will, as now, boil down to who can and will pay, leaving behind those who can’t or won’t.
As to stadium improvement, can’t see that really any time soon. All the changes so far seem either cosmetic or in the case of the Locker to generate income. Cantilever roofing we can dream about I’m afraid.
Finally many sincere contributors here assume that because following Walsall interests us then there must be a vast pool of folk just like us waiting to be tapped up. Can’t see that I’m afraid, far too much leisure activity competition for families compared to yesteryear.
Just my two penneth of course…
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Very good.
The reason I remember it is Richard Money coming storming onto the pitch enthusiastically clapping the Wrexham support as the gate was announced. He’d had a problem with us all season. Such a great guy.
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