We're not moving next year, we're staying at Queensway

We will be staying at Queensway next year after all.

The question was asked at the end of a supporters trust meeting tonight. As mentioned before, Cefn Druids are keen to have us back at the Rock, but the pitch is not the required standard for rugby. We can only hope that when it is eventually due to be resurfaced (the 3g was only laid three years ago), it can be replaced with a suitable surface. Cefn Druids FC would be fantastic partners for us.

The club also approached Buckley Town FC in neighbouring Flintshire, but have not had any reply. It is now thought that the pitch is probably too small anyway, and parking at the ground is very limited.

We also heard that Wrexham FC have doubled the rent AGAIN. They want £7,500 rent per game plus VAT, plus all the bar takings and food kiosk takings, so the Racecourse would now cost a staggering £10,000 per game. This is roughly the cost of renting Queensway for the last three years!

Personally I think this is good news and means I would be able to get to a few more games next season, whereas if it was Flintshire I would give it a miss. 

Cefn druids I don't think would really work, it's just too small and out of the way for most. I say that and i live 200 yards away from the Rock. 

Wrexham fc, the less said about that offer the better. If that's their approach then I won't even bother wasting my money to go and watch them occasionally 

Interestingly, at the game yesterday quite a few people said they were pleased to hear we are not moving, some even said they would not go to the Racecourse if we moved back after hearing about the attitude of the football club.

Speaking to Andy Moulsdale last night, he said that after the supporters trust meeting he had a conversation with Wrexham FC legend Dixie McNeil (he is the football club's president). When he told Dixie about the £9,000 a game rent he hit the roof, not at all happy to hear about the way we are being treated.

Some other news from the meeting, the supporters trust have agreed to make funds available to sign players for next season. Andy Moulsdale is confident  that the majority of this year's squad will re-sign. But we have the lowest budget in the league, so with the help of the supporters trust we hope to sign two or three quality players to make a real challenge for the playoffs next year, and not just settle for being "best of the rest". Hopefully we can get the results to boost the crowds at Queensway, as well as increasing membership of the supporters trust.

As for staying...I understand the reasons for looking elsewhere but I’m kind of relieved when you look at what tends to happen with teams that start going from base to base, ie they shed fans with every move. And while there are attractive locations the population of Wrexham is far bigger than anywhere else, and the town centre work might have been wasted with a move. It’s a basic facility but I don’t understand why fans are put off by it if they’ve been. The Rock would have been a nice compromise but obviously not right now.

A bit of a word about the Racecourse. It’s not that much of a surprise to me that it costs so much more; a ground with 10,000 seats, executive boxes and three bars isn’t going to be close to what’s on offer at a municipal sports centre with 900 seats. I’d like WFC to be open to a deal, but I’d be prepared to stick my neck out and suggest that even a cost price would be way in excess of what is realistic. 

To be honest, I really don't mind Queensway. It's only a mile from my house, it's available and it's cheap. We can make more money with 300 here than with 1,000 at the Racecourse, although as you say it is understandable for the club to look elsewhere for better facilities. In an ideal world we would build our own ground, but that's not going to happen unless one of us wins the lottery.

You're right about losing fans when changing grounds. It happened when we moved to the Rock, and that was only for four games when the pitch was being relaid, the same the following year, and then again when we left the Racecourse for good.

The last thing I want to say about the Racecourse is that we were paying around £1,500 a game before we left. We only need one stand, which reduces the capacity to around 3,000. We moved out because the Stereophonics were booked to play there on the weekend we were due to play Coventry. You can't really blame the Uni who own the ground, £1.5k from us or £1m from a concert. The following week, the football club took over the lease to the ground and promptly doubled our rent. It was still £3,000 (as far as we know) until a few weeks ago. By the way, they don't have a license to hold concerts any more, it was only valid for three years and has expired.

Andy Moulsdale had been asking for a very basic package, just one stand and the dressing rooms, we would do the rest, turnstiles, stewards, the bar and food, and use the exec boxes for sponsors, after match formalities in the Turf or the Maesgwyn. Of course he wanted to haggle them down to a price we can afford but they never gave him any reply. Now they want £9,000 a game, probably prompted by a story in the Leader suggesting we were thinking about moving back, when in fact the club had already given up on the idea.

Finally, I only found out this morning that an international match was played there last Thursday, Wales v Belgium in the European Under 21 Championships. The crowd was just 305, which makes the 1,257 attendance for the RL international against Ireland last November look quite respectable.