Private capital giant boosts Wrexham

Private capital giant Apollo Global Management has bought a minority stake in Wrexham AFC, the once sleepy Welsh football club whose fortunes and global profile have been transformed under the ownership of Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac.

Wrexham said on Monday that the investment would include financing to redevelop the Racecourse Ground, its roughly 13,000 capacity stadium, and aligned with its “long-term growth strategy and Premier League aspirations”.

Terms of the deal with Apollo were not disclosed but Reynolds and Mac, who changed his name from McElhenney this year, will remain as controlling shareholders. A person familiar with the deal said Apollo, which manages roughly $908bn of assets, had acquired less than 10 per cent of the club.

Wrexham, one of four Welsh teams that play in the English leagues, has enjoyed a stunning upturn in fortunes since it was bought in 2021 by the Hollywood actors. The pair acquired Wrexham for £2mn while it was playing in the fifth tier, and produced a documentary series — Welcome to Wrexham — for Disney charting their fortunes as owners.

The success of the series and the profile of Wrexham’s owners has catapulted the club on to the global stage. Last year, it sold about 100,000 replica shirts, half of which were to overseas fans. Wrexham executives hope to grow that number with new international distribution deals, and expect overall revenue this season of about £50mn — almost double that generated in the 2023-24 season.

Wrexham is currently building a new stand — partly financed by the local government — that will increase capacity at the Racecourse to 18,000 and open the door to hosting Welsh top tier international fixtures. The club has been promoted in three consecutive seasons, going from non-league football to the EFL Championship, the tier below the Premier League. The top two teams at the end of the season achieve automatic promotion to the Premier League, while those placed three to six compete in end-of-season play-offs for one final promotion spot. Wrexham is 12th in the Championship after 19 games.

Mac and Reynolds said in a statement: “The dream has always been to take this club to the Premier League while staying true to the town. Growth like that takes world-class partners who share our vision and ambition, and Apollo absolutely does.” Since starring in films including Deadpool, Reynolds has boosted his wealth with several successful investments including stakes in Aviation Gin, which Diageo acquired for around $600mn in 2021, and communications firm Mint Mobile, bought by T Mobile in 2023 for $1.3bn.

Reynolds and Mac, who created and starred in sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, have made a handful of other investments in sport since the Wrexham deal. The pair now have stakes in Formula 1 team Alpine, the Australian SailGP franchise, and two football clubs in Mexico and Colombia.

In October 2024, the Hollywood duo sold a roughly 15 per cent stake in Wrexham to the New York-based Allyn family, who previously owned the Welch Allyn medical device company. Apollo’s surprise investment in Wrexham forms part of a concerted push into sports investing. It established a new subsidiary, Apollo Sports Capital, this year with a goal of investing $5bn in the sector. Last month, it agreed to buy a majority stake in Atlético Madrid, in a deal that valued Spain’s third-largest football club at more than €2bn.

The firm had previously lent money to English football team Nottingham Forest and the horseracing business run by football super-agent Kia Joorabchian. Apollo partner Lee Solomon called the Wrexham deal a “multi-faceted investment” involving “long-term, patient capital to help Wrexham reach its goals and to contribute to the ongoing revitalisation of the facilities and local economy”.

Private capital is flowing into European football at an unprecedented rate. CVC Capital Partners, Sixth Street and Ares Management have been buying stakes in and lending to sports teams and leagues for years, while KKR is in talks to acquire sports-specialist private equity firm Arctos Partners.

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...

A poor financial record, but new hope at Everton

I recently saw an amusing video online in which a group of Everton fans were rebuked in jest for being hopeful. Football fans in general tend to swing between excessive optimism and excessive pessimism, but for many it seems that moaning is in their bloodstream (Spurs fans probably take the trophy). However, Everton fans have had plenty to moan about on and off the pitch. Let’s hope that a new era is about to begin for this grand old club. Everton’s 2023/24 financial results covered a fairly momentous season, when they ended up 15th in the Premier League, though they would finished three places higher if they had not received an 8-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR). It was a worrying time for Everton fans, as the club faced a “perfect storm” of issues, including large financial losses, an ever increasing debt burden, a challenging stadium build and the tortuous sale of the club. There were eve...

The Political Economy of Football V2

Search This Blog