By Alan Stokes
November 29 2002

After having established ourselves in the first division and having developed the stadium the next step is obviously filling the ground with its increased capacity. What is the way forward? The development of Walsall FC continues. After having moved up through the lower leagues to the top flight of the Nationwide we have now re-developed the ground with the introduction of a fantastic new stand. The development must not stop here. The club must now progress and find ways of actually filling the ground now that the capacity has increased to 11500.

In order to develop something and move forward the first step is to brainstorm ideas and identify what is currently wrong. It is only after we understand what is wrong that countermeasures and corrective actions can be put in place.

This has to be a must for the football club and must be taken very seriously. The notion that cheap tickets for 1 off games will result in long term increased attendances is just nonsense.

I have put forward a few ideas that immediately spring to mind. Obviously you guys will have other ideas. It may be worth while if people posted their views on the message board and then the site could collate the ideas and send them to the football club to try and raise the profile of the issue as well as possibly stimulating other ideas from within the club.

WHY AREN’T PEOPLE COMING TO BESCOT?

i) They are not interested in football. Well, unfortunately there isn’t much the club can do about this one and should obviously spend time and resource looking elsewhere.

ii) They support other teams. Unfortunately, we have to compete with the likes of Villa, Blues, Albion and Wolves in order to attract fans. Over the years we have generally been a second tier football club with lots of local people naturally preferring to follow the fortunes of the more attractive clubs whilst still maintaining Walsall as their second team. Now we have moved up a level it is these supporters that we need to entice back to Bescot Stadium. The only way that this can be done is by making the whole match day experience an attractive package. This obviously covers a wide spectrum of issues such as cost, ticket availability and public transport availability, parking etc. Most of all, the whole match day experience MUST be hassle free and VALUE FOR MONEY.

iii) Cost. This is obviously a major factor in determining how many people we get through the turnstiles. The Borough of Walsall is not one of the most affluent areas so the cost of the match day experience must be addressed since it is not only the admission price that needs to be considered but also transport costs, food and drink, match day programmes etc. The club must be congratulated on making its policy known that the Purple Stand is going to be the cheapest viewing area inside the stadium. I have read in the programme that an adult and child can gain access to the Purple for £12. This is a positive step forward. However, the club needs to go much further than this.
The club needs to positively encourage the unemployed and young teenagers who have the least disposable income available. The only way of doing this is by offering a cheaper match day ticket than the standard price. With the banks of empty terracing that is available then I suggest that a block is put aside for these people to turn up, and pay a set fee at the turnstile i.e. £5 which reflects their current financial plight. Along the same lines the club needs to actively encourage younger people to the ground with a more influential community programme. The youngsters are the future season ticket holders of the club and as such the club should be pulling out all the stops come hell or high water to get these people into the ground. Again a block of seats should be set aside with the club allocating these tickets to local schools. The schools could then issue these tickets to pupils and parents based on certain merit achievements over the previous month.

iv) Value for Money. In order for someone to become a regular at a football ground they must obviously enjoy their experience. The match day experience is not just what is available on the football pitch. It spreads much further than that. To begin, people do not want to have the hassle of pre-booking tickets. As such, cash turnstiles need to be made available. It is no good the club quoting that other first division clubs don’t have cash turnstiles so we are adopting the same policy because other first division clubs are getting much higher attendances. People need to be encouraged to the ground and by having to spend time and effort pre buying a ticket or joining a long queue at the ticket office on match day is not going to encourage them to attend. You can then take this further by looking at match day travel arrangements.
v) It is now becoming harder to park around Bescot stadium with the retail park now giving out parking tickets. When you visit a ground regularly you will only be discouraged by this. You don’t want to spend your Saturday at the match worrying if you’re going to be clamped or fined. The club may say that there is a railway station next to the ground. Fair enough, but the majority of people still need to drive their car into Walsall to catch the train to Bescot and as we all know Walsall on a Saturday is a no go area. Once a year in Walsall there are the illuminations at the arboretum where people are encouraged to park their cars on a car park on the Broadway and park and ride to the attraction. Is this not a possibility on match days?
Secondly, as it is becoming more difficult to park around the ground particularly when there is a large gate, surely the club should be in contact with local bus companies to make public transport on match days easier and cheaper. No one of a sound mind I assume would look forward to taking 2 or 3 different bus journeys in order to reach the ground. Would it not be possible for the old “football specials” to be laid on for match day i.e.

Bus A Bloxwich – New Invention – Willenhall – Short heath – Beechdale – Town – Bescot

Bus B Burntwood – Brownhills – Walsall Wood – Aldridge – Town – Bescot

It must also be remembered that young teenagers do not have cars and their only method of reaching the ground would be by public transport. With their lack of disposable income 2 or 3 bus journeys as well as the admission price may just stretch their budget too much.

As you may have gathered, I am far from being a marketing executive but just a few thoughts jotted down may encourage others to put forward more feasible suggestions to increase attendances at Bescot and ultimately give Colin Lee more spending power.

Just to finish, tonight Nottingham Forest played Brighton. It would not be unreasonable to assume that there weren’t too many Seagulls at the ground yet they attracted a crowd of over 29,000 due to the fact that admission was only £5.
This is a start but, it was only a one off promotion. There won’t be too many of these floating fans that will be at their next home match which proves the point that attendances are still very much dictated by the number of quids available in one’s pocket.

Thoughts?