Pilot_Phonic Regarding our ground, the stand you're in is a permanent temporary measure - let me explain. Years ago when the kop was opened the away end was always behind the goal. When we played Boston at the end of 2006-07 season, a relegation battle decided who went down and who stayed up, we wanted to cram as many home fans in as possible. Cue a crowd of over 13k for it. When we got relegated, the kop stand was deemed unsafe and our rogue owners didn't want to spend money on it to re-open it, which meant the stand was left to rot. After years of years of being in non-league, and not having the funds to buy quality players to get us promoted, and very few away fans came (Histon brought a whopping 0 fans to our game once) , having a 2 sided home ground was not viable so the stand behind the goal became a home end.
Fast forward to now - we are waiting for everything to fall into place so our kop can get built. The end result will be the fans behind the goal will move to our new kop stand, thus giving the stand behind the goal back to away fans. Once that is complete, then the next phase i'd imagine will be the Yale stand (Wrexham Lager stand). Currently, the Yale stand is showing its age (been up since around '76) so that really does need a lot of tlc/potentially be upgraded.
I know future plans will have the dugouts moved to the other side of the ground - again that was meant to be done this close season but didn't).
At present, we are not allowed to serve alcohol to away fans as the kiosk is in view of the pitch. So you can blame the law/FA rules for that one. Oh, and last I heard was Wrexham Lager isn't even sold in the stand anywhere for home fans either, which is extremely odd!
I assumed improvements were being made at the ground. The stand opposite looks modern (late-90s/2000s?) and the temporary stand behind the goal (I'm guessing that's the Kop) would be next in line to be completed (obviously, being temporary); I was aware the Kop (as a terrace) had been closed on safety grounds, so having a temporary stand there is an improvement. I'm guessing from what you'd said, you've not got planning permission on its replacement yet; any idea how far along that is?
As you point out, it showing its age. You'd have to complete the Kop first before doing the Yale stand and you'd have to have a temporary measure with the changing rooms, etc. as that's all in that stand. That of course assuming you play at the Racecourse during that (I've seen Bristol Rovers may play a season away from their ground as they do redevelopment of their main stand, IIRC - talk is they'll play at Newport or Swindon if they have to temporarily move).
The biggest issue I had was seeing the far side of the pitch (
image), so required a lot of manoeuvring when the ball went out there. All that really needs to be done in the short term is give fans a warning that the back few rows have a restricted view as long as this set up remains. All the other issues are tolerable if it's not meant to be a permanent situation.
I'm guessing the problems with the ground are also a factor of rising through the divisions fairly quickly and the attendances rising suddenly; the infrastructure takes a lot longer to upgrade than the team (especially when trying to get planning applications approved). Most teams in the National League or League Two and a lot in League One won't bring enough fans for the limitations of that away section to be an issue. If we hadn't sold out, I would've simply moved lower down to see better.
You seem to be in a situation where the owners are very aware of the limitations and problems with the ground in its current state, so it's something which should get improved. It's not a situation where something needs to be done at the ground and the owners are refusing to do anything despite being able to. See QPR for example:
2013 in the Premier League and
2018 in the Championship - at that point they shouldn't even be selling tickets in those seats (as those are insulting).
Have you got any idea how much the ground holds at the moment? Going into the season it seemed to have a capacity of 12,600, but the crowd was 13,322 yesterday.