Watching sports in America is the best experience, they really know how to make games into events. When was the last time we had a great match day experience at home, between the leaking bogs, filthy seats and no food. Hugely excited!
3 Likes
We have American ownersā¦it hasnāt quite sunk in yet.
Kept my powder dry regarding the takeover all day.
I absorbed todayās news with cautious optimism. However I am now leaning heavily towards caution of what this might mean for our club.
Bare with me on this, but isnāt the sole purpose of investment fund management to identify the potential opportunity in a new or underperforming portfolio acquisition (letās call it a football club business in this case) and invest sufficiently in order to see a significant return on investment either in short, medium or long term?
We are no sleeping giant!..
Our historical year on year carefully managed but trending bottom line account results wouldnāt look particularly appealing to any outside investor trending mainly towards malaise, mixed with -now a significant time ago - brushes with mild optimism of a few years in the Championship.
In fact our only USP (to any investor) is the guaranteed ascending freehold value of the land which our little old football club sits on.
Letās face it the previous ownership model has already earned a significant and obscene monetary return (on an initially small investment) for someone who had no right -morally at least - to do so in the first place.
Surrounded by large neighbours in footballing terms, I personally could only reasonably see investment risks to playing team investment if anything other than significant sums were made available. So surely a fund manager would also have a tough sell committing other peoples money to a footballing project in any hope we could be another dog head rags to riches story.
Letās face it where exactly did Hollywood Money get Wrexham this season?
At least their is some vanity mixed in with the āWrexham projectā
This leaves us in the hands of an entity which could potentially drop us into the eighth tier of the pyramid with a new crap ground for our troubles, but also cashing in on a healthy ROI for the eventual sale of a prime chunk of freehold land.
The first rule of business is donāt go into business unless you have a plan to walk away. The plan to walk away was available to both Bonser and his pal Leigh.
Bonser has already walked off into the sunset.
I hope Leigh walking away is not the final link to someone who actually had the potential to care about our club.
So as the saying goes only time will tell!
We will however get a good idea soon as the playing investment this close season should give us a good idea, however I am with @dhforever in being skeptical.
I sincerely hope Iām proved wrong!
6 Likes
After the past 20 odd years, people are going to be skeptical, god knows I am. But I am also nervously excited, this could be a brand new dawn for us as a club.
I think we have the right to be optimistic, even if it turns out to be misguided optimism, due to the previous regimes.
This doesnāt mean I, or any others who are excited/optimistic etc donāt see the value in the āpossibleā other scenarios.
As always, time will tell.
5 Likes
Indeed, what benefit would it be to investors if we were in the Championship? A league that is notoriously expensive, with most clubs running a debt.
Unless they have some incredible plan to expand the Poundland to 25k plus and have us sell out every week, we have little in the way of potential, with the majority of the local populace having long-standing links to our local neighbours, or following the big Prem clubs, or being more interested in cricket.
The only 2 things we could potentially return an investment on is either the land the stadium is situated on, or a moneyball style system, where we buy cheap, develop, and sell high - hopefully itās the latter as itās had varying degrees of success at the likes of Brentford, or even Peterborough.
All we can do is wait and see how the next 2 years pans out, as I think weād know which way itās going by then.
7 Likes
Renaming the Bonser suite would be a lovely opening statement.
9 Likes
Got to hold out for more than the traditional first offer and a bag of scratchings then.
In all seriousness, I like the Brentford model.
The Benjamin Boycott Bar
If the Americans want to win a few easy points with the fans, they can do so by renaming the Bonser Suite and other lounges after Walsall legends. It still baffles me that nobody already at the club has thought of this in the last 3 years.
8 Likes
Given how theyāve run the rest of the match day experience ā¦ it didnāt baffle many of us. 
4 Likes
Looking forward to tomorrowās press conference and the coming days when Iām sure we will learn a lot more about our investors intentions.
For now Iām excited about the ride and what could happen . It may be good it may be bad( can it be any worse? ) main thing itās change at last and my lad who has seen nothing but crap in his first 4 years or so as a saddler is also excited and that in it self makes me happy.
4 Likes
Iāve been trying all day to remain measured about this astronomical development.
Upward progression was looking increasing insurmountable with each passing season, with the pace that football moves at and, most importantly, had accelerated forward leaving us behind at. Iāve felt for quite some time that it was inevitable WFC would be part-time/semi-pro at some point in my lifetime (Iām 41). To avert this trajectory, we needed to do something, anything different, and for these reasons I welcome our new overlords.
My feelings this evening are that the ceiling for the new project isnāt anywhere near as high as Bournemouth or Brentford- owned by individuals, different kettle of fish altogether. However, look at the shark tank the top end of League One has become in the last five years, and tell me that this morning you saw us regaining those modest heights any time in the foreseeable future? Yet now, to cite another of the famous Bonser-Three, Rotherham status suddenly looks much more attainable in the few years to come.
I donāt expect us to start throwing Salford/Wrexham-esque wages around, nor should we. What I do expect from this initial investment is many things that have already been touted on this thread and elsewhere- a more dynamic and modern approach to fan engagement (media, club shop, cateringā¦ all the old tropes and bugbears), and a more vibrant matchday experience. Moreover, a team on the pitch I can believe has potential for a brighter future. Our away followings during a season where we barely scraped above 13th in the bottom tier on the live table at any point is testament to the fact that the support and basic infrastructure is already there to sustain something better than we had yesterday, if only we had some beacon to hang our collective hat on. Even if we purchase the freehold and continue to live within our modest-profit means from there, weāre not recruiting 5 players on Ā£2k a week, additionally to the 24 weāll already have- thatās around Ā£1k a week extra on top of what weāre already able to pay 10 first teamers, which should facilitate quite the upgrade in quality. Our money going on our team. These few things are all Iāve ever really wanted for the club I love. Iām not in the least bit interested in your stadium tour, prawn sandwich, selfie-stick, watching the big screen for the video-refās verdict, live and exclusive on Amazon Prime āexperienceā. Nothing is guaranteed, but thereās hope.
I hope this makes sense- itās been a long day!
14 Likes
One thing that was unquestionable; we simply could no longer carry on as we were. We were running on stagnant fumes. Every fan, whether they admitted it or not, knew our days would be numbered sooner rather than later in the present guise
Today is the day it all got interesting again. Dare we hope? Whether we sink or swim there can be genuine excitement around Walsall FC again.
Please, please clear out the board room now.
20 Likes
Barnsley are just like Rotherham, yo yo ing between championship and league 1.
I think weād all be taking that in five years time!
They put some good teams togetherā¦and then tend to sell them all at same time so again been there in summer 2016 so not really different to 5-6 contracts all running at same time.
Big pros and cons to having sister clubs in other leagues but one interesting thing is it could be good way to send some younger players and get them up to scratch a bit quicker.
Youth set up will surely be looked at and properly audited by these guys as it hasnāt been fit for purpose for a long while.
2 Likes
Wow what a weekend - having Sammos with the queen and now this
Not sure about this but I still bear scars from the Wheldon era when it comes to club ownership
To me it comes down to the risk reward test - since smith left the whole supporting experience has been no more than 2 out of 10. So if it goes wrong Iāve only lost a 2.
Think Iāll risk it - especially as it may mean the return of chips
UTS
6 Likes
I wonder if Pomlett being around for 4 years gives him chance to see how things are working out with them before signing over other shares.
Great minds pal, great minds.
Could be heās hoping the shares he has retained go up in value. Although the new owners may have already agreed to buy the remainder at todays price.
2 Likes
The club needs all the supporters it can get 
Good point. Ultimately they are either gonna be the miracle cure the club needs or theyāll take it out back and shoot it. Either way 10 years from now weāre either on the road to the Championship or the pheonix club is on the way back to league 2. Iāll take either outcome over a decade of turgid, midtable 4th tier shite which I think was the best we could hope for without the takeover.
4 Likes