American Wrexham fan Dana Burkey was over the moon to receive a ticket to the Stockport game recently. However, she was ridiculed online after the team was beaten 5-0. Nevertheless, she stayed upbeat and vowed to return again sometime.
Wrexham’s global popularity has soared in recent years thanks to the co-ownership of Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. The Disney+ documentary Welcome to Wrexham has also attracted legions of new eyeballs to the club, who are not just as popular internationally as many Premier League clubs.
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Fan goes viral after getting her first ticket to see Wrexham
Wrexham had their pre-season tour in the US this summer, which undoubtedly spawned countless new fans. Dana Burkey, from Seattle, is one of those fans, who became of the club through the Disney+ documentary and Rob and Ryan’s ownership.
Dana recently managed to get her hands on a first-ever ticket to see The Red Dragons thanks to another fan who could not make the game.
Dana’s reaction to the getting the ticket went viral on social media as she was overcome with emotion.
‘From the moment I watched @WrexhamFX I feel in love with the team and town,’ she wrote. ‘Visiting has only enhanced that. Thanks to the insane kindness of @r77ulr I’ll be at the game today, cheering on the team in person. Words cannot express my extreme thanks!’.
American Wrexham fan travels almost 5,000 miles to see team lose 5-0
However, unfortunately for Dana, she got a ticket for the Stockport game, which was Wrexham’s heaviest defeat of the season. Isaac Olaofe scored a hattrick and the Welsh side were down 3-0 at halftime.
As a result, she became a bit of a target for people online mocking her for travelling all that way to watch Wrexham get thumped.
However, she made it clear she already had a trip to Europe planned and didn’t travel across the pond solely for the Wrexham game.
“Everyone online has made huge assumptions about me,” Burkey told The Athletic. “It makes me look like this weird, crazy American.”
“When people were saying things like, ‘I’d have a cry if I went to Stockport too,’ that was pretty funny,” she said. “But then people started to get really rude — ‘She’s an American fan, she’s fake, she’ll never be back…’ it went from just banter to really rude.”
Dana remained positive and vowed to be back at the Racecourse again
However, Dana remained upbeat and promised to return to the Racecourse again in the future.
She added: “The result wasn’t great but I got to experience the atmosphere; it was amazing… everyone had their heart in the game.”
“I’ll definitely be back and I’ll still support Wrexham,” she says. “I’m not going to let this one little moment ruin an otherwise great trip.”