So today sees the Saddlers face one of the biggest clubs in world football – Ajax.
Ajax have won four European Cups, twenty league titles and boast of having some of the all time greats in football play for their club. These players include Cruyff, Bergkamp, Van Basten, Rijkaard, Kluivert, Davids, Suarez, Ibrahimovic, Blind, Koeman – the list is endless.
Today is a prestigious day in the clubs history and one which the Walsall fans should embrace – unfortunately for some they’re not.
As we write this only 2,000 tickets have been sold for tonight’s game. We hear you asking ‘why?’
This is down to the fact that our own club are expecting Walsall supporters to pay £12 adults and £6 concessions to watch us pit our wits against the worlds elite..as a neutral you would ask ‘Whats the fuss about?’ well our near neighbours Wolverhampton Wanderers also face Ajax today at our stadium and their fans are being charged £6 and £3.
🎟️ Cash turnstiles will be in operation for both matches at the Banks's today
🐺🆚🇳🇱 – £6 adults, £3 concessions
🔴🆚🇳🇱 – £12 adults, £6 concessions, £15 family ticket pic.twitter.com/lpiq3lnq3X— Walsall FC Official (@WFCOfficial) July 19, 2018
Now we can understand that Wolves face Ajax at an inconvenient time of 2pm when most children are still at school and people are at work but on reflection we will more or less face a youthful Ajax side compared to our Premier League rivals so why should we pay more? Surely these factors even themselves out?
Walsall Town as a whole is struggling financially at present. For a traditional family of four it would have cost £36 for tickets five days ago (against Stoke), £36 for Aston Villa just two days ago and £36 for tonight’s prestigious game against Ajax. On top of the price for tickets you have to throw in costs for refreshments and merchandise.
We have had three home games in the space of five days. Three games I honestly believe would have had the backing of the town had they been spaced apart and made more cost effective. Our pre-season began on Friday 6th July. We could have easily played these games on Saturday 7th, Saturday 14th and Saturday 21st. Why did we need to cram them all into the space of five days? Possibly because Villa, Stoke and Wolves wanted this arrangement to suit themselves.
Some will find it relatively easy to fund £108 in five days to watch their club but whilst we are still in the middle of holiday season, uniform purchasing for the new school term and also saving for the football season which kicks off in just seventeen days time then it is a tall ask for most families in Walsall.
The club doesn’t help themselves sometimes. Both ourselves and Wolves should have paid the same price for today’s games.
We pride ourselves on being a family club, for us it just indicates that the hierarchy of Walsall FC don’t honestly care about the fan base of our great club.
