Football club owned by Hollywood celebrities headed to Australia

The Welsh football team owned by Hollywood celebrities that lived out a sporting fairytale in a documentary series is heading to Australia in July.

Wrexham, a former longtime underdog of British soccer, staged a miraculous rags-to-riches march in just three seasons to capture the hearts of a massive global TV audience after it was bought for $4 million by Canadian movie star Ryan Reynolds and fellow actor Rob McElhenney.

Now the team, valued at more than $200 million and made famous by the Disney production Welcome to Wrexham, is making a trek Down Under.

The trip to Australia will occur before the team opens the next northern season in the Championship*, which is just one step below the English Premier League.

The Welsh wonder side will play Sydney FC in one of two games to be staged on Australian soil.

A third match is understood to be earmarked* for New Zealand.

The clash with Sydney FC has yet to have a venue locked in, with Allianz Stadium and Accor Stadium both being considered. The Daily Telegraph reported that Destination NSW was providing support to bring the Wrexham tour to Sydney.

According to The Daily Telegraph, anonymous sources* also hinted that negotiations were underway for Reynolds and McElhenney to headline the entourage* if their film and television schedules allow.

The duo was in Wales on the weekend, along with Reynolds’ wife Blake Lively, when Wrexham secured promotion from League One to the Championship. The team had been in the Fifth Tier* of the English competition when Reynolds and McElhenney purchased it in 2020.

A 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic meant they became the first team in the history of British football to jump up the ranks in three successive* seasons.

With fans of all ages thanks to his roles in The Free Guy, IF and multiple big budget action roles, Reynolds told the media after the game that the Wrexham tale “seemed like an impossible dream”.

“We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League,” he said. “There was understandably a lot of titters and laughter and giggles, but it starts to feel like a real, tangible thing that could actually come to fruition.”

The Welcome to Wrexham documentary has been a smash hit since it first streamed around the world following the 2021-22 season. Reynolds and McElhenney completed their purchase of the world’s third-oldest professional soccer club just months earlier, in November 2020.

The club’s popularity has skyrocketed on the back of the film stars’ profiles, their hands-on approach to running the organisation, and the documentary cameras recording the extraordinary rise of the one-time battlers.

The off-field results have been equally stunning. Wrexham’s international awareness and soaring fan base, particularly in the United States, allowed the club to announce unprecedented* revenues* of $55 million for the financial year ending 30 June 2024.

Promotion to the Championship will see a further $15 million to $20 million poured into the Wrexham coffers*, with the club’s share of British football’s broadcasting rights increasing as it continues to move into the upper rankings of the game.

Around half of the Wrexham revenues, including sponsorships with the likes of TikTok and Expedia and a large chunk of merchandise sales, are generated outside Europe.

The club is also expanding its overseas membership program – signing offshore supporters to “International Red Dragon” packages for $105 – while plans are in place to increase the club’s Racecourse Ground capacity from 15,000 to 20,000.

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GLOSSARY

• Championship: the second highest overall football league in the English Football League system, second to the Premier League
• earmarked: to put money towards a particular purpose
• anonymous sources: people close to the event who don’t want to have their named published
• entourage: a group of people surrounding an important person or team
• Fifth Tier: also known as the National League, the second lowest league in English football
• successive: one after the other
• unprecedented: never done or known before
• revenues: money made from the sale of something
• coffers: the money that an organisation has available to spend on things

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Young Socceroos win Asian Cup

QUICK QUIZ
1. How much was Wrexham purchased for?
2. What year did Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchase the team?
3. What rank is Wrexham now in?
4. When do they plan to visit Australia?
5. How much revenue did Wrexham make in the 2024 financial year?

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Think about it
Do you understand the League system in British soccer? Use information in the story and your research skills to find out. Think about the information. Do major Australian sports like AFL and Rugby League use this system? Do you think that they should? Write a list of reasons why or why not.

Time: allow at least 45 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education

2. Extension
What is more important for a professional sports team – popularity or results? Write a paragraph explaining your opinion.

Time: allow at least 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there during the event being discussed in the article, or for the interview.

Create a conversation between two characters from the article – you may need or want to include yourself as one of the characters. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.