Inside Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s Great Wrexham Gambit

September 4, 2022 6:18 AM

What happens when two Hollywood actors who know nothing about soccer football buy a middling pro team in Wales? GQ’s Tom Lamont spent a season following football's newest fans to find out.
posted by ellieBOA (16 comments total)

Real life mimicking a let's play
posted by lakhim at 6:32 AM on September 4, 2022

That LP author needs to sue Apple or whomever makes Ted Lasso for biting their prior art
posted by Apocryphon at 7:06 AM on September 4, 2022

Or the Pro Vercelli saga (previously, x2)
posted by emmling at 7:08 AM on September 4, 2022

I will not gush over Ryan Reynolds. I will not gush over Ryan Reynolds. I will not gush over Ryan Reynolds...
posted by Splunge at 7:49 AM on September 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

Note that Wrexham AFC includes a women's team, a U-19 men's team, a women's U-19 team and provide 200 tickets for each home league game, free of charge, for the benefit of community groups and supporters who could otherwise not afford to attend.

I've been following this saga since they first announced the sale to Rob and Ryan. I've talked with several Welsh visitors to San Francisco, including one who had a large Wrexham AFC tattoo on his arm, and they've all been impressed with how much this is _not_ a publicity stunt, but a genuine attempt to improve the team and area.

As an example: The front-of-kit advertisement prior to the sale was Ifor Williams Trailers (for livestock.) The current ad is TikTok. (Ifor Williams moved to front of shorts instead.) Increased investment from all sorts of firms helps the team and the city.
posted by blob at 8:38 AM on September 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

The Hulu show about all this is really enjoyable so far (Fanfare thread).
posted by LooseFilter at 8:53 AM on September 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Loving this so much.
posted by davidmsc at 8:54 AM on September 4, 2022

similarly, rock band Enter Shikari are the shirt sponsors for their home club, St Albans FC, but i rekon it's not quite the same narrative draw since they're not overseas movie stars
posted by glonous keming at 9:38 AM on September 4, 2022

The thing I have always enjoyed about Ryan Reynolds is the way his underlying sincerity inevitably leaks through his sarcasm and humour. This Wrexham thing seems to just be full on letting his sincerity out to play. I hope it continues to go well for the owners and the team and the town.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:08 AM on September 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

Both Ryan and Rob seem like decent guys committed to building a great football club. I live in dread of the day we hear about a pile of dead clowns in the basement or some such. Modernity has made me such a cynic.

Hopefully, no dead clowns, is what I’m saying.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:41 AM on September 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

The third segment on this week's Hang Up and Listen podcast is about Wrexham, Rob and Ryan's purchase and the Hulu show.
posted by mmascolino at 11:01 AM on September 4, 2022

One of the reasons that this purchase stands out - other than the fact that it’s Hollywood types - is that the new owners aren’t just running off to the bank with huge amounts of money from the club. It’s worth noting that this isn’t happening in other countries because ownership of community assets like sports clubs is more tightly controlled, sometimes with guaranteed rights to fan groups (meaning that selling the grounds or pumping out branded merch is more difficult).
posted by The River Ivel at 11:21 AM on September 4, 2022

Fortunately Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds' wife, has now come around on this purchase after only learning about it after it's completion. I guess when you've been together that long you have an idea of what needs advance permission vs what will be later forgiven.
posted by beaning at 1:12 PM on September 4, 2022

is that the new owners aren’t just running off to the bank with huge amounts of money from the club.

I'm not sure how things are at other clubs at this level of football, but my impression was that there weren't such amounts of money to wring out of Wrexham even if that had been their intent.
posted by juv3nal at 10:15 PM on September 4, 2022

This level of football is traditionally not money making - profits end up going back into the club in one way or another if you want to maintain your league position. Plausibly the celebrity owners themselves will make the club more profitable but generally speaking football clubs in the lower leagues supply their owners with primarily non-financial benefits.
posted by plonkee at 8:45 AM on September 6, 2022

The Lord of the Rings show is costing Amazon something like a billion dollars all told. If these guys can turn purchasing a football club for a couple of million into a few seasons of TV then they'll have done alright. If they're actually serious about reaching the Premier League then they'll really have to open their wallets though because the Championship (the league below the Premier League) is filled with a lot of bigger teams with bigger budgets, including whoever got relegated from the Premier League at the end of the previous season and receive parachute payments that give a significant leg up on the other teams. Of course if they could even get to Championship level then the club would be worth many times what they've paid for it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:19 PM on September 6, 2022