Crusaders in positive news shock

Quote: Grendel "Kevin Ellis, late of the CELTIC Crusaders and currently on gardening leave from the Wrexham Facsimilies stated in his Glamorgan Gazette article that the gogs have given away thousands of tickets to schools.

THESE will appear in Turner's reports of ticket sales.

You may recall that he tried the same claims last year in the REAL Crusaders' inaugural home match, which settled around the 6,500 mark.

So perhaps this piece should be entitled

I don't know where Kevin Ellis got his facts from but no free tickets were given out in schools, or indeed any businesses. The Crusaders went around 30 plus schools to promote the game where Family Ticket vouchers were given out to allow families to pre-order tickets at an early bird price (as advertised on the website).

It was actually the second game which got 6,351 which was against St Helens.

The Gazette are going to be contacted by the club as it looks like that his claims are completely incorrect. I've not seen the article as yet.

Super League didn't take off in Bridgend last year for a number of reasons. A lot of freebies were given out for the first three matches (unlike this year in Wrexham) and it did get a lot of fans to go. However the team didn't win and they didn't come back.

Another big difference is that the Wrexham council have been outstanding in their help towards the Crusaders at every level. Again this is a contrast to the council in Bridgend who didn't do half as much for Super League. No posters were even put around the town, unlike Wrexham, until the Wales v England game which they said was "an event" and allegedly they said Super League wasn't.

The media has also been outstanding in Wrexham. Three pages devoted in the Daily Post today to the Crusaders game for example. Glamorgan Gazette were good but Bridgend suffered from not having a daily paper and the local dailies didn't support it as much as they should have. Down south, there's still that union v league pre-1995 mentality which doesn't exist as much in North Wales.

Obviously Wrexham FC are also in full support and are crosspromoting the products well. Again a vast contrast to Bridgend for one reason or another. Had the move to Newport succeeded then I know the Dragons were also keen to cross promote.

All sad but true. I know that people from Bridgend and the surrounding areas gave the club a lot of support. Problem was that the club needed a lot more, from all quarters.