And that ladies and gentlemen, is the nail on the head.
That’s why we are no further forward than we were this time last year.
UTS
1 Like
Comparisons between now and 20, 30 & 40 years ago do not cut any ice with me. Yes, you can say it was poor in the late 80’s early 90’s and based on this we have always been a small club - but then you are conveniently forgetting prior to this terrible spell we were getting bigger crowds and were higher up pyramid than Birmingham City. Go back even further and we got 25k in for a game at Felllows Park. At what year does the comparison stop being relevant at?
More damning of Jeff’s set up is when you take into consideration the rise in popularity of the game itself. I remember on here sometime ago there was an attendance comparison across the West Midlands with now and 30 years ago - we were the only club that had lost fans while every other had gone onto significantly grow their fanbase, helped by football becoming a boom business. There are clubs that we used play regularly that brought 50 - 100 away fans and would struggle to get 2k at home that are now getting double and triple our crowds - some have been successful some have just marketed themselves professionally.
Jeff Bonser is a small time thinker on the football side, as I have said previously, whether its a strategy or he just can’t be bothered is open to debate. Even when we had success on the field there was nothing done to help grow the club off it. The product is not enough to substantially grow a club.
Here’s three examples of clubs proactively trying to grow, showing exactly how the game can be marketed; Tranmere’s ‘make us your second team’ special offer to floating fans across Merseyside, a club getting double our gates even in non league. Bradford’s ridiculously low prices, aimed at filling a huge ground - presumably with the approach being its better having 10k paying less than 5k paying more. Shrewsbury listening to fans and trialling safe sanding in their North stand, a stand they had struggled to fill since they moved there - as highlighted by their chairman. Guess what; Shrewsbury’s average home attendance was bigger last season than when they nearly got promoted the year before.
To come on here and say ‘well, because we had 2,850 in 1991 against Torquay United, we are always smalltime’ is as shortsighted and ignorant as Jeff’s policies themselves.
26 Likes
Couldn’t agree more Funk, small minded chairman, CEO and Secretary = small time ambition mentality.
1 Like
Well said Funk 
Spot on funk. Like you said clubs on the whole have increased there support. Not us because of the stubborn single mindedness of bonser.
Here it was mentioned
2 Likes
Can’t believe we are looking at Alex Nicholls… Now that really is underwhelming. Just replace cook with somebody who is at least half decent.
1 Like
Scraping the barrell
So is McAlinden too, done very little since leaving Wolves.
Looks like the second half 11 look woefully short of the quality required to even finish mid table.
Absolutely agree 100%. While I agree with Andy Taylor that our most important signing/employee is always the manager, the stark reality is we desperately, absolutely desperately need a change of regime from this stale, self-serving, and extremely rich pensioner. He is killing Walsall FC now in tiny increments of a shrinking fan base, budget cuts, and a general malaise of cant-be-botheredness.
6 Likes
Abolute ■■■■■ today trialist ■■■■ them off no good
Candlin & ferrier left out so Clarke could have a look at trialist… Clarke said both players will get 45 mins on tuesday
2 Likes
Them who played today ■■■■■
Still4 players short them the second half today utter garbage
We still need 5/6 players of a decent standard if we are to be competitive.
The current squad is pathetic.
So, all that money we make from off-field activities does not get invested in the playing squad? What’s the point of it then? I thought the whole point of having such a good commercial set up was to make money to invest in the team? I thought this commercial income was to make up for our relatively low attendances. I don’t think our playing budget needs to be so low, especially with all the income that we’ve made from transfers and the Wembley cup run over the last 4 years. I really would like to see where all the money has gone.
4 Likes
Scientists have recently captured the first image of a black hole in outer space.
Jeff was wondering where he left his wallet
3 Likes
I can’t understand AndyWTaylors idea of the advertising board covering the rent so that makes it okay. Am I just being thick by thinking that if we didn’t have the rent all that money could go into team strengthening?
The rent is always covered by some income stream, but that income stream is taken from the playing budget ergo the rent is a problem.
5 Likes
We all know where ever there is any money generated by the club it should be made available for THE club not to generate wealth for the Chairman
3 Likes
No no no! It should go into the chairman’s pocket and the season ticket income/advertising board income/shirt sales etc will more than cover it, and that is okay.