The good times continue to roll, and the remarkable crowds continue to roll in at The Racecourse. Now we just need to ensure that Wrexham Council do their duty next month and ensure that we can include even more local people in this uplifting experience.
We enjoyed our biggest crowd of the season on Tuesday, as we broke the 10,000 barrier for the first time in the campaign, and let’s be clear, we’d have attracted far in excess of that number to every league match if we had a larger capacity.
The only reason we don’t get into five figures for every league game is the need to take into account how many away fans will be in attendance – and how quickly we receive that information from the visiting club.
Areas have to be cordoned off to ensure security, so some seats are inevitably lost. It’d be so much better if we didn’t have to take such measures, but sadly we can’t. The tiny group who put themselves before the club, fighting and throwing flares onto the pitch, ensure that we can’t maximise the potential of the existing facilities.
Although the actual attendance figure is therefore not the best reflection of the interest in Wrexham at the moment, it’s still worth reflecting on some of the numbers thrown up on Tuesday.
For a start, it’s the third crowd in excess of 10,000 we’ve enjoyed since last April. Not bad considering the last time we got a five-figure crowd at The Racecourse was for our dramatic last day shoot-out against Boston United in May 2007!
Dig a bit deeper and Tuesday’s attendance becomes even more impressive. It was also the first time 10,000 Wrexham fans were at a home game since the Boston game, the small following from Halifax allowing us to cram more home supporters into the ground.
Also, it’s worth noting that those big crowds we’ve enjoyed since April mean we’ve reached five figures in 3 of our last 12 home games. Before last April, we’d enjoyed such numbers only 4 times since 1993, and only two league attendances of that magnitude since 1980!
Of course, building the new Kop will boost those figures yet again, and the way we’re attracting fans through the gate illustrates how desperate our need for increased capacity is.
Despite the obvious desire to have a 4-sided ground again, until the takeover I didn’t see a new Kop as an urgent priority. Frankly, we rarely got anywhere near our reduced capacity anyway, so there seemed to be little attraction in such a large investment.
I struggled to imagine the day when we’d actually need to add another 50% onto our capacity, and even after Rob and Ryan took the reins, I didn’t realise just how immense demand for tickets would become.
I can’t tell you how delighted I am to see how wrong I was!
Planning permission for the new Kop is utterly imperative, and Wrexham Council need to ensure that when our case is heard on November 7th, they do the right thing – the obvious thing – and allow the club, which had given a remarkable boost to our city, to continue to build on a remarkable couple of years.
The whole town is buzzing; it’s imperative the council approve our plans to let as many local people in to see the games as possible. If that’s not a direct example of supporting the people they represent, I don’t know what is!
DragonHeart 