Walsall blogger Mark Jones has his questions sent for the club’s fans letter’s page in the Saddlers matchday programme.

At the start of the season, Walsall owner/chairman Jeff Bonser took the bold and commendable step of giving up his page in the matchday programme and handing it over to a fans letter’s page.

So far quite a few people have had their questions answered so, given that there’s quite a lot to talk about at the moment, I’ve come up with some of my own. I can’t wait to see the replies.

1, What are the barriers that the football club needs to overcome in order to purchase the freehold of the land on which the ground stands?

2, Do the directors recognise that there are a significant number of disillusioned fans who are staying away at the moment?

3, If so, What initiatives do the club intend to take to address this issue?

4, As it’s been broken for the past three seasons, could someone come and fix my seat (West Bromwich Building Society Stand Block C Row D Seat 49) please?

I’ve tried to be as polite as possible with question one. Yes, I know we’re in the middle of a massive economic downturn at the moment but, in my mind, that’s all the more reason for the club to take ownership of what would be a major asset.

I’m not naive enough to think that this is a short term solution either but it’s an issue that could have and should have been addressed years ago.

To me there’s nothing financially prudent about making over £300,000 a year and then having to wave it goodbye, never to return. Knowing whether or not there was some sort of long-term strategy aimed at rectifying this would be nice

Question two builds on a question asked by the Trust at the Shareholder’s Meeting. I think ‘disillusioned’ fans should be viewed as a distinct demographic group, different from young, new fans or casual fans (meaning those who attend a few games as opposed to the 1980’s bad boys).

I’ve no problem with any of the initiatives that are currently in operation to attract the latter two groups. The club should always continue with these, but I think the current problem of falling crowds has deeper roots.

The non-attendance of disillusioned fans is what’s most likely to be responsible for the current 21 per cent plummet in home league attendances.

The sale of Scott Dann to Coventry in January and the subsequent slide out of the play-offs clearly had a much bigger negative impact than the directors could have imagined.

Added to that are those fans who lost heart years ago, during the Colin Lee/Paul Merson/Kevan Broadhurst eras, or when the club couldn’t bring themselves to adequately back Ray Graydon following promotion (twice).

This stemmed from the failure to build on Ray’s phenomenal achievements and really establish the club in the second tier of English football, or those let down by the sale of Martin O’Connor sale in 1996, or way back to those lost in transit from Fellows Park in the early 1990′s.

That makes for one hell of a lot of kissing and making up.

Looking into my crystal ball, I suspect that the credit crunch will be used by the club as the main reason for the increasing numbers of empty seats at the Banks’s. Indeed Mr Bonser hinted as much with his comments last week.

As I said earlier in the season, every club will be suffering from the downturn but our crowds have dropped more drastically than most – the 20th lowest in League One – and worryingly lower than nine in League Two.

Perhaps with hindsight, having a nonchalant attitude towards your own fans over the last decade or so wasn’t particularly good insulation against a recession.

Question Three is a bit of a Michael take. It has been broken for three years though, honest. I’ll be disappointed, but not entirely surprised, if that’s the only one that ends up getting sorted.

So here goes, the questions will be e-mailed to the club straight after I send this blog. Fingers crossed that they don’t cause sleepless nights, panic attacks or high blood pressure for anyone.

Hopefully I’ll be able to keep everyone up-dated.