Perhaps we ought to add the number of people in the Lord St allotments who are busy hoeing away to their heart’s content to the crowd numbers at the same time that pesky footbally activity is taking place ? From memory we could have also counted Rob Harvey into the gate numbers when Pomnoccio outcast him there a few years ago for having the audacity to speak the truth
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Wolves pick up a lot of support on the Shrops / South Staffs side as well
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The good news is that if this post was written a couple of years ago the question would have been whether 4,000 was our glass ceiling.
So we are moving forward.
Our problem as I’ve said elsewhere is that we were either going backwards or stagnating whilst others were accelerating ahead of us, so this is a game of catch up. Shame on those who fiddled whilst Rome burned.
The magnitude of the catch up is clear. We’re about 3,000 shy of being a bang average third division club in terms of gates.
Which is why I have called out one of the few Trivela mis-steps. The season ticket and matchday price hikes have stopped us moving forward as quickly as we could. When you’re trying to bridge that 3,000 gap, losing season ticket holders isn’t great. Like I say, a rare mis-step during Trivela’s tenure. I’m really hoping that the Bolton attendance proves the point and what would have been a 3,000 attendance is at least double that.
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And I’m not sure when Pomlett said the "5000 ,and we can do something,"how many people took him seriously. It was said more like Pomlett was putting the responsibility back onto the town, rather than announcing a mission.But it happened, seemingly without the pre-Trivela people doing too much targeting. So I’d say there’s definitely further to go, now it’s being specifically addressed.
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Agree PT - at a time when attendances were booming we stood still as the club was allowed to stagnate. But I agree the signs are good - better players, better football and better facilities - I feel valued as a fan for the first time in years. If we carry on as we are I think we can get 6, 7 or even 8k if we’re in the mix for promotion
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Its hard to get excited about watching Grimsby, Barrow and Harrogate etc (with due respect)
If we played in the Championship we would get 10k gates.
Fans will come to see higher quality football.
That means WFC keeping our best players and competing against higher profile teams.
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Yes, but that’s only one thing. There’s plenty of buttons to to press that could increase attendance - as well as, not instead of - good football. Attracting families, the match day experience, a sense of belonging and community, supporting the plucky underdog are all ways the club could kick attendance up.
The important thing is to try. I’m sure BS has got it in hand.
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According to Wikipedia which uses the 2021 census, the population of Walsall is/was 70,778, whereas Wolvo is 263,700. West Brom is listed as 77,997 for the town and 136,940 for the urban sub-area, whatever that is.
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284,100 the population of Walsall according to the 2021 census
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You can add getting rid of archaic stanchions to that list.
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Fair enough, why does Wiki use a totally different figure then?
What areas are included to give the mossiv figure that aren’t included in the smaller one?
Again, according to Wiki, Telford has a population of more than double that of Walsall.
All very confusing.
Willenhall, Darlaston, Aldridge, Pelsall, Brownhills, Rushall, Shelfield, Blocko etc etc.
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I don’t know cos I am not great with stuff like this but is it possibly that the figure you mentioned is for the Town, but the larger figure covers the whole of the borough of Walsall.
I lived in Great Wyrley for 5 years, which is a hop skip and a jump from Cannock, and that had a Walsall address, places like Brownhills, Darlaston and isn’t Willenhall classed as part of Walsall? It covers a big area.
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Beat me to it.
no idea I just looked at the Census figure itself as the one on wiki seemed low.
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286,700 population of the (metropolitan) borough of Walsall. I believe it ranks somewhere between the 7th and 11th largest town (non city) in the UK.
The 70k wiki reference may relate to this - taking into account only the area formerly known as the County Borough of Walsall:
The County Borough of Walsall, which was established at Walsall Council House and originally consisted of Walsall and Bloxwich, was expanded in 1966 to incorporate most of Darlaston and Willenhall, as well as small parts of Bilston and Wednesbury. The current Metropolitan Borough of Walsall was formed in 1974 when Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District was incorporated into Walsall. At the same time, Walsall was transferred from the historic county of Staffordshire to become part of the new West Midlands county.
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I partially agree.
But Tranmere, Gillingham, Swindon, Chesterfield, Grimsby, Carlisle, Bradford, Notts County, Wimbledon, Doncaster, Vale and MK also play against those teams and get at least 1,000 more punters through the gate. Some considerably more. Bradford an outlier because they virtually give tickets away but many of the others we’d have historically seen as either peers or significantly more poorly supported than ourselves.
Some swallowed the “well run club” mantra but never ever forget that whilst others were building significantly larger fanbases, our owner/chairman was encouraging us to go and support other clubs. Clubs now playing at least one level above us and attracting twice as many punters with the supply of seats nowhere near matching demand for two of those.
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Spot on SG you’ve nailed it!
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To be fair to Jeff (and I’m often not), that’s not what he meant at the time, although that quote (to be completely fair) has really bitten him on the arse.