EXCLUSIVE
The dispute between Wrexham and Accrington Stanley erupted once again, this time live on talkSPORT!
Hollywood-owned Wrexham travelled to the Wham Stadium at the weekend for their League Two clash - a game they lost 2-0, however it was events on social media that caused a storm and stole the headlines.
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With Accrington increasing their ticket prices for all 5,261 fans in attendance - 2,587 of whom made the 75 mile trip up from Wrexham - from £20 to £25 for the match, the Welsh side took to X to announce that they would be reducing their prices by £5 for the return fixture at the Racecourse Ground.
That post was shared at 11am on Saturday morning, hours before the 3pm kick-off, and was liked by Ryan Reynolds, leading it to be viewed almost four million times.
That led Accrington owner, Andy Holt, to share a series of posts on X, taking aim at Wrexham and the Deadpool actor by saying: "Accrington 2 Hollywood 0. I think Ryan Reynolds should cut prices by a tenner. Safe journey home folks, get that on Netflix, Ryan lad."
With tempers flared between both clubs, Holt was invited to chat with Jim White and Simon Jordan to have his say on the weekend's fallout, but what followed was a big disagreement between three footballing powerhouses...
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Speaking on White and Jordan, Holt said: “Our ticket prices are £20 per game, but when we have a big police bill or expect a big police bill then we increase the price.
“That police bill comes about by the away club’s behaviour – not our behaviour, because we don’t get any police bills.
“So if the cost of selling a ticket is a fiver a ticket because of the increased cost, then it has to be paid by somebody, and I’m not paying it.”
He went on: “I’ve got nothing against Wrexham, the Hollywood owners and the rest of it, but if they think they’re going to get their kicks by tweeting about my club, one of the smaller clubs in the league, just because they’re in a good space, then it’s not going to work.”
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Simon Jordan replied: “Andy, I get the irritation about the manner in which they conducted themselves and I get it more in the fact they’ve done it before the game because it can inflame tensions, but what I don’t get is the commercial logic behind creating a situation around an additional cost that comes with a huge benefit.
“If your average attendance is 2,500 per game and an away support is bringing 2,500 down to inflate the revenues you get for the game, you charge £20 and you’re getting 2,000 more tickets than the average club does then you’re already bringing £40,000 of additional revenue in.
“If policing costs are £10,000, you’re still £30,000 better off as a result of them bringing more support than anybody else in the division.”
However Holt came back fighting, saying: “That’s like saying ‘if you bring a lot of fans we’ll reduce the ticket prices’.
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“If we charge £20 per ticket but the cost of selling the ticket is an extra fiver, we’d then get £15 per ticket.
“Next time you go and see Madonna, put in all of the costs and see if they’ll let you have the ticket for a lower price.
“I don’t know when it was put to them but at the start of the season it was always going to be a high-category game, we go through it with the leagues and that’s how it is.
“They had tickets for weeks in the offices, so they’ve known it [the prices].”
Responding to Jordan saying he understands the logic, Holt replied: “What are you arguing for, then?
“This is how I run a business, so it’s not a fight. I can charge what I want for a ticket – to anybody and everybody. It’s my club.”
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Asked how Shaun Harvey responded to the row, Holt said: “He just smirked when I called him about it.
“At the end of the day, they didn’t need to post about it and they didn’t need to retweet it to 21million of Ryan Reynolds’ followers.
“It just makes us out to be a thieving club or a club that takes money off fans.”
While Holt and Jordan respectfully agreed to disagree over the handling of the situation, Wrexham’s chief executive Shaun Harvey then joined talkSPORT to have his say on the club’s decision to announce that tickets would be £5 cheaper when the sides face off at the Racecourse Ground later this season.
Harvey said: “I don’t know if you can categorise it as cheeky. We made the decision that that was the action we were going to take in very much the same way as Andy’s entitled to charge the prices that he wants to charge.
“Just for the record, he increased the prices for Accrington fans as well, not just for Wrexham so there’s never been any suggestion that rules have been broken.
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“We took the decision to reduce the prices by £5 simply to compensate those fans who are having to pay £5 more to watch the game at the Wham Stadium.
“When did we make the decision? Probably Thursday or Friday that week.
“I’m sure we were informed what the ticket prices would be at the start of the season but whether it was explained that it was more than any other game at the Wham Stadium this season I doubt, although I have to reserve my position because I didn’t get the original email.”
However Jordan was quick to respond, saying: “You aren’t taking a commercial decision, Shaun. You’re taking a facetious decision.
“You’re taking revenue away from yourselves to make a point at the expense of Accrington and you know you are.”
Harvey responded: “We made the decision that we felt was appropriate and one that we were financially prepared to stand by,” to which Jordan said: “But you’re doing it at the expense of another football club.
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“You’re being facetious and you’re virtue-signalling to your own fans and the rest of football at the expense of Andy Holt who told you at the beginning of the season.
“You knew it and then you drop it on the eve of the game that you’re going to do something different so that Wrexham look great, Accrington look poor, and you create tension before a game which you know is not very good.”
“Andy’s made conscious decisions as well and Accrington have made decisions to increase the price and we’ve responded in a way that we felt was appropriate," said Harvey.
“I think we’re as entitled to make our decisions and announce those decisions as Accrington are.
“Social media has been full of the debate in relation to the increase of prices at Accrington long before fans turned up at the stadium on Saturday.
“Our fans have been making the point for a considerable period of time, as have Accrington fans who were also making the point, so this wasn’t just created on the morning of the game, this must have started when the conscious decision was made to increase ticket prices.
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“We agree with Simon that they shouldn’t have put the ticket prices up.”
Asked if he’ll be keeping the £5 deduction for the clash at the Racecourse Ground, Harvey said: “Absolutely!
“Andy will never be short of letting people know what his opinions are, so I don’t think we need to second guess what his thoughts on the matter were!”
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The return game between Wrexham and Accrington Stanley is due to take place on Saturday, March 2 at the Racecourse Ground.
Get your popcorn ready.