Annan Athletic are closer 
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Gretna is a mere 10 miles.
But…
Walsall will struggle with getting new fans, yes some big clubs not to far away who charge a fortune, but will be hard to draw fans from them to come to walsall unless you do something crazy that no one will agree with me on here. If villa are not at home on a tuesday then do a joint thing with villa were there season ticket holders can come to support there local neighbours push for league 1, charge them a £10 maybe just maybe the odd fan might come over to us more regularly.
Secondly the locker isnt great it uncomfortable and not suited to bring kids into. Pity the away bar isnt altered to a family bar, not only selling pop and sweets but again some merchandise, creating a belonging, in fact why hasnt walsall got a fan committee working with the club working on ideas however wacky they are to get fan into the ground.
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When our attendances fell in the late 1960’s there were probably several factors at play; cynicism about the intentions of the board, hooliganism, style of football to name a few. As mentioned by other posters we have always been the poor relations in the area so most of the kids I grew up with supported other bigger clubs, not always the local ones.
If we have success it has to be sustained over a few seasons before it has any impact on attendances. Even then it has a ceiling of perhaps 6,500 to 7,000 home fans? This then tails off when success isn’t maintained. If we achieve regular 5,000 gates now I consider this a success given that there have been times when 3,500 to 4,500 has been the norm in the league above. Attracting additional fans must be the aim of any club but achieving is hard for a club like ours. I read that Walsall FC staff had attended a local mosque? Very laudable but I’m not convinced this will result in this local community turning up to support WFC. Getting local school children to attend, as we do already may work if we offer them a special experience and a winning entertaining team. I remember the old football special buses going round the outlying areas of the borough and taking kids (and others) to FP. Maybe a modern equivalent would work? Drawing attention to the club is always challenging. How about a re-brand? Or in our case a retro brand; Walsall Town Swifts anyone?
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This team is fun to watch and has loads of goals in it so that’s the first basic marketing tool, promote what is actually happening rather than what may happen in the future.
It should be a far easier sell to floating fans than come and watch a Whitney/Flynn/Clarke team grind their way to a 1-1 draw!
I think aswell when matches are clashing with CL and higher league games the odd ticket offer wouldn’t go amiss like bring a friend for a fiver for season ticket holders. Maybe bring the odd match forward to a Friday night like Tranmere regularly did in the 90s (I appreciate that would inconvenience some regulars but would prefer that to Saturday half 12s).
To get up to 7-8k regularly I still think is some way off as that only happens when visiting sides bring decent numbers and that dosen’t happen too often at this level compared to league one.
I agree, we are top scorers in the league, sell that. To increase attendances that stick takes a very long time, decades probably and even then it can be lost very quickly. Worry about now, tomorrow probably won’t take care of itself but things can be worked on over time.
I don’t think we will ever average much more than we get now as a League 2 side, maybe in a promotion season the gates get bigger towards the end of the season but to get to 7/8 k I think we’d have to be an established league 1 Club who can at least challenge for promotion now and then.
First thing first, we have to get out of League 2.
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I do think if we can get promoted to league 1 and then hold our own I think we could push our attendance closer to the 7 thousand mark. Would be great to see that.
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Only 2/3 years ago we were told 5k would be a game changer. Things have moved on a bit since then but we are making progress. I think we have a good bloke now tasked amongst other things to attract more support - Ben Sadler.
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Fan committees were set up this season and are ongoing.
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Can’t remember if that was hoe fans or just crowd for home games?
The club have plenty of years of amateurism to turn around. Agreed that attending games is a habit and so many fans that I know, have fallen away over the years. It will take more than a few wins to get them back.
That said, the off-field stuff (apart from the shirt saga) and communication is improving. If we keep showing ambition and winning, the core could grow and tempt back the floating fan.
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Yeah not me but we’re there or thereabouts aren’t we now if its the lesser of the two
That’ll be you and 999 more needed then Sid. 
When are you coming back? And what has been keeping you away?
I said on Facebook the other day the club should rent a bit of space at Tesco in the town, there’s a photo company do the same amongst other things.
We could open it a few days a week, especially Friday and Saturday and promote the club and ticket sales, it might just remind people the town does have a football club, can’t see it costing a fortune and a few ticket sales and lifetime fans could come from this.
We could stock a few things and give a few key rings, badges etc away to folk, if it dont work then at least the club can say they tried, how many people are at a loose end on the weekend and something like this could trigger a family day out ?
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Hi-viz drawstring goodie-bags?
There’s no glass ceiling on attendance long term. Just needs some serious planning from the club for consistent positive messaging in this area, something the last management team didn’t do well (the old owner’s ’is bs them’ attitude don’t help).
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As I’ve said before, one of the few things I miss about living in The UK is not being able to watch the Saddlers play live. Although I’m thankful for the streaming service (which I pay for, even though I have a dodgy stick with the games on), I would much rather be there, watching with friends and sharing that experience, win, draw or lose, with the buzz that only Walsall FC and metal gigs give me. I think that the TV option is both a blessing and a curse, as on the one hand, it allows the likes of me to watch from overseas, and others that would like to, but can’t physically attend but it discourages many fans that could go from actually going for various reasons.
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As a further thought, we now have armchair fans, which before streaming we didn’t. I’m sure if the team progresses further this season and we are up there come the business end, then some of these will be persuaded to attend.
I’ll no doubt be nipping across an extra time or two.
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I assume this sky plus thing that’s generating the arm chair fan has in part compensated the club through the TV deal. I can’t recall the figures ?
That said, broadly speaking. Over to the club to make an afternoon at Bescot appealing. I think the Locker. The fan zones. The addressing of queues. Etc etc it all helps. The pricing for what we are getting this year isn’t bad.
We can’t manage the big boys around us, or consider the lights shining brightly at one of the local non league sides. They’ll always be there.
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Think a better location would be inside the shopping centre as you walk towards the train station entrance, there’s usually some pop up trying to flog mobiles or charity cause.
Friday morning/early afternoons giving details on the forthcoming match and ticket prices and any special offers. Oh and the league table on display.
It’s a good idea and you’d think the new guys would at least consider something like that.
Shame there’s no proper sports bar in the town centre anymore as that could’ve been a base aswell. I remember years back taking a mate who worked in Walsall town centre to watch Walsall-Preston and we met in the bar on Bridge street which was showing the early kick off of Liverpool-Man. United. Pub rammed full of plastic fans watching that with no intention of going to see their local team so that’s what you’re up against.
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Wolverhampton yes, but they get a lot of their support from Willenhall , Dudley and Tipton etc. West Bromwich (sandwell) has a larger population.