There are seventeen games left to play this season, seventeen games that will shape the future of our beloved Walsall Football Club.
Relegation from the football league could be the death for this club. Many supporters will go and find new clubs to support but, I have no doubt the core fans will continue to support Walsall FC in the hope for better days. I fear the younger football fans will not give Walsall much attention when there are bigger, more successful clubs out there.
People who are up for a choice usually pick the more successful and attractive candidate and, Walsall is not high up on that list at the moment.
Hugh changes are needed at the club to turn this around. Changing the manager is just a tiny part of this. One of the changes has to come in the mindset of the board members. At the moment, there is a mismatch between what they say and what action they take. Currently, the feeling is that the most important thing at the club is to make a profit. But making a profit will not make the club successful other than showing positive figures one day each year that most have forgotten the week after.
The success at a football club solely comes from the results out on the football pitch. If you want more revenue from matches, you need to produce a product that will earn the club more money.
Without knowledge of the figures, I say most of the income comes from fans putting money into the club. Either from buying season and match tickets, merchandise or at the kiosks at matchday.
The way I think it is very logical. If you get more people through the gates, more money will end up in the clubs’ accounts. More money should mean you can build and develop a better squad that then will, with good leadership, give you more success on the pitch. More success on the football pitch will bring even more people through the gates. Because successful clubs usually attract people, some of who might not be supporters but want to watch a good show.
In my opinion, Walsall Football Club is far away to give a visiting fan a professional matchday experience. The matchday experience is abysmal and, there is no effort made to correct this. I see reports after matches the matchday experience at Banks’s Stadium isn’t on a level you expect from a professional club.
The visitors who put their hard-earned money into the club should be respected and given the welcome they deserve at home matches.
If you run a club professionally, you have to pay attention to the tiniest details. Even if the results on the pitch isn’t going the right way, the matchday experience should not be let down further by off-pitch stuff.
Even worse is if we get the results on the pitch and the fans are still let down by a poor matchday experience off-pitch.
I can’t put enough into how important it is for the club to address this.
I’m writing this blog post with a few hours left until the Tranmere Rovers match kick-off. I have no expectations from today’s game. It will be interesting to see what impact McDonald and Sadler will have on the tactics and match plan. Will it look different and, will the tactic be any different?