How much did Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney pay for AFC Wrexham?
This article originally appeared on my Soccer Travels blog in May.
On Saturday, I tuned into BT Sport at 6:30 pm UK time to watch Wrexham play Boreham Wood in their attempt to seal promotion from the National League to League Two. Spoiler alert, Wrexham won the match and achieved promotion.
It wasn't the first time this season or last season that I had set aside time to watch Wrexham play. Wrexham were a favourite of BT Sport and a large part of the sports broadcaster’s National League coverage. I had watched the Red Dragons several times on television, including their nil-nil draw the week before with Barnet. I’d even been to see the Red Dragons play in person, a 2-1 win over Altrincham at Moss Lane in February.
Even before the Welcome to Wrexham documentary, the best sports documentary I have seen, I was wrapped up in the excitement of a football club owned by Hollywood actors trying to return to prominence. It also helped that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is my favourite TV show and has been since first discovering it in the 2000s.
Wrexham are a Cinderella story
The excitement of Wrexham’s win was high in the United Kingdom. Although it seems to have hit even higher heights in the United States. On Monday, two days after Wrexham won the National League, I received a phone call from my brother. Unlike me, he couldn’t care less about football. He has no idea how the game is played. Yet, his first question was about Wrexham. He had seen American national news coverage about the club, and it sparked his interest.
My 74-year-old mother texted me a few hours later. She had seen the American national news coverage and asked me about Wrexham, too. How could a fifth-division football team in a small town near the border of England and Wales attract this much attention?
Wrexham is smaller than the city I grew up in, the generically named Springfield, Missouri. My brother and mother have lived hours away from a Major League Soccer team since 1996. Yet, they know more about a team over 4,000 miles away. Hell, my 9-year-old son even chooses to play with Wrexham on FIFA 23 despite being a mad Liverpool supporter. He knows information about their players in the same way as the footballers (Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson, Mohamed Salah) that adorn his bedroom walls on posters.
Wrexham was founded in 1864, making them the world’s third-oldest football club and the oldest in Wales. The club’s founding predates many of the world’s biggest teams.
It wasn’t until Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney arrived in town that the team looked capable of returning to the Football League. The Red Dragons were relegated to the National League in 2008, and until the R.R. McReynolds takeover of the club, it rarely flirted with promotion back to League Two.
How much did Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney pay for Wrexham?
Reynolds and Elhenney paid a mere £2 million for Wrexham in February 2021. The National League is an attractive division for new ownership groups.
Why?
Owners have the chance to heavily invest in their squads in the National League, while owners in League Two have more financial restrictions. It is a great way to buy a team, overhaul the squad, and build the infrastructure of the club before moving up the leagues.
The National League was once a division mostly made up of semi-professional clubs. Now, it is contested by mostly professional teams, with players being paid for their full-time service. Sure, players aren’t on the same wages as teams in the Premier League, but they are making more money than National League players did just a few years ago.
How much do Wrexham’s players earn?
It is rumoured Wrexham are paying £3m in wages to players and staff. It is an unheard-of figure for the fifth division of English football.
Wrexham’s top players earn a significant amount of money compared to players at rival clubs in the fifth division. In comparison with League Two, the division Wrexham will play in next season, it is believed the average salary for managers in the league is £50,000 per season. According to research, just 19 players in League Two make more than £200,000 per year.
*Figures are per week
Ben Foster – £4,500
Paul Mullin – £4,500
Ollie Palmer – £4,000
Ben Tozer – £3,000
Aaron Hayden – £3,000
James Jones – £3,000
For some reason, English football still lists players’ salaries as per week. Perhaps it is done by journalists or fans to show the disparities between a player’s weekly income and the “common person’s” wages. While in North America, salaries for professional athletes are always done by the season. It seems this is a holdover from a bygone era when players were paid at the end of each week.
Foster and Mullin, if their £4,500 salaries per week are correct, will bring home £234,000 for the season. Forty-year-old Foster only joined in late March after an injury to starting goalkeeper Rob Lainton ruled him out for the rest of the season. Foster, a former Manchester United player, may not continue with the Red Dragons next season.
The salary figures are unlikely to include any bonuses paid to the players. The entire squad would likely receive a sizeable bonus for winning the National League. Mullin would also receive extra money for leading the team in goals. Foster would likely have a clean sheet bonus.
If you didn't know already, many of the players in the Wrexham squad have the quality to play at a higher level. However, the money and the project have led them to the Racecourse Ground.
How much did the club earn from Welcome to Wrexham?
Based on reports, Welcome to Wrexham season 1 paid the club £4m. So, the documentary, which will have a second season with a Hollywood ending, will offset the owners’ spending.
There is also a high-profile summer tour of the US for Wrexham. The Red Dragons will play the Premier League’s Manchester United and Chelsea on the tour, and the game should bring in large crowds. There is more money for the team. How many League Two teams will tour the US this summer? Just one. Hell, no other team in the division is likely to leave the UK for a preseason tour.
Wrexham must now continue the momentum next season. Salford City were the previous big-spenders to reach the Football League. The team is owned by the Class of '92 (David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, the Neville brothers, and Ryan Giggs). Salford City have struggled since getting to League Two and have failed to achieve promotion to League One. It is something that could happen to Wrexham next season when the quality of teams increases.
The Red Dragons are still three promotions away from the Premier League. If the club earns promotion in each of the next three campaigns, it still wouldn’t play in the Premier League until 2026. That is an eternity in football. Will the world still care?