A fan from America spent £4.5k on a 4,000-mile trip to watch a non league team he fell in love with only for the game to be called off.
28 year old Ian Webb was left rather disappointed after he flew out from his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to see watch Wakefield AFC in action.
However, things didn’t play out how he had wanted, with bad weather putting a stop to him fulfilling that dream for a little while longer.
He made it his mission to go to West Yorkshire to watch a game having become ‘obsessed’ with the Northern Counties East Football League Division One outfit two years ago – when playing as the club on the Football Manager.
Fan spent £4.5k on 4,000-mile trip to watch non league team only for game to be called off
Across 18 months, he managed to save £4,500, so that he and his wife could make the trip across to West Yorkshire.
It ended up being postponed, as did the back-up game he’d lined up due to the horrid rain.
He said, as per the Daily Star: “I was certainly crushed. It was one of those things where you get a pit in your stomach. It had been raining most of the day, and it was coming down really hard.
“I think the disappointment was spread out of a few hours. As it kept raining more and more, I could tell that the game was definitely going to be postponed.
“It was really hard when I told my wife and got back to the hotel, saying ‘We are not going to be going to the game’. I felt a little bit emotional in that moment, but we had to move past it.”
On coming across Wakefield AFC: “I thought what’s the biggest city in England without a professional team? I thought maybe there’s a little club that can maybe fill some big boots.
“I Googled it and Wakefield came up. I saw there was a team there, which was semi-professional and founded in 2019, and I looked into that.”
Soon he became fascinated with the club’s fan culture and even got an invite to appear on the podcast ‘All Wakey Aren’t We’.
He added: “I fell in love with it… That’s how Wakefield became my favourite club.”
His wife agreed to fly out with him to the UK in October 2023, planned for go to a game while also making visits to York, Bath and London.
His plans first changed when a game set to the 21st of October was postponed due to scheduling issues.
Then it happened again with bad weather leading to the cancellation of the fixture on the 24th of October.
Ian said: “There was a Saturday game that the trip was planned around. We had built our trip around being in Wakefield for that weekend to see that home game.
“And then we heard that it was postponed because the other team made it to the next round of the cup. So they had to call it off. Then I moved my trip to Wakefield to the Tuesday for the away game, and then that one was waterlogged.”
Ian kept positive despite the setback, he still managed to get the chance of looking around the club’s premises, doing a tour with staff and went on to say there was something magical about grassroots football in England.
He said: “In America, big NFL stadiums with 60-80,000 seats are a dime-a-dozen. There’s something exciting about being in a huge, packed stadium and the energy that brings.
“But it’s an incredible corporate league, and you’re a customer, and it’s about ‘how many butts can we fit into these seats?’ and ‘how much can we charge?’ Ultimately, what has always been attractive about Wakefield is it’s more of a local, authentic experience.”
Ian plans on returning the England in the future, and finally fulfil the wish of watching an Wakefield AFC match.
He said: “The plan is to come back in a couple of years. The dream is to see Wakefield play in a pivotal game while they’re challenging for promotion. That would be incredibly exciting.”
Wakefield AFC was founded by a group of businessmen in 2019, however, the team never completed its inaugural season after the 19/20 campaign was abandoned during the Covid pandemic.
The club had significant debt from 2019 and 2021 and during the 21/22 season, they fell behind many financial obligations with the community.
In November 2021, VO2 Capital, a Connecticut-based family office took a majority interest at the club and managed to save them from folding.
VO2 Capital completed a takeover of the club, who sat 7th place with half a season to go.
Then straight after their takeover, VO2 Capital also announced a merger with Wakefield Trinity Ladies Football Club, which created a new women’s section for Wakefield AFC.
In January 2022, Chairman Guilherme Decca brought in Gabriel Mozzini, appointing him as first team manager with VO2 Capital re-organizing the club.
Mozzini managed to guide the club to 17 unbeaten games including 6 consecutive clean sheets to finish the season.
On the 14th of May 2022, Wakefield AFC won their first league title after beating Dodworth Miners at home in the last game of the season and was promoted to Northern Counties East League Division One.
In their first season at step 6 of non league, the club reached the playoff semi finals, losing to Rossington Main
But things were still looking good considering the significant changes that had been made, with debt reduced, and owners VO2 Capital paying off all the previous debt to the community (Barnsley and Wakefield Council as well as previous employees and providers).
2023-24 saw two major changes within the club organization, the clubs badge and visual identity refreshed.
And in the Summer 2023, they moved back to Wakefield to play at Belle Vue (Wakefield).
As off December 2023, they find themselves sitting 1st in the Northern Counties East Football League Division One, taking 53 points from 23 games played, and have an 80% year on year increase in crowds.
The club previously played their ‘home’ games at the Millennium Stadium of rugby league team Featherstone Rovers, but wanted to move to a stadium within the WF postcode area.
From the 2023-24 season, the club played in Wakefield through a groundshare at the Be Well Support Stadium with rugby league team Wakefield Trinity, with the ground expanding as can be seen below…
Understand Wakefield Trinity’s new stand is expected to be finally completed next week: pic.twitter.com/2JEUJwGZD3
— John Davidson (@johnnyddavidson) November 28, 2023
AS IT STANDS | It’s first versus twenty-first in tomorrow’s clash with the Falcons looking to extend their lead at the top of the table. Fans are reminded that tomorrow’s game is Pay as you feel. #AWAW #Falcons pic.twitter.com/paf9XERSJJ
— Wakefield AFC (@Wakefield_AFC) December 22, 2023
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