Are Wrexham a model for other clubs?

Are Wrexham a model for other clubs to emulate or will they hit a glass ceiling in the highly competitive Championship?

AFC Wrexham’s return to English football’s second tier has had a bumpy start, reports the Financial Times. The team owned by two Hollywood actors has lost both its opening games, but will be hoping for better when hosting troubled Sheffield Wednesday this afternoon.

Yet the club is continuing to prosper off the pitch. Last season it sold almost 100,000 kits — with around half going to its vast international fan base. Considering the town of Wrexham has a population of only 45,000, those figures are quite incredible.

New distribution deals with two US retail chains have raised hopes of another big jump this year, while licensing deals mean that Wrexham will soon be making money from merchandise produced and sold by somebody else.

The club’s roster of sponsors is also impressive for a team that was playing non-league football just three years ago. Meta Quest, United Airlines and TikTok are the kind of global commercial partners that many Premier League clubs will be looking at enviously.

The key to Wrexham’s commercial success is having famous owners. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have turned the club into a powerful content factory and media platform. The documentary Welcome to Wrexham — now in its fourth season — attracts around 5mn viewers per episode.

Since the takeover in 2021, the club’s social media following across different platforms has risen from 45,000 to about 4.5mn. Add that to the number of people following the two actor-owners and you’re looking at a figure in the same ballpark as Arsenal. All this explains why Wrexham executives are expecting commercial revenue this season to rival those of a mid-table Premier League club. In practice that means somewhere between £20mn-£30mn.

It’s actually not that much of a lift. Accounts from 2023/24 showed Wrexham was already bringing in more than £17mn from retail and sponsorship when it was playing in the fourth tier. Total revenue that year more than doubled to £27.6mn. This season that figure is likely to be around £50mn. The club has lost money every year since the takeover.

Michael Williamson, chief executive, told the Pink ‘Un the club’s growth forecasts are cautious, and admits that nobody really knows exactly what this season will bring because merchandise distribution has been such a bottleneck in the past.

This season, Wrexham is aiming to reach the promised land of the Premier League, and has been among the top spenders in the division. The team may well fall short — the Championship is one of the most exciting, unpredictable and competitive leagues in football. But Wrexham’s commercial engine will give it the financial edge over far bigger and more established clubs so long as that international fan base keeps tuning in.

Lots of other investors are looking to “do a Wrexham” — see Tom Brady’s link-up with Birmingham City or Snoop Dogg’s stake purchase at Swansea. But that looks a lot easier said than done.

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion. Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs. An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned. He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long. What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site. He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...

The Political Economy of Football V2

Search This Blog