Surfing for fun ...
Improvements Needed
Mark Williams, red-passion.com's WAP Master, finishes his review of the new official Wrexham FC website
If you go to the menu bar on the left, clicking on the 'News' icon takes you through to a list of news articles. I would suspect that this is the most visited page on the site, but subscribers to the Robins Review email news service will soon realise that the articles are similar. Some pieces are strange as well eg. one article informed fans that the players had a day off and went for a round of golf. Having visited many other official sites while researching for the 'Red Passion Match Day' feature, this kind of item is not what you come to expect from an official site. Also, there was a full-page piece on Colchester's Lua Lua and details of the forthcoming Wales Under-21 squad, which strangely included Giggs, Speed and Hartson. Now I'm sure those three players are over 21! The 'News' section also contains a website competition, where you have the chance to win a signed football. Unfortunately, you will not be able to enter the competition now…as the closing date was August 31st! I have entered the competition - but have heard no results as of yet. The 'Team' page consists of this season's team photo and a link to player profiles. Some of these are out of date (how many times have I used that phrase already?) For example, Kevin Hannon's profile says he made his senior debut against TNS in this season's FAW Premier Cup - but we don't play TNS in this season's Premier Cup!
The 'Matches' link takes you to a preview of the next Wrexham game. This contains details of the venue, and is particularly useful for away games. However, in the week leading up to the Walsall game it wasn't updated until the Friday afternoon. As one fan pointed out on the werxham@topica.com mailing list, this doesn't help the 'Wrexham 2000' initiative either. The 'Matches' section also includes information on fixtures, match reports, programmes and tickets. The match reports are comprehensive and include quotes and even an archive to the previous season. Strangely, the fixtures are split up competition by competition, rather than presented as a single list. When I did this review the league fixture list had one major error: it still had the Bournemouth game down as September 19th, even though we played them on the 26th. I hope no-one travelled down to the South Coast on the 19th! You will not be surprised to know that the 'Programme' page contains no details. Apparently, they are still compiling extracts from the Bristol City game, which was played on August 12th. The 'Tickets' page contains admission and season ticket prices for this season, but again contains an error. The away stand is still called the 'Marstons Stand'; I bet Eric Roberts Builders will not be happy about this considering the amount of sponsorship money they have paid! The 'Club Shop' page has a picture of Blackwood and Roche in the new kits - but the 'on-line shop' is still off-line. The 'Supporters' link gives you supporters club details and contacts and is a very useful resource for exiled fans. The 'Sponsorship' page is very disappointing and doesn't really sell the club to potential sponsors. It basically contains an e-mail address - so you can contact the Promotions Department - and examples of types of sponsorship eg. matchball. Why aren't there any pictures of sponsors enjoying their day out at the Racecourse or of the new European Suite in the PGS? There's also no price list - so companies have to contact the club direct. Surely the onus is on the club to sell itself to sponsors?
The 'Community' page is by far the best section on the website and Mark Morris and the rest of the Football in the Community team should be congratulated on their efforts. This section includes comprehensive details of the Junior Reds and other activities including the Saturday Club, soccer schools, birthday parties and ground tours. Well done! The 'Racecourse' option is the final part of the site and if you follow this link you are given details of the layout of the ground…but the away stand is still called 'The Marstons Stand' I hope Eric Roberts Builders aren't reading this - or looking at the website! The other pages in this section include: directions to the ground, a 'who's who' and details of ground regulations. The ground directions bit consists of two maps - but one has more detail on the Wirral than on Wrexham, with important roads such as the A483, A55, M53, and M56 not labelled. The 'who's who' section has details of all officials at the club - from the Chairman right down to the two groundsmen. There is also a photo of the nine directors - but you would have thought they could have smiled for their picture! Interestingly, as I write, the website gives the impression that the position of Commercial Manager is vacant - but I'm sure the club has appointed a successor to Allan Thomas! The ground-regs section spells out what laws will be enforced on a typical matchday, but it's not the sort of thing you would expect to see on a website.
Oh dear, Wrexham Football Club! What a poor effort you have made! I know this is your first effort at doing a website but it is still no excuse for the out-of-date articles and for the errors I have identified in this review. To improve the site, apart from correcting the errors, I would introduce a hit- counter so potential sponsors know how many hits the site gets daily. And if the advertising rates were publicised, you would be selling the club more. I know Cindy Toth will be improving the site in the near future and she contacted Red Passion to say that the official website would soon be carrying live score updates on matchdays. The main problem with the site for me is that once you have visited it, there is no real need to visit it in the future. It rarely contains anything of new interest and I know I am not the only fan who feels this way.