DURING the Fan's Focus Meeting earlier this year, the club invited supporters to submit ideas that they would like implementing.

As a result, a group of supporters sent in 10 ideas earlier this month and the club are pleased to announce that a number of these suggestions will now be implemented.

Over the next few days each suggestion and response will appear here on www.saddlers.co.uk:

This Q & A session is the sole copyright of Walsall Football and cannot be replicated, in part or whole, without prior permission.

7 - Asian/Ethnic market

Develop ways of encouraging more non white English fans to attend matches by:

- Arrange pre-season friendly with a touring Asian or Polish team

The Asian or Polish teams must, first of all, be touring the country for this to happen. As the country's large Premier League teams tour Asia to increase their own brand awareness, Asian clubs tend to play in tournaments within their own countries during the pre-season.

Also, foreign clubs looking to arrange friendlies require either a guarenteed fee or a 50% share of the gates whichever is higher. We feel that a friendly against the likes of Wolves or Aston Villa would attract a bigger gate than a game against a team such as Wisla Krakow. There has to be a financial element to pre-season games as it is vital income during the summer months.

In previous years we have played against the likes of the Indian national team and if another opportunity arose, it would be seriously considered.

However, the club does have excellent links with Sporting Khalsa and are the only professional side who arrange regular friendlies against this Asian-based football team.

Marketing material in languages other than English, i.e. Urdu, Hindi, Gujarat, Punjabi, Polish etc

Something the club will consider in future publications

Creating links with local temples and mosques

The club have excellent links with organisations such as SureStart Palfrey, who are based in a predominately Muslim area of Walsall. The club hold regular community activities and player appearances in this area. So successful has the link been, SureStart Palfrey have conducted a case study of the partnership, which will feature in their Annual Report.

The club's Community Department also visit 34 partner schools in the Borough, many of which have a large ethnic poulation.

Offer the ground and facilities for Asian football tournaments, hockey and Kabbadi. Get Asians used to actually coming to the stadium.

The club host the STAR (Standing Together Against Racism) Tournament every year in which team from all backgrounds come together to take part in a football tournament held at the Banks's Stadium.

8 - BBB - Beer, Bet & Burger

To encourage people to get the ground early, thus spending money on food/drink items, the club could get the bookmaker back and do a deal for a £5, for which you get a beer, a bet (£1) and a Burger.

The beer would encourage people to get in there early and spend more money The bet would encourage people to bet, which would satisfy the bookmaker and enable him to justify the fee that the club charges The burger would encourage people to eat at the ground, and thus spend money on other food/drink items.

The club takes £4 with £1 going to the bookies. If this was introduced initially in the F2G middle and upper section, it could encourage fans to move from F2G lower to this more expensive area resulting higher admission revenue. By selling 3 part vouchers, one part for each burger/beer/bet, the strain would be reduced on the cashiers, thus helping the flow of service inside the F2G. Also introduce meal deal options at the food counter such as buy a pie/hot dog/burger + soft drink and get a chocolate bar free or something similar to encourage added value.

A good idea. However, as we do not have betting kiosks in place at the current time, it is one we will look at once we have a bookmaker in place. The problem we face is that, as the betting service did not bring in the necessary revenue, it is proving difficult to source a willing bookmaker.

A number of 'meal deals' are in place at all kiosks.