Walsall Football Club has been a towering presence in the life of the town since
1888. And in recent years, it has become a byword for competent financial management
thanks to the imaginative range of uses to which the board of directors have put
Bescot Stadium, the club’s home ground, a mile and a half from Walsall city centre
and less than one mile from the junction nine of the M6, one of the busiest stretches
of motorway in Europe.
Thousands of fans flock through the turnstiles every Saturday during the season,
but the 11,300-seater Bescot Stadium has also become a major venue for business
conferences. Two separate suites provide seating space for up to 700 delegates.
A full 200-stall market is also held in the stadium every single Sunday, attracting
as many as 18,000 visitors.
The board also taken advantage of the stadium’s proximity to the M6 through the
installation of giant illuminated billboards which can be seen by any one of the
more than 200,000 vehicles which pass along that stretch of motorway every single
day.
Walsall FC also hosts regular community events such as family fun days, and these attract
further crowds. A Centre of Excellence hones the skills of local youngsters with
footballing talent, and many go on to become professional players. In total, Becot
Stadium attracts more than 1.3 million visitors a year.
“It is, quite simply, Walsall’s biggest and best attended venue,” says proud Chief Executive Roy Whalley.
Such is the variety of events staged in Bescot Stadium that two thirds of the
Club’s income now comes from events outside football.
Walsall Football Club
Bescot Crescent,
Walsall WS1 4SA
Phone: 0870 4420442
Fax: 01922 613202
Website: http://www.saddlers.premiumtv.co.uk/
