Crusaders Move To New Home
Super League club the Crusaders have made their move from south Wales to Wrexham.
Wrexham Football Club have taken the rugby league club over and they will play 11 of 13 home matches at the Racecourse, including the 29th January opener against Leeds.
The ex-Bridgend club, who had planned a Newport base in 2010, will play their other two home games in south Wales.
Wrexham chief executive Paul Retout says that the move opens up exciting possibilities.
‘Bringing Super League to Wrexham is akin to bringing Premiership football to Wales.
‘Crusaders rugby league really puts Wrexham on the map. It’s great news for the town, for Wales and for rugby league.
‘North Wales has been starved of major sporting success for too many years and we are confident we can achieve that success in Super League.’
Plans to move the club from Bridgend to Newport were scrapped when new investment failed to materialise and owner Leighton Samuel agreed to cut his losses by transferring the club to the Wrexham consortium.
The Crusaders hope that their two home games away from the Racecourse will help the club to maintain a Super League presence in south Wales and they will forge links with newly-formed Championship One club South Wales, who are based at Neath.
Crusaders beat off stiff competition from other, more established teams to win a three-year Super League franchise.
A big plus in their favour was their geographical location away from the north-west of England, with the Rugby Football League keen to grow the game.
But they endured a disappointing debut season in Super League, winning just three games in the league and facing the embarrassment of seeing six of their players deported for breaching visa regulations.
Crusaders, who have dropped ‘Celtic’ from their name, had to wait until May to record their first Super League win, but claimed the notable scalp of winning at big-guns Bradford.
Attendance peaked at a respectable 6,351 for the 4-0 loss to St Helens, but generally the fan numbers hovered around the 3,000 mark.
