Reproduced below is an article written by the crown prince of thoughtful football journalism, David Conn. Conn wrote the article back in July, when the petition to include our venerable old ground in the Local Development Plan was launched. You can read the original article here.
Wrexham fans have launched a petition for the Racecourse Ground to be protected by the local authority from being sold off without a replacement stadium being in place.
Besides being a North Wales sporting home of history, pedigree and now, following investment, some quality, the Racecourse Ground is also a symbol for all football fans of the need to protect clubs and their grounds from speculators seeking to make money out of them.
In 2005, Wrexham's administrator, David Acland of Begbies Traynor, won a crucial battle to have the ground saved from the bulldozers and returned to the club. It had been transferred to the ownership of a property developer, Alex Hamilton, who had bought the club for £50,000 and was threatening very seriously to throw the club off the site and sell it for retail. Hamilton, and his then partner, Mark Guterman, bought into Wrexham to make money out of the land the ground stood on - and they even signed an agreement to that effect.
"The management and control of the football club is to be on an equal control basis," their agreement stated, "with the main or sole objective to realise the maximum potential gain from the property assets of the football club for the benefit of [Mr Hamilton] and [Mr Guterman]."
I wrote a full account of the court victory which saved the ground, as a landmark for all football fans, here.
Wrexham supporters campaigned passionately over three torrid years then and have not forgotten how close their club, formed in 1872, came to being put out of existence and its ground flattened. The petition, organised by the Red Passion website is part of their ongoing campaign to make sure proper protection is in place to prevent the same kind of scheme being tried again.
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