The wider meaning of the 'Hollywood derby'

Wrexham and Birmingham drew 1-1 yesterday.  It wasn’t always a glamour tie (and some Blues fans don’t like being linked with Wrexham by some rival fans as a plastic club). The Hollywood derby, a phrase coined ahead of the first meeting at St Andrew’s in September, sees one club owned by two high-profile actors face another whose board boasts an all-time NFL great.

This is part of a wider trend that saw 2025 kick off with no less than 23 of the 72 EFL clubs in North American hands, almost a third. As if to underline this increasing globalisation of a competition now into its 137th year, Thursday’s match was broadcast live on both sides of the Atlantic as part of CBS’ new four-year deal to show games in the Championship, League One and League Two. Cosm’s immersive entertainment centres in Los Angeles and Dallas will also be screening Wrexham vs Birmingham live.

Quite the contrast from that last meeting in 1994, when only 6,002 were in attendance as the two teams played out another 1-1 draw that caused barely a ripple among the wider UK sporting public.

A good number of those tuning in will no doubt be star-spotting, especially after David Beckham joined Birmingham part-owner Tom Brady in the stands alongside Wrexham counterpart Rob McElhenney as the hosts ran out 3-1 winners in the autumn.

Other A-listers seen at Wrexham, the only EFL club to have had every league game shown live on TV in the United States this term, include Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria on the opening day and Channing Tatum just before Christmas.

This glamour and glitz may not be for everyone, but together with the Emmy award-winning documentary Welcome to Wrexham, these celebrity endorsements have helped the club owned by Ryan Reynolds and McElhenney successfully negotiate what has been surely the Football League’s most seismic change since Birmingham were last in north Wales.

Financial fair play (FFP) was brought in around a decade ago by the EFL to prevent clubs from getting themselves into trouble. It works by limiting either losses or expenditures to ensure no one spends beyond their means.

Since winning promotion from the National League in 2023, Wrexham have been subject to salary cost management protocols (SMCP). In League Two last season, this meant being able to spend 55 per cent of turnover on player-related expenditure, plus any cash injections from owners in the form of equity.

Now in League One, that proportion has risen slightly to 60 per cent. Thanks to the transformative effect of the documentary, specifically the lucrative sponsorship deals struck off the back of it, Wrexham’s annual income will be slightly north of £20million when the next set of accounts for 2023-24 are published in the spring.

This explains how the club can continue to offer very competitive salaries to prospective signings, even in a division where their average home league attendance of 12,869 — itself the highest in Wrexham’s history by almost 1,200 — is dwarfed by the likes of Birmingham, Huddersfield Town, Bolton Wanderers and even Charlton Athletic. 

Birmingham are this season subject to those same SMCP rules for the first time, albeit as a newly relegated club they can spend 75 per cent of turnover on player expenditure. Plus, of course, the contributions via equity from ambitious owners Knighthead, which are understood to have helped fund League One’s largest spending spree in history last summer.

Providing the bookmakers are right and Birmingham are destined to go up this season, their financial landscape will change once again via a return to the profit and sustainability rules (PSR) employed in the Championship.  Here, clubs can lose up to £39m over a rolling three-year period before being hit with any punishment, which can include possible points deductions.

As for Wrexham, they also hope to be subject to those same Championship rules before long. This week saw the New York-based Allyn family step up their involvement after last October becoming minority shareholders in the club. The first full two seasons of the Reynolds/McElhenney era brought combined losses of £8m, including a club record deficit of £5.1m during the 2022-23 season as the Hollywood pair successfully attempted to turbo-charge a revival.

With turnover at The Racecourse having more than doubled since the last available accounts, albeit with a second round of promotion bonuses also having to be paid, the smart money is on the next set for 2023-24 revealing, at worst, a small loss.