Wrexham AFC

I am a powerchair user and my husband is a white cane user. This was our first visit to the SToK Racecourse Stadium as away fans, travelling in an accessible mini-bus that is part of our Club’s official away travel. It also happened to be Wrexham’s first match in the EFL for 15 years. The presence of 1,115 away fans, a sell-out crowd, we suspect was the biggest away crowd at the stadium for some time and as a consequence, it understandably sometimes felt a bit disorganised, not helped by pouring rain. We suspect going forward, the teething problems we encountered may well be ironed out. Not least because Kerry Evans, Wrexham’s DLO has a fantastic reputation nationally for what she has achieved at Wrexham, she also happens to be a lovely person who as she promised, came to see me during the match and was eager to hear our experiences so she could improve on them. This is a link to a video that Kerry made last season which shows all the accessibility features at Wrexham for both home and away fans far better than I can write about them and is well worth watching.

Arrival and Entry to the Ground
We were informed that there was no parking at the ground even for the players coaches but paid for parking is available in the university car park next door and that is where the away coaches will drop off and pick up. As it was, our mini bus was allowed to park at the University. Rather than being next door, it appeared to us that the stadium was on the university campus! Hence it was a very short distance from where we were dropped off to where we entered the away end of the stadium, along a diagonal path to where there was some stadium seating bizarrely on the outside of the stadium. We entered by a gate just to the left of this with the away turnstiles just a little further over. Our bags were not searched but we think those going through the turnstiles were, as I saw security tags on bags.

Seating Area
A 2-level wheelchair platform with 12 spaces with fixed companion seats alongside, some single seats, some two together, was installed last season in the away end. Once in the ground, it was a straight path up a steady incline, to a through floor lift on the left which had two doors that pulled open from the middle to get to the upper level of this new platform. My 6-wheel power chair only just fitted in but I needed to remove the bag from the back of it. It would have been helpful for the steward operating the lift to have known this and warn me accordingly as my bag was ripped in the process. It was not a particularly long ascent but you do need to be able to keep the button pushed in for the whole time. If anyone was unable to do this, they would need to sit on the lower level. Access to the lower level is via a ramp just beyond the lift, which I understand is the route for all away fans getting to their seating at the left of the wheelchair area and behind. I thought this arrangement might be a disturbance for those on the lower level but I did not observe any such problems. The view of the pitch from both levels is uninterrupted. I was the first person to use the lift, when the person after me used it, it got stuck and they had to wait in the lift whilst the electrician was called to sort it (not that long). By this time, I was needing the loo (it would have been useful to have been told the location of the loo before I used the lift) so I could have chosen what order I did things in. The lift then failed again and people had to fuss around with it to get it working (I did wonder how much this was due to stewards being unfamiliar with it as they did seem quite stressed out about it), after this it worked all afternoon without any more problems. When it rains you do get wet and the stewards handed out ponchos to those who wanted them.

This split level platform worked well for wheelchair users but seemed to work less well for non wheelchair users who needed flat access seating. One person, who had not booked accessible tickets because she told me she did not know she had to, was told that she could not enter with her walking frame, which was taken off her and stored by the toilet for the game, leaving her to negotiate quite a few steps, some of which were so slippery in the rain that people were falling on them, stewards were desperately trying to dry them and worn everyone of the dangers. I also saw two people sitting on their walking frames for the match on the wheelchair platform as there were no other seats available for them.

Audio Match Commentary
We emailed wxmdsa@gmail.com as advised to reserve a headset for my husband and arrangements were made which resulted in the headset being brought to us in the stadium. The commentators before KO acknowledged (that somewhat unusually) they had an away fan listening ,who they welcomed (always a nice touch). My husband said that the commentary was excellent, in that it was audio descriptive, which is not always what is provided. My husband particularly liked the audio tour of the ground they gave before KO, so he knew exactly where he was in relation to them and even that the mascots were waving flags at the tunnel.
Accessible Toilets
There was a large accessible toilet on the right almost opposite the lift at the same level as you entered the away end. Very spacious and clean. I initially had problems locking it, there were two different locks on it but I could not get either to work, a helpful steward showed me it was the larger gold colour one. Others have since told me they had problems both locking and unlocking the door with one telling me someone opened the door whilst they were using the loo after he believed he had locked it. There was a very sophisticated looking hot water tap operated by a non-touch sensor but I could not get any water out of it. Kerry Evans the DLO at Wrexham, came to see me during the match and when I mentioned this, she explained the toilet had only been delivered the previous week and they were waiting a replacement door as the order had been for one with a radar key. Kerry undertook to get the hot water tap looked at which she had not been aware was not working. I noted that the toilet was stoma friendly apart from not having a medical waste bin, only a sanitary bin.

Catering
There was a catering kiosk to the left of the lower wheelchair platform and I am told one at the back of the stand. There were moans that they were not initially open and were inadequate for the number in the stand, particularly the one at the rear of the stand with very long queues. The one by the wheelchair stand was only able to take cash payments until apparently 2 minutes before KO when a card reader appeared. All the reports were that refreshments were of a high standard and reasonable. We paid £2.70 for a coffee. No “at your seat service” (as advertised) which would have made it easier given the two routes to it from the upper wheelchair level were either the lift or stairs.

Stewards
All the stewards we encountered were friendly and helpful, albeit a few seemed frustrated through not being given clear information about how things would work and some had got very wet in the pouring rain.

Leaving the Stadium
No problems. By the time we had all the wheelchair users strapped down and we were ready to go, all the traffic had disappeared despite it being a capacity crowd.

Overall
We would happily go again and recommend it to other disabled fans. The second visit is always easier when you know where things are. That said, you cannot fail to be impressed by all the provisions that Kerry has put in place at Wrexham and with her commitment and drive, you are confident that the experience for disabled fans at Wrexham (home and away) will continue to get even better than they are already.

I Phoned Wrexham prior to the match & booked a wheelchair space with a carer, I paid for these and was told to collect them from the club shop.

There were no parking spaces available but I was told we could park at the University next door.

We had a pre match meal at the “Squire Yorke” a Fayre & Square pub.

Arriving at the ground and parking, I went to the club shop to collect our tickets, this was wheelchair friendly and I bought programmes in there too.

I wasn’t sure where we went into the ground so I asked a very helpful steward who didn’t know but went to find out.

He said if David could get out of his wheelchair and into a seat. We could sit in the lower tier below our own fans, as there wasn’t space for a wheelchair. He declined this so was told to go to the opposite side of the ground and enter through a gate with the home fans.

On entering a steward scanned our tickets and told us where the disabled toilets were and the refreshment bar and said another steward at pitchside would show us where to sit. There wasn’t a steward there but I asked a Wrexham staff member and he called a steward over. We sat at pitchside with the Wrexham wheelchair fans and carers who were very friendly. I asked another carer about the fabulous wheelchair platform I had read about. She pointed it out but it didn’t look much. She said it only held about 6 wheelchairs and as they had a lot more than 6 wheelchair fans, they had to take it in turns to sit up there. Just before kick off a steward asked us if we would like to sit up there as someone hadn’t turned up. David declined this as it was a nice sunny day and we had a good view from where we were. Had the weather been wet, we might have taken up his offer as at pitchside we would have got very wet.

A nice friendly club and a good day out, and we even got a free team sheet.

Letter from Kerry Evans to Wrexham FC CEO Don Bircham

Dear Mr Bircham,

I am a Disabled season ticket holder at Wrexham FC .

I felt the need to put pen to paper and write this letter, after watching a matche on the new disabled platform’s viewing area. I was absolutely blown away by the view as soon as we stepped onto the platform, it really is incredible.

I cannot put into words how outstanding the viewing experience for disabled fans now is at your club and Wrexham FC and The Disabled Supporters Association should be highly applauded for their efforts.

As a disabled lady who is paralysed I feel the cold more than most and when the weather was very bad on some occasions last year we were unable to attend matches as, sitting on the front row would have been far too cold and wet but now disabled supporters have the option to attend the matches even on bad weather days and stay warm and dry.

People mainly only write a letter when they want to complain about something and I’m a great believer that if something deserves praise then you should write to tell people, and I really did feel the need to write this letter.

I felt enormously humbled sitting there that people have gone to such enormous lengths to do this for disabled fans. As a disabled person I am far more used to facilities not being in place to accommodate me in all sorts of venues and visits to places not being possible because of my chair, so to have this wonderful treatment really is out of this world.

I’m sure I’m speaking on behalf of every disabled fan at Wrexham Football Club by saying we are absolutely delighted with the efforts you have gone to and very much appreciate how you have made disabled fans so welcome at your club, and I for one am proud to be a season ticket holder at Wrexham Football Club.

I wish you every success in raising the money for further platforms.

Many thanks,

Kerry Evans