Shops and scoreboards

Red Passion has recently received a letter from a supporter based in London regarding problems experienced with the club's on-line shop facility (see page 14). The supporter in question wanted to purchase full home kits for two members of his family but unfortunately was unable to contact the club and despite leaving several messages, his calls were not returned. While he was fortunate in subsequently being able to arrange for a locally-based family member to visit the club shop, this was potentially a lost sale to the club of almost £100. Firstly, the story demonstrates a lack of basic courtesy on the part of club staff by not returning the calls; but also, incidents of this nature do nothing to encourage people to use this new facility. If the club is unable to provide an on-line shopping service that deals with enquiries effectively and is convenient, efficient and permits secure financial transactions, then they will find that supporters will rapidly choose to ignore it. This may not be considered a problem by locally-based fans, but to the significant number of supporters exiled to other parts of the country, and indeed the world, the on-line shop represents an easy means of purchasing merchandise and consequently generates money for the club that might not otherwise be received. 

Still on the subject of the shop - this time the physical one - there appears to be a lack of publicity surrounding the merchandise on sale. I realise that since Cindy Toth has taken over the reigns at the Commercial Department, there have been new lines introduced and old ones deleted. Unfortunately, this information is not always filtering down to fans. I recently went in and was not the first fan to be surprised to find mobile phone covers on sale and copies of a review video of last season (£15). There is also now a club calendar on sale priced £6 (which unfortunately was not available in time for Christmas; it would have made an ideal stocking filler). 

The scoreboard has been up to its old tricks and is giving out misinformation once again. At the United game on January 4th it announced that the next home game would be against Bury on December 30th followed by a trip to Wigan on January 1st. It then realised that this info was infact out of date and went on to tell us that the next home game would now be against Aber on a date to be confirmed. Now I'm a little confused here…but if one doesn't know when the game is to be held, how the hell can you say that it is the next one to be played? And in any case, unless the game was arranged at very short notice (ie. to be played prior to the Bournemouth game on January 13th), this information is plainly incorrect. Also confusing was the declaration that executive boxes would be available for the Aber game, when everyone knows that the PGS does not even open for FAW games. If it meant to say the Sainsburys Stand executive facilities, it certainly didn't make it clear. 

On a more positive note, the Manchester United friendly was an absolute coup for the club, more so when reading that it was Sir Alex Ferguson who had actually asked us for the game - thus providing further evidence of the special relationship that has developed between the clubs since the Football League's second and third longest-serving managers came to power. For once, Wrexham did not freeze in front of a large Racecourse crowd and the superb second-half display will surely do more to encourage those stayaway fans - who ventured out for a look at United's stars - to return than any 'Wrexham 2000' initiative could. Another positive, if long overdue, initiative that the club has introduced is 'half-season tickets'. Starting at £115 for adults and a truly generous £29 for children, this is certainly a positive step to encourage younger supporters to the Racecourse for the second half of the season, at a time when things are starting to look up on the pitch. 

At Red Passion, we are told that Cindy Toth does read our comments in the fanzine and appears receptive to ideas that we put forward. It would be nice to receive a bit of feedback now and again on what the club actually think of suggestions put forward not just by Red Passion, but also by other supporters groups - all of whom spend a considerable amount of time promoting and raising money for the club they love - to convince us that the ideas we put forward are not in vain.

Paul Lindsay

It is now Red Passion’s policy to forward copies of this regular PR column to the club in the hope that it may feel able to respond to matters raised. So, the club has just received photocopies of the PR columns published in RP Issues 13-19. Watch this space.