Now that the whole word, or at least millions of non-British television viewers, have discovered Wrexham AFC, many of them are determined to see a game there. So, how do you buy Wrexham tickets?

The short answer is, because of all the attention now on the club, it’s very difficult. Unless you go down an illegal and sketchy path, the odds of getting one Wrexham home ticket are very slim, and the odds of getting two or more together are virtually nil.

So let’s get into it, starting with a brief introduction to soccer tickets in England — for even though Wrexham is in Wales, they play in the English league system.

English Football Tickets: How Does This Work?

Clubs allocate tickets in three stages, explained in the video above: first to season ticket holders, then to club members — often ranked by loyalty points from previous purchases — and then to the public in what’s called General Sale.

Normally, at a National League club like Wrexham, General Sale extends pretty much up to kickoff — ie, you can walk up and purchase on the day. If it’s a big game in the FA Cup or something, maybe not. That’s life in the fifth tier — and here’s an explanation of the leagues and cups of English football.

But what’s happening at Wrexham is far from normal.

Roger Cornfoot / Main stand, Racecourse Ground, Wrexham. Via Wikimedia Commons

Buying Wrexham Tickets: Demand Off the Charts

At this point, there’s no such thing as General Sale for Wrexham tickets.

The club quit selling regular memberships for this season at 10,000 — literally the current capacity of their stadium. So do the math: If, say, 7,000 of those 10,000 seats are season ticket holders — another number that will have jumped as soon as the new Hollywood ownership showed up — and the away team gets about 1,000 tickets, then that leaves 10,000 members trying to get 2,000 tickets to a Wrexham home game.

Oh, and they are still selling international memberships, as well.

Also, it’s one ticket per member. So if you want two tickets together, than both of you have to get a ticket — hard enough — and also coordinate to get tickets next to each other.

So how do you buy a Wrexham ticket? You get a membership, find out when the member sale starts, log in, and hope for the best.

How Not to Buy Wrexham Tickets

At this point, many people reading this will think one of two things: Why don’t I go to StubHub or something, and Why don’t I just show up and get one outside the ground?

The answer to both is the same: It’s against UK law. And in the latter case, selling tickets on the street outside a game is very uncommon in the UK.

I would also add that it exacerbates a problem which Hollywood has already brought to Wrexham, both with tickets and Wrexham gear: it drives up prices, creating an incentive for season ticket holders and members to resell at a profit, all of which makes it that much harder for longtime local fans to see their club play.

My Experience With Buying Wrexham Tickets

I’ve been to more than 200 games at over 120 grounds around the UK and Europe, and at some point I would have made my way to Wrexham, anyway. But with all this interest, and since Groundhopper Guides exists to explain the world of football to non-Brits, I figured I would move them up the list.

So I got an international membership, logged in at the right time for a home game, and scored a ticket in the upper row corner. Then there was a rail strike and I couldn’t get there. So the ticket office was nice enough to take that one back, issue a refund, and get me a ticket to another home game. But then there was another rail strike and the pitch was frozen!

So again I logged in, got lucky, and got a ticket to the Woking game the last weekend in January. But Wrexham advanced in the FA Cup, with a home game against Sheffield United, which moved the Woking game to a date I couldn’t make — and the Cup game sold out in less than 10 minutes!

Stockport County, who beat Wrexham for promotion last season, is an excellent place to see a game.

Can’t Buy Wrexham Tickets? Here are Some Alternatives

It’s human nature to see an engaging story on the screen and want to see it for yourself. But understand two things about Wrexham and “Welcome to Wrexham”: One, the version of the town and club you saw in Season One no longer exists; it’s been replaced by a glamorous, much-in-demand and on-the-rise club where tickets are almost impossible to get and tourists are everywhere.

The second thing is that clubs like Wrexham, clubs well below the Premier League which are the hubs of their communities, where Hollywood has not arrived, are literally all over the map. Just in my travels, I would highly recommend clubs you may recognize from the show: Stockport County, Notts County, Fleetwood Town, Peterborough, and Portsmouth are just a few such clubs where you can have an authentic, traditional experience, get tickets easily, and not be surrounded by fellow tourists.

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