Can anyone tell me if I was to buy a half season ticket in the main stand is there a bar there I can access ?, If it’s extra to get into any know how much ?.I’m inquiring for a friend , cheers
Nah, it’s changed from 150 to 2k in a year. They have built a stadium and attracted attention into an untapped market of supporters in a footballing desert. Ground improvements do that, that’s my point.
I can concede factors such as can drink in view of the game, closer to get to, represents the highest level of football in Cornwall but those 2k fans are not now missing from Plymouth, Exeter…
Walsall based casual fans are not getting tickets to the bigger clubs as you need either a membership or to have a booking history.
Was reading a profile piece about Truro in the i recently. They have an american owner aswell and he was talking about creating a unique experience given they obviously are in an isolated part of the country.
It can be done with those types of teams. Plymouth not so long ago were on the brink of dropping into non league but stayed up and redeveloped Home Park and now they get regular 15k gates and will probably be a Rotherham type club of yo yo ing between the champ-league 1 if they get manager selection right.
Different with 4-5 big local clubs nearby but looking at Leyton Orient’s attendances in recent months as this club is currently following their rise back up to league one and they’re getting regular 7 or 8.5k gates so just wondering if they’re doing any imaginative ticket deals with Spurs, Arsenal and West Ham right on their doorstep.
Things can change in football eventually. Any post in Jan 2015 asking why Bonser couldn’t just sell up to a new consortium from abroad and then that ownership acquire the freehold would be met with snorts of derision and then dissertations about why that scenario would never happen in a million years.
Trivela come in and it happens within 18 months and now things are finally coming together on the pitch.
Exciting times and also important someone like Ben Sadler is helping shape strategic decisions. He’s been at Harrogate and Morecambe, two clubs with small followings who’ve both overachieved since joining the Football league so he’ll have knowledge of how to market what’s on offer to try to tempt at least an extra 500 in. A promotion would certainly help.
Completely agree and in the case of Truro they have the potential to be a solid National League side, especially the way results have been going for them.
I’m glad you mention Leyton Orient, and there are many other teams where attendance has grown in spite of their bigger neighbours. For Walsall I don’t think the other clubs around us will stop us being able to attract up to 7k average gates within the next 5 years. It’s going to come down to Price, Stadium, Travel and feeling part of the club…
Get them in, incentivse them to return and it has to be more than the football that does that because performance and style of play is an unreliable variable. Community and feeling part of something lasts a life time once your in it.
There isn’t without paying for a pass. Those passes are limited and I believe sold out. You can get a beer in the undercroft at HT though
Do you mean at halftime or before the game? Anyone can still go in the Jimmy Walker (Stadium Suite) or the Locker pre-game - just have to give yourself a couple of extra minutes to get in for kick off than you’d need if you could use the Albert McPherson, Savoy or 1888.
Football is to expensive for lots of people in walsall. If we go up or not there should be a price freeze and certainly not an increase in prices.
Surley having more fans in the stadium supporting the team creating a better atmosphere for the players. Spending money on beer and food can only be a good thing and putting an extra couple of quid on the entrance fee doesn’t add up when trying to build your fan base.
Be very careful Mr boycott.
I tell you another barrier to attracting and keeping kids is when 3 years on the trot their favourite player disappears in January.
My sons gutted this morning……… here’s hoping Freddie comes back to soften the blow
Half time m8, I know you can use the other bars before just wondered about at half time , Didn’t know you could get round to use the undercroft from the main stand at half time .
You better notify the government and tell them to not build any more Timber Frame / Timber Panel / Timber clad structures. Then to put any net Zero Carbon plans they have on ice.
Probably a million more logical reasons it will never happen.
I see the trolling has started early today
Agree - looking at how Orient have done it would be useful. And I think price is crucial. We need to be cheaper than blues, Albion, wolves and villa to pursuade floating fans to come and watch 4th division football.
We seem to have had very few Saturday 3pm kick offs for home games this season. (not sure of the facts just how it feels) i am sure we would be averaging over 6,000 if the majority of the games were Saturday 3pm.
This has been an interesting thread, but I don’t think any of the individual suggestions, or observations hits the spot. Every argument can be countered with contradictary examples.
Luton is a town on its arse, has a huge asian population, a comedic stadium with abysmal facilities…its full every week. Some grounds in the Prem are horrible, Villa Park, Old Trafford, Goodison (for now). Wolves is a decent stadium but try getting a drink in the town, even in Wetherspoons, Albion is dire also. In fact I don’t like any of the other West Midlands grounds, and I go to all of them on a fairly regular basis. I’d rather go to Hednesford or Rushall than any of them if Walsall wern’t playing - and indeed in the last 12 months I’ve done exactly that.
I think Bescot has significantly improved since Trivela rocked up, for the first time in years I thoroughly enjoy visiting. I think the £22 quid to sit in the lower is about right, although I agree that it should be as cheap on a matchday and elsewhere in the stadium. The staff are friendly and the atmosphere is palpably better that at any time since the catastrophic January of 2008 that literally ripped the guts out of the fanbase and paved the way to the most boring 15 years of awful “death by a thousand cuts” style decline. I think the facilities are pretty good. You can get from a seat in a town centre pub to your seat in the ground in 15 minutes flat (if you take the train), and back again which is remarkable. On Saturday I was sitting in my mam’s house in Pelsall 40 minutes after the final whistle. Can’t speak for other stands, but the food and drink in the lower is accessible and cheap. I paid £4 quid for a pint of Swift lager for my wife on Saturday having walked straight to the outside bar thing with no queue at all. £7 quid a pint is the norm in lots of grounds, and virtually any other other equivalent entertainment venue I can think of. More in many.
I think the support levels ARE growing, slowly but surely. And that’s what will happen with a successful team and some actual entertainment and excitement. But the successful team has only been on the park for 4 months!! We desperately need this promotion, its been absolutely dog-shit dire for a generation. I think we have gone the second longest of any professional club without one. If we get it, crowds will be consistently 6k plus and then we can address the other issues in order to grow further into being an established, and hopefully successful 3rd tier club once more. To that end this January is absolutely pivotal, from a player investment point of view. If Trivela screw this up (and I’m sure they won’t) the consequences for growing the club are unthinkable. To me in terms of focus, that’s the only show in town right now.
Luton isn’t a good example to use. It is a town that sits on its own, with its own identity, whereas we are bang in the middle of a huge conurbation which has 3 much, much, bigger clubs and another that is quite a lot bigger.
Good post . I agree with you…further success on the pitch is crucial. However I think 6,000- 6,500 will be the norm if we can establish ourselves in the 3rd tier.
But its a good example if the points one is looking to counter are crap facilities, poverty, and all asian fans sitting at home with a firestick and a Man U top.
The big clubs on the doorstep arguments have been adequately discussed in relation to Stockport, Orient and Rotherham/Doncaster. Its also just over half an hour on the train from Luton to the smoke, so if you wanted to go and support one of the 7 premier league teams it boasts its hardly mission impossible.
great post cant find anything to disagree with
And I think that would be a very solid improvement, and a significant catch-up on those that are pulling 8-9 k. Still room for further improvement but very positive.
Really good thread, well played all
The club would do well to have a butchers