The Wrexham Effect: Could Wrexham's popularity in America lead to MLS promotion and relegation?
There are so many soccer documentaries available to watch on streaming services that it is difficult to quantify the number. There are even more soccer documentaries lost to time on VHS and DVD. If you don't know what a VHS or DVD is, ask your parents.
Standing head and shoulders above all of the soccer documentaries ever made are two: Sunderland 'Til I Die and Welcome to Wrexham. Coincidentally, had Sunderland 'Til I Die not been made and a global pandemic not happened, Welcome to Wrexham would never have been created.
Sunderland 'Til I Die helped influence It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator Rob McElhenney to find a financial partner to buy a soccer club. If you have watched Welcome to Wrexham, which you probably have, then you know the story.
The Welcome to Wrexham series did exactly what Ryan Reynolds and McElhenney wanted it to do. It raised the club's profile, making it far more global than even some teams in the Premier League. In the summer of 2023, Wrexham's growing brand will see the club compete against Manchester United in a pre-season friendly in San Diego. The Red Dragons could have the same number of fans in attendance on the day as the Red Devils (with large numbers of both sets of supporters being from North America).
Wrexham's appeal to an American audience is a bit shocking for those of us cynical soccer writers in the United Kingdom. Sure, America loves underdog stories, but can they really thrive amongst a fanbase of Yanks?
One of the great aspects of Welcome to Wrexham is that it doesn't sugarcoat football in the UK. There is an episode about hooliganism, which for someone who has seen it up close, was difficult to watch. That particular episode showed North American audiences something different from what they are used to in soccer. Major League Soccer is squeaky clean, perfect for soccer fans that want to enjoy a good time.
Welcome to Wrexham reinforced that soccer isn't entertainment to fans in the UK and Europe. It is a way of life. There is an episode of the hit show in which life-long fan Shaun Winter explains to his sons that their grandfather's ashes were scattered on the playing surface of the Racecourse Ground. Many soccer clubs around Europe offer the supporters the chance to have their ashes scattered on the pitch. That is how close fans are to the clubs. They are fans in life and death.
Wrexham could be the biggest and best thing for American soccer. Although the Red Dragons may not be what Major League Soccer wants, the Welsh club could be exactly what fans of lower league soccer in the States need. Wrexham play in the National League, the fifth tier of English soccer, far from the bright lights and big money of the Premier League.
For some, it may be difficult to understand how far from the Premier League Wrexham actually are. Spending in the league continues to grow and it all started a few years ago when Salford City, owned by the Class of '92, were promoted to the division. Salford City are now in League Two, the fourth tier, thanks to their spending power. Still, the fifth tier of English football isn't fully professional. Some teams are part-time, but with the amount of money now being invested in the league, most are fully paid professional squads. The pay differs from club to club, and Wrexham's spending has exceeded that of their rivals.
In the United States, there has long been a desire from a section of fans for promotion and relegation. The mundane nature of MLS and the closed competition has American soccer fans wanting something more, something in line with the leagues they see on television across the Atlantic. The boring, long regular season of MLS is a major turnoff to traditional fans and the short interest shown by fans in Apple TV's new broadcasting of the league proves the league struggles to hold onto fan excitement.
The romanticism of Wrexham and the club's plight to achieve promotion to League Two, and ultimately the Premier League, could lead soccer policymakers in the US to introduce promotion and relegation. Unfortunately, the gatekeepers of American soccer are not currently interested in making the MLS more exciting.
The amount of money wealthy owners would lose due to relegation is incredibly high. Every season in England, relegation from the Premier League leaves teams in dire financial straits as they work to budget money over the next few seasons.
Parachute payments following relegation, made to ease the transition, aren't enough to keep teams from making cuts to staff on and off the pitch. Now, imagine the financial restraints clubs have down the football pyramid. In 2021-22, Oldham Athletic, one of the founding members of the Premier League were relegated to the National League, the same division Wrexham play in. The Owls had been slipping down the pyramid for years before ending up in the fifth tier for the 2022-23 campaign. Their decline isn't likely to end, even if they remain in the National League at the end of the current season.
America has a vast soccer landscape with 29 MLS teams and far more in the lower leagues of the country. Unfortunately, soccer in the US is a wild west, with teams coming and going nearly every season. Yes, it has got better, but the fact that teams can pop up and disappear just as fast is a major problem. A team outside of MLS managing to exist for five or 10 years is a major coup. Just this year, Jamie Vardy's soccer experiment in the States came to an abrupt end, as the former Rochester Rhinos, more recently known as Rochester New York City FC, called it quits.
The problem with promotion and relegation in American soccer is the fans. The hardcore fans and fans of European soccer would embrace it, but the casual fans likely wouldn't. Those fans aren't conditioned to promotion and relegation, and most have no concept of it. In American sports, the worst teams are rewarded with the top draft picks rather than punished for being bad. Meanwhile, the best teams are rewarded with trophies but not the best players to remain elite.
Welcome to Wrexham may have made Americans fans of a Welsh club they didn't know about previously. It may have also opened eyes to soccer outside of the Premier League and provided interest in the intricacies of British and European soccer. However, it is unlikely to influence the gatekeepers of American soccer to address the issues that would make the game more exciting for fans and potentially make new ones.