New Fans Forum

Next forum is Monday 21 October at 7pm in the locker. Big Ben, LP and little Ben presiding. What will be the big topics?

  • Chips
  • Traffic lights
  • Car park exit
  • Price of beer
0 voters

Hope someone asks BB about possible ground redevelopment

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Why couldn’t you ask him yourself AP

Can’t make it unfortunately

You missed out “asking about team selection despite the head coach not being there”.

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Why the stadium is more than suitable for our needs

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Tbh the club need to sort out the traffic it was rediculous last game close to 90 minutes to get away
Maybe the club could make an agreement with the retail park so the retail park closes at 5 for an hour to reduce traffic or maybe stop all traffic going onto the road outside the club Between 5-6 to allow football traffic to have priority
Maybe we could ban parking on the retail park and station to force people to pay which would result in more walking / public transport this left traffic

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It looks like there is an ambition to get to league 1 and I think there’s a case for developing the away end

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I’d love to use public transport (the trains) for every match but the service is unreliable. I don’t know what the service is like from other areas but from Telford or Shrewsbury to Wolvo/Tamebridge Parkway or New Street it is appalling.

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It’s easy to take the piss out of questions being asked (especially by people who haven’t been to a single one of these themselves anyway), but at least people bother to go, and voice their opinion and ask their questions. There’s normally one or two daft ones in amongst a few hours of pretty decent ones, but hey ho.

I’d imagine Simkins loan details, the club in Togo, lower attendances might be brought up. There’s not much on the pitch to question, after all.

I do find it interesting these things happen almost at random now. During one of the previous meetings they said these things would be announced at the start of the season, to avoid accusations that they only hold these things when things are on the up. Feels earlier than last year, but I can’t remember …

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It’s easy to look things up, especially if you want to really make a point, but that’s too hard for some people, eager as they are to blow their own trumpets.

From the club last year:

FANS FORUMS

The club will hold two fans forums per season, as previously committed

These will generally take place around the summer (early season) and the spring (latter part of the season)

The phrasing is ambiguous but there’s a commitment to forums, not timing.

Nope, Not the occasion I was talking about. No need to look it up, I was there :+1: It was said in the first meet the chairman event with Boycott (they committed to more than two a year at that point, as well :man_shrugging:)

Thanks for confirming this one is indeed earlier than last seasons though. There was me thinking “Summer” and “Spring” are time frames.

Like “early” and “late” season. Ambiguous. Leaves a lot of scope for timing. Still better than anything Jeef pretended to do in his later years.

I’m going to pop along as I want to know about lots of things about the future and not the past as the future is ours to grab. Was thinking about asking about youth scouting networks and if there are any linkages to local grassroots and all that type of thing.

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Which are aligned with “Summer” and “Spring” :man_shrugging:

But as I said, I was referring to a different meeting anyway.

Most of the things they have done have been, no doubting that. Irrelevant to the point though, you could literally justify anything short of dissolving the club by using that metric

Merchandise,lack of shirts,food are my only complaints.

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I’m not convinced that there is any great need to increase/redevelop the away end until when/if we get back to the Championship. Below are the average away audiences for L1 clubs last season (I appreciate these will fluctuate week to week and as a club with excellent transport links and a central location the numbers many clubs might bring to us could be up on their average), the vast majority would fit comfortably within the current away allocation:

Fleetwood Town - 175

Burton Albion - 309

Cheltenham Town - 368

Wycombe Wanderers - 500

Stevenage - 517

Shrewsbury Town - 562

Exeter City - 584

Cambridge United - 706

Lincoln City - 825

Northampton Town- 839

Port Vale- 853

Peterborough United- 896

Leighton Orient - 941

Bristol Rovers - 946

Wigan Athletic - 988

Carlisle United - 1,018

Barnsley - 1,033

[Charlton Athletic - 1,057

Oxford United - 1,087

Blackpool - 1,111

Reading- 1,229

Bolton Wanderers - 1,742

Portsmouth 1,788

Derby County - 2,110

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Yeah I’m struggling to see the need for a redevelopment when the ground is under half empty 99 percent of the time. Id rather it was spent elsewhere. It wasn’t exactly rammed the last time we were in League One either.

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I take your point KC, but counter with the following:

  • crowds are on the increase in football generally.
  • With our central location we will get more than the average following
  • By offering a bigger stand with better views more fans will come
  • by offering better food and drink options and service in a new stand there’s more income for Walsall too
  • it’s not just about the league there are cup ties against big clubs like leicester
  • away stand needs to be redeveloped for disabled fans anyway (as I understand it)
  • if we waited until we were in the championship then it would be too late at that point!
  • There’s also the Villa games and England internationals we regularly host too.

Finally, and this is just a personal view, I do find it embarrassing putting away fans in a stand with stanchions. It’s the equivalent of inviting a guest to your house and making them sit on the floor. I think building a proper away stand would boost the prestige of the club.

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I would like to see more stuff open to the public - it would be great if we could have a gym that we could all use before going in the Locker for a cob and pint. Wonder if the upper floor of the locker could be converted to a gym. Could offer discount rates to Season ticket holders

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