Walsall chairman Jeff Bonser has told the Express and Star newspaper that the club are £350,000 down on income already this season.
Bonser has overseen three sucessive years of profits at the Bescot Stadium including a £400,000 profit last season, but this season's losses are set to eclipse that figure as gates slump. Attendances this season have dropped 20%, with the club recording their first sub-4,000 gate for ten years in December.
“We are around £350,000 down on gate receipts and season ticket sales on where we were last year. When you’ve got Woolworths closing, Marks and Spencer closing shops, Aston Martin and Jaguar in trouble and thousands of redundancies announced every day football clubs aren’t immune. A lot of people have lost their jobs and although they are supporting Walsall from their armchairs they cannot afford to come to the club.”
Bonser predicts that ten clubs face administration this season due to the current crisis but Walsall are unlikely to be one of them having made, like the Bulls, healthy profits in recent seasons. The club have taken steps to cut outgoings, releasing players Marco Reich and Paul Boertien, while half their current 24 man squad have come through their own youth system.