A Millennium Stadium for North Wales

By IAN St JOHN

24 August 2007

THE final design and plans for the redevelopment of Wrexham FC's football stadium could be submitted to council chiefs within the next two weeks.

Club bosses have revealed that they expect to send the revised plans for The Racecourse to Wrexham Council in the middle of September.

Those plans include proposals for the rebuilding of the Kop stand at the Mold Road stadium, which club bosses have confirmed will have up to 5,000 seats.

This will mean The Racecourse will, in time, have a 15,000 all-seater capacity, boosting the campaign to turn the stadium into "the Millennium Stadium of the North".

Co-owners Neville Dickens and Geoff Moss and chief executive Anthony Fairclough gave an update on how the redevelopment plans were progressing during a recent question and answer session with the Wrexham Supporters' Trust.

The plan includes selling land behind the Kop to developers for the building of flats. Club chiefs insist the plan will secure the future of Wrexham FC.

They revealed they expect to complete on the sale of the land to the developer by January or February next year.

Asked about the redevelopment plans, they said: "The final design and plans for both the redevelopment and the new stand has almost been completed, and we expect the revised plans to be submitted to the planning department in September."

Funding for the new stand is expected to come from the Football Foundation and public funding and club bosses revealed that although replacing the Kop stand is their priority, they hope to eventually replace the Yale stand as well.

The trust was told that the new Kop stand, dependent on funding being available, will take two years to complete.

And asked about how they would like the relationship between the club and the trust to develop, they said: "We would obviously like the relationship between the trust and the club to continue to progress with the aim of taking the club higher. To do this we all need to work together to make it happen.

"However, what we need the trust and fans to realise is that the financial capping that is now enforced by Football League rules means that the club has to gain as much turnover as it can to maximise on players' wages to get the best players in at Wrexham and playing for the club.

"That means we need fundraising to be generated by the club. To do this we need your help and support."

Phil Wynn, a member of the Wrexham Supporters' Trust board, said the progress being made on the plans appeared to be positive.

He said: "I will be looking forward to seeing the revised plans. Hopefully they are not controversial and will go through planning quickly. I am also looking forward to moving on to phase two when we can discuss with the owners their medium and long-term plans for Wrexham FC."