Walsall blog: Why low crowds

As fans we all imagine what we’d do if we were involved in running our club, writes Walsall blogger Mark Jones.

If I was a director then I may well have had something to say about the attendance against Orient this week.

I would have thanked the 4,500 or so Saddlers fans (you can discount the away following) for turning out on a dreary night in January. 

I would have acknowledged that this was the second home game in three days, the fifth within the calendar month and the ninth in nine weeks – quite a lot for a time of year that is always difficult financially.

I would have recognised that Walsall is an area where a lot of people unfortunately are on low incomes and this is always going to have an impact on crowds at the Banks’s. 

I would understand that some people have no option but to pick and choose games and that maybe Tuesday was just one of those nights. (This may have been why the club themselves were offering discounts on match tickets throughout January.)

I might even be thinking of positive ways to continue to encourage people to come to see the Saddlers and to try to further improve the atmosphere within the ground. 

I could even attend a Supporter’s Focus Group meeting and discuss ideas with fans in person …

As it happens there is a Focus Group meeting scheduled for next Monday (4th.) in the Saddlers Club, kicking off at 7.00 p.m.

By my calculation it’ll be the first one in over three years but previous meetings have always been nothing if not entertaining so I’d certainly recommend people to get along and have their say.   

No one can argue with the claim that more people through the turnstiles would be reflected on the balance sheet and give us greater spending power in the transfer market.

It would also be true to say that not having to pay over a third of a million pounds per year in rent would have the same effect.

What also amazed me about the criticism of the ‘stay-away’ fans was the comment that the chairman of the club was ‘beside himself’.

Why exactly? He’s been in the Walsall boardroom for nearly 20 years and he’s a lifelong fan, he must have some rough idea of the kind of crowds to expect.

Surely anyone who’s had any association with the Saddlers will know that we are not one of those clubs who have thousands of fans hiding in the woodwork and we haven’t got a dormant pool of support in our catchment area just waiting to turn up if we get some extra investment or a shiny new ground built for us (think Swansea, Hull, Plymouth etc.).

If our crowds are going to rise it will be by the odd hundred here and there and this should be acknowledged and accepted by those in charge.

Ironically our crowds now are much healthier than in the pre-Graydon era of the mid-nineties when we’d struggle to get up to the 4,000 mark and there was even the odd sub-3,000er.  

There are also historic reasons dating back to the 19th. Century as to why Walsall haven’t got the tradition, and therefore the support, of our local rivals.

There’s not a great deal we can do about this but one thing is certain – you don’t entice people through the door simply by moaning about things.

It’s a shame that at a time when things are going so well on the pitch, there are negative soundings emanating from within the club.

The fans recognise that we have a squad of players that play with pride in the shirt and are prepared to bust a gut for the team, so why the whinging and why now? 

In a week when Fox goes for a reported £400k, we’re told the club can’t afford any permanent signings, comments are made linking crowds to the transfer budget and then Michael Ricketts leaves; I hope yesterday’s story wasn’t just a botched attempt to dampen our expectations for the rest of the season. 

Walsall fans have your say below 

Ps Has anyone else noticed that last season when we were battling it out with Swindon for promotion from League 2 Wisey bottled it and left; now we’re battling it out with Leeds in League 1 and he’s jumped ship and gone off to a cushy number at Newcastle? Was it something we said Denis?