Phil Parkinson made his feelings clear about the fact that Wrexham will need to go through stadium changes throughout the 2025/26 Championship season.
Wrexham will be competing in the Championship in the upcoming campaign, which will prove to be the biggest challenge for Phil Parkinson’s side yet.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have helped the club rise through the lower EFL divisions. Still, they will find out the drastic leap between League One and Championship football in terms of quality, something that Wrexham are having to prepare for, both in the short and long term.
Whilst Wrexham will no doubt splash the cash on additional signings to help them prepare for next season, they are also continuing with the ongoing stadium works, which will eventually replace the temporary Kop.
Speaking about the changes set to be made, Parkinson is optimistic but isn’t too pleased with one thing.
Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson speaks about changes to The Racecourse Ground ahead of the Championship season
Wrexham are aiming to have a new 5,500-seater Kop stand towering over the Racecourse Ground by the summer of 2026. Whilst the long-term benefits of such an improvement can’t be downplayed, it will mean that the temporary stand will need to be removed ahead of the upcoming campaign.
When asked about the fact that Wrexham will have to remove the temporary stand ahead of the 2025/26 season, per Leader Live, Parkinson said: “Unfortunately, nothing can be done about that.
“Other grounds have had to do the same and there is no other way around that.
“It is going to be different next season but we have had a few different feels at that end of The Racecourse over the last three or four years.
“The most important thing is that the ground is going to be getting to where it needs to be for the division we are operating in.
“It was a great idea when we got the temporary stand put up.
“I felt it enhanced the atmosphere a lot.
“I am sure it was cost effective in the end with filling out most weeks, unless the weather was particularly bad, and it was great for us.”
New Kop stand shows where Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s priorities lie
Since Reynolds and McElhenney joined the club, one of the first things they were alarmed by were the conditions of the stadium – it didn’t take them long to demolish the out-of-use original Kop stand.
Whilst it didn’t look too out of place in the National League, the ground was not fit for purpose in the Championship and above, and whilst such decisions were made when Wrexham were in the 5th tier, it shows that the owners already knew that their lofty ambitions of reaching the top would be met.
Some owners in the EFL would be looking to create revenue in the short term, but Reynolds and McElhenney have always built for the future, a reason why Wrexham have been so successful in recent years.