As FX's Emmy-winning docuseries “Welcome to Wrexham” kicks off its third season on Thursday (streaming the next day on Hulu), our intrepid heroes are preparing for their first season in English soccer's fourth tier. after 15 years in the semi-professional National League.
Financing the team's rise and saving the unfortunate Welsh city where the club plays was the goal of the series when actors Rob McElhenney (“It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) and Ryan Reynolds (“Deadpool”) came up with the idea of buying Wrexham AFC during the pandemic.
So when the club, the third-oldest professional team in the world, was promoted last April (and, spoiler alert, was promoted again this month to the third-tier League One), shouldn't it have been a closure? Wasn't that time to roll the credits?
Not necessarily. Because now the objective has changed.
“That's the beauty of sport. You just don't know where it's going to end up,” said McElhenney, a die-hard fan of Philadelphia's professional sports teams. “Our ultimate goal is to build a sustainable model that allows us to not only get to the Premier League, but also stay in the Premier League and eventually win the Premier League and be in the Champions League.”
To put that in perspective, in American sports that would be like taking a rookie league baseball team and turning it into the New York Yankees, if baseball had promotions and relegations, which it doesn't. So there really is no comparison.
But since McElhenney and Reynolds come from an imaginary world where nothing is impossible, why not dream big? Well, for starters, this isn't some Hollywood script where the boy gets the girl and evil never wins. There is no guarantee that “Welcome to Wrexham” will have a happy ending.
But it wouldn't be wise to bet against that.
“That's part of the tactic here. “You are surrendering to fate,” Reynolds said. “You can't write the script in advance. You can only work as hard as humanly possible to put the best club and infrastructure on that pitch and that's what makes it attractive. That we don't have that kind of control.
“And in football, as in life, anything can happen.”
Also in football, just like in life, spending a lot of money can improve your odds. And McElhenney and Reynolds have spent a lot of money. It cost them more than $2.5 million to buy the team and another $4.7 million to buy back full ownership of the team's historic stadium, according to published reports.
They also spent on players. Paul Mullin, the league's top scorer in Wrexham's last two seasons in the fifth-tier National League, and his teammate Ben Tozer each earned more than $5,000 a week, about three times the league's average salary. league. Two others reportedly earned $3,700 a week.
That was pronounced in the National League, one that had been made up of small-town teams often owned by local businessmen who were not backed by Hollywood studios. But it's also perfectly legal, since the league has no salary cap or fair play protections.
“Right now, it's not a level playing field,” Jim Parmenter, president of National League club Dover, told The Athletic last spring.
In the first episode of season 2, McElhenney and Reynolds are told that Wrexham lost $12 million in their first season despite leading the league in attendance. However, they continued to spend to buy promotion to League 2 later that season, something they make no apologies for.
Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney, left, celebrates with Wrexham's Elliot Lee after a match against Stockport on Saturday.
(Jon Super / Associated Press)
“The rules and regulations of these leagues are really prescriptive,” Reynolds said. “You have a very clear set of boundaries and rules to work within. And I think all teams are encouraged to work as hard as possible and do as much as possible within those margins.
“That is exactly what we have been doing with Wrexham. You can hate me, you can hate Rob, but it's quite difficult to be against this city and what they've been through for so many decades and what this club has meant to this city. “So we will do everything humanly possible to keep Wrexham progressing and growing in the global football community.”
Furthermore, Wrexham is not the only club or community that has benefited. According to the Athletic, 22 of the 72 teams in the Championship, League One and League Two (in the second, third and fourth tiers of English football) are wholly owned or have minority investors from the US, and 14 of them are experiencing new investment since the actors took control of Wrexham in February 2021.
Thanks to the docuseries approach, League 2's profile has never been higher. And that meant higher salaries, more interest and bigger crowds, with three teams topping 10,800 per game heading into last weekend, about double the league average last season.
The TV show, Wrexham's summer tour of the US – a trip to be repeated in July – plus sponsorship deals with United Airlines and others could push Wrexham's turnover this season to more than £25m. dollars, almost four times more than just two years ago. . This is a rising tide that will lift all boats in League 2 and, presumably, the upcoming League 1 season.
He has already lifted Wrexham: the team and the town, who were going through difficult times when McElhenney and Reynolds took the risk, came to the rescue and raised the hopes and self-confidence of both.
“You know, there are just no sure things. That's why in this sport they have the great expression giant killers,” Reynolds said. “I think what surprises me most about this whole experience, apart from how open and vulnerable the people of Wrexham have been in telling their story, is how romantic this game is.
“Before Wrexham, most of my exposure to soccer came from watching the Canadian women's team. I saw glimpses of it in those women who fought for their country and their sport. But boy have I seen it in Wrexham and in this sport in general.
“It's just the most romantic thing in the world.”
Why would anyone want to see that ending?
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