Found this on their fans forum. Which sums up their fans feelings on this subject.
Dear Walsall FC,
As a season ticket holder, I am concerned at the pawn we are being portrayed as in the political disorder going on at Coventry City. I’m aware from the various media outlets that the club have confirmed that no deal has been done. This, however, isn’t good enough. A statement needs to be released confirming we will never even entertain the idea of entering into an unnecessary business arrangement with these type of people.
In January 2008 the club alienated a significant section of its supporter base with the sudden sale of Scott Dann (ironically to Coventry) literally minutes before the closure of the transfer window, with those supporters believing we’d sold our promotion bid for the sake of making a quick buck. After that, whether we did or didn’t became largely irrelevant as the belief, or disbelief, was already there. Crowds dropped, Richard Money left at the end of the season, we went through the depressing Jimmy Mullen and Chris Hutchings eras and we flirted far too closely with relegation for far too long. Our performances on the pitch suffered, the atmosphere in the stands was depressing, there were protests against the owner, fans being banned and it really was a dark time in the clubs proud history.
Over the last year or two a lot of hard work has been put in by everyone at the club, to reconnect the club with the supporters. The philosophy that was put in place last summer about how the club was going to be rebuilt and how the team would play on the pitch, and how it was so successfully implemented by Dean Smith and the team, means that now for the first time since the end of 2007, it finally feels like club, players and supporters are all pulling in the same direction. There is a real sense of optimism in the stands at this point that not only do the club really want to achieve, but the infrastructure is in place to allow that to happen. There is a feeling that next season could be really special.
Which brings me back to Coventry.
This is a club rescued from the brink of administration in 2007, and is now back in it again. It spends beyond its means, meaning it can’t/won’t pay its bills, and has now picked up their ball and stomped off out of the Ricoh Arena because the owners of the ground had the audacity to ask Coventry to honour an agreement they’d signed with them. How very dare they!
So now the media are reporting they’re negotiating with us to play at our ground. Surely we’re not going to allow that are we? This is not something we need to do. We’re getting by very well without needing to rent our pitch out to a club who, despite a transfer embargo, could become a promotion rival next season. I know they’re not allowed to sign players, but as recent history shows, rules and agreements don’t really matter to these people and they’ll do what they like anyway. Our club pays circa £400k a year in rent. Even if Coventry agreed to pay half of that for us, would it really be worth it? It would be £200k, which in perspective would probably buy one of Jamie Patersons legs, or possibly Will Griggs hair.
It also would not go down well with supporters, some would believe the financial gain to be worth it. But this view comes with the possibly mistaken view that Coventry would pay up and wouldn’t drag us into a long running court case. Given their recent history, we couldn’t 100% trust them that this wouldn’t happen. The idea that we might undo all the hard work over the last couple of years by selling ourselves out to make a quick buck AGAIN, and alienating a percentage of our supporter base AGAIN, doesn’t bare thinking about. There may be financial benefits, but there’s no way they’d compensate for having them playing at our ground and the damage it would do to our notoriously fragile pitch; given our footballing philosophy it would be footballing suicide to allow this to happen.
Of course, it would also be business suicide. It wouldn’t be unpopular with all supporters, but it would upset enough to again cause dissent and tension between sections of our supporters and undo all of the good work everyone at the club has worked hard to achieve. Do we really want to voluntarily go down that road again?
If you’re talking to them , walk away, for the good of our club. If you’re not, then tell us you’re not and put our minds at rest.
Onwards and upwards.
