Why have Wrexham received £25m in government funding for their stand? (2024)

In a week when Wrexham are chasing the two wins that will guarantee a return to the EFL, there has been a third, potentially more important, off-field victory for the club to savour.

On Tuesday afternoon, just hours before Phil Parkinson’s side beat Yeovil Town to move a step closer to promotion to the fourth tier of English football, councillors unanimously voted through a revised funding scheme for a multi-million project that will include a new 5,500-capacity stand at the Racecourse Ground.

A £25million ($31m) grant from the Welsh government will ensure work can get underway on the Wrexham Gateway scheme, which is split into two parts and designed to transform a key corridor into the city.

Stage one will now focus on the western side of the project, effectively the Racecourse site with a new hotel, conference facilities and club office space planned along with a new Kop stand.

Redevelopment of the area around Wrexham General Station, which sits a couple of hundred yards from the football club’s home, will form part two of a project that is intended to bring international football back to Wrexham, along with increasing other high-profile events such as music concerts.

Once the new Kop is open, the Racecourse capacity will rise to around 16,000.

Sounds like good news for the club?

It is, yes. Especially as a previous plan to fund the Gateway project from the UK government’s £2billion Levelling Up fund had been rejected in January. This came after Wrexham had previously received £13.3million to improve the area around the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct from the same fund in 2022.

This rejection left a substantial hole in the funding to regenerate the Mold Road area of the city under long-standing plans backed by the council, Wrexham Glyndwr University, the football club, the Football Association of Wales (FAW), Transport for Wales and the Welsh government.

There were also fears that a third application to the Levelling Up fund on behalf of the Gateway project would go the same way. With so many bodies publicly committed to the project, alternative means of funding were sought.

Eventually, it was proposed that a “substantial” sum could be reallocated from the eastern side of the scheme to the west. This could involve as much as three-quarters of the £25million initially pledged by the Welsh government in 2022 to redeveloping the train station site, which in time will feature office space and upgraded civic spaces along with increased connectivity for rail and bus users.

The proposal was put to the council’s executive board in a closed session on Tuesday afternoon and passed unanimously. Future funding for the Gateway project can be drawn from a variety of sources in the public and private sectors.

How much will the football club’s financial contribution be to the development?

Difficult to say, with a statement posted on Wrexham’s website on June 15, 2022, stating only: “Funding for the Kop will come from the public and private sectors, with the club making a significant contribution towards the overall cost.”

What is known, however, is that the club paid around £2million last summer to buy back the freehold to the Racecourse from Glyndwr University, an important step for the project.

So, when does the work on stage one of the scheme get under way?

In terms of the Racecourse site, plenty of preparatory work has already been done with that end of the ground now cleared, save for the two floodlight pylons that remain in use.

This involved demolishing the crumbling, covered terrace that had stood empty since 2008, almost as a symbol of the club’s financial struggles after dropping out of the EFL.

Two plots of land sitting directly behind where the Kop terrace once stood have also been cleared after previously being acquired by the Welsh government in 2020 as part of preparatory work for the Gateway scheme. These were on the junction of Crispin Lane and Mold Road, and the former Countrywide Stores building opposite the entrance to Wrexham General Station.

Construction of the new all-seater stand is set to start in June, with a view to it opening in time for the start of the 2024-25 season. As for phase two, no start date has yet been set.

Is it usual for government funding to be used in this way? Should it really be used to benefit a private business, especially one run by two Hollywood millionaires?

Agreements like this aren’t overly common, especially in British sport — even allowing for how West Ham United and Manchester City play in stadiums built by taxpayers’ money for the 2012 Olympics and 2002 Commonwealth Games respectively.

Hull City also share the MKM Stadium with Hull rugby league club after the local council used its windfall from selling shares in Kingston Communications to build the £44million venue in 2002.

These remain, however, very much the exception, rather than the norm.

Wrexham Gateway is slightly different, in that the project was conceived in July 2019 — before Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney came on the scene — as a wider means to drive investment into the then-town.

A council report estimates the overall scheme will create 732 new jobs, have a gross value-added impact of £54.1m and result in £3 of public benefit for every £1 invested.

Completing the train station phase, which the council has pledged £8million towards as part of this week’s decision to reallocate funding, will also increase visitors to Wrexham by nearly 60,000 per year and increase spend retained in the local area by £3m.

Presumably, the intended return of international football to Wrexham is a big part of those projected numbers?

Certainly, hence why bringing Wales matches — men’s and women’s — back to north Wales is such a big target.

The Racecourse enjoys a unique place in history, as the oldest international football ground still in use after first hosting Wales in 1877.But that status has not been enough to prevent Wrexham slipping off the radar when it came to hosting top stars such as Gareth Bale and Ryan Giggs.

Since a 3-0 win for Norway in Wrexham 15 years ago, just one senior international match — a friendly against Trinidad & Tobago in March 2019 — has been staged in the city, a crowd of 10,326 watching a second-string Wales claim a late 1-0 win.

Considering the decay that set in before the arrival of Reynolds and McElhenney, as personified by the crumbling state of the closed Kop terrace before it was demolished, Wrexham could have few complaints at being usurped by the Cardiff City Stadium since the 33,000 capacity venue opened in 2009.

Even if this meant supporters based in the north of the country faced a 300-mile round trip to the capital when wanting to cheer on the national team.

The new Kop stand, however, will be a game-changer, with Wrexham once again able to take its place on the roster of venues capable of hosting international football.

(Top photo: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)