Just rejoined after choosing to stay away for a while (frustration getting the better of me) so here goes…
No teams available population statistics can be measured on any census (built up area) figures alone… it’s the ‘availability of folks’ in the conurbations that is more relevant because no way do fans reside purely within the built up areas of any club… The borough of Walsall has a population of over 250,000 and I’m fully aware of the issue of the ‘other’ clubs on our doorstep but when the number of tickets sold and average attendances are measured against this larger available audience then the record of our board in attracting bums onto seats is truly and emphatically, dire… no argument in my opinion.
With more creative ownership and management we could and should do much more but JB and his subordinates do nothing to change the direction of the club.
Do the same - expect the same it’s as simple as that
I’m going to stick my two penneth in here, and as an exile feel free to shoot me down in flames. The problem with Walsall FC in my opinion is snobbery, perfectly summed up by the life and times of people like Roy Whalley. I wasn’t born in Walsall, I was born in Bolton and lived there until I was almost 10, have lived 25 years in the North East. But I still regard myself as coming from Walsall, because that’s where I grew up. There’s an incredibly strong identity that goes with being from Walsall distinct from any other west midlands town. I’ve lived and or worked in most of them, Wolverhampton, Cradley Heath, Blackheath, West Brom, Smethwick, Stourbridge, Dudley - basically anywhere but Brum!, That identity attitude is probably stronger now than ever before and yet the football club have never been able to tap into it. People who go on about the number of other club’s on our doorstep are totally missing the point. You could fill Villa Park, St Andrews, Molineux, the Hawthorns, and Bescot from the population of the borough of Walsall and still have enough people left over for the entire population of Burnley, a tin-pot former mill town where you can buy two terraced houses for a bag of something rhyming with tack and an outsized black puddling, and they’re in the. Europa league.
Forget fair-weather fans, we don’t need them. I can remember being at school in the 70’s and 80’s when Villa won the league, the European cup, Super Cup etc they all supported Villa…then ■■■■■■ won the League Cup and everybody supported ■■■■■■…then we got to the Milk Cup semi and there were 19,500 at Fellows Park. So what?? It didn’t mean anything.
What matters, and what no person or group of people that’s run Walsall FC since I’ve been supporting them is incremental increases to get us up to 7,000 8,000, then 10,000 regular attendees. Nobody ever thinks like that, because all they can remember, and that they’re interested in is a dependable-3.5/4k that they can soak for as much money as they can once they’re in that position of working for Walsall FC and taking a wage out of the club, couples with the odd upward blip of things like cup runs and wembley . We need a visionary change that can give Walsall FC an identity that belongs to the town and the unique mentality that goes with it.
Geordie, great post and this really does sum up the mentality that courses through the very fabric of the club and why it continues to trundle along and slowly stagnate.
Walsall have no problem attracting a small core of brilliantly loyal passionate fans but the club just seem to be clueless or have a complete inertia as to putting any effort or plan in place to try and increase the fan base.
I remember the first very small Walsall FC shop in Bradford street back in the late 60s/70s which closed after a few years. It reopened in the Arcade on the Bridge in the Sir Ray golden period, was in a great position and always seemed very busy and the club was in effect being advertised and promoted in the centre of its own town. Things were buzzing around the club and the shop. Once again the club showed its ambition and thinking by closing it and moving it to Bescot where they gave up a great town centre opportunity just to save on the rent.
This is just one example of the complete lack of forward thinking and ambition which has always been there but even more so now and seems to have been now manipulated into a vehicle for one man`s wealth.
Most of the fans my age (and there are quite a few of us) are at loggerheads with bonser, and are fed up with the crap he keeps peddling each season, we have just had enough. So if there were new ownership i for one would throw my support behind the club again, as i am sure would the others.
I was born on the Mossley and then lived near the police station on Green Lane till I was 21 (I was at university from 18-21 but lived at home in the holidays). I was born and bred in Walsall and will always have more affection for this place than anywhere else I’ve lived. My dad took me to my first Saddlers game when I was 5 and I have supported my home town club for 50 years. Supporting WFC has given me some of the best moments of my life. The excitement of seeing Walsall win is like nothing else. All I ask from the club in return is a board that gives us a chance of competing at at least League 1 level, and players that give of their best. If that happens, then I’m happy. I could never support another team.
I wonder what part a ground plays in that identity. Fellows Park was quintessentially Walsall. Nay sayers might ask “what, you mean a bit of a shi-hole?”. And I’d say “if you like yes. But our ■■■■-hole built by the hands of local working men and women for the benefit of us and we’re fine with it thank you very much”. Proudly distinct and proudly different. Proudly Walsall.
It might be me being old and rose-tinted but connecting with the new place has never happened for me despite now having watched us more often there than at Fellows Park. That the nearest commercial premises are “every town” Matalan and Pets at Home kind of fits our new “every town” home. Blandly designed, blandly uniform. Blandly Walsall. Or even Blandly The Venue, Birmingham if you like.
Get more games where all parts of the ground are 10-15 quid. Yes you’d lose a bit of money in the short term but surely you could attract more fans that way, particularly the youngsters.
Aside from that don’t think there’s another answer. Obviously a ground move isn’t an option.
if you look back at 15/16 some of the home attendances were really poor that year. Team at the top of the league playing really good football and also having good cup runs and yet was major struggle to get 5k home fans for many of the games.
