Fortunes are rising on and off the pitch for soccer club Wrexham and their Hollywood celebrity owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The club on Monday reported record turnover of ￡26.7 million (US$34.5 million) for last season, a 155 percent increase which helped the fast-improving club to repay all of its loans and interest totaling ￡15 million to The R. R. McReynolds Company.
Wrexham “is now free of all loans towards its shareholders,” the club from north Wales said in a statement.
Photo: AP
Reynolds and McElhenney paid US$2.5 million in 2020 to buy Wrexham, one of the world’s oldest soccer clubs, then in the fifth tier of the English leagues.
On the pitch, the team is on track for a third consecutive promotion as they sit second in League 1, the third tier.
The costs of promotion last season, including staff bonuses, contributed to an annual loss of more than ￡2.7 million. The previous year’s loss was ￡5.1 million.
A new documentary series of the Emmy award-winning Welcome to Wrexham, taking viewers behind the scenes, is scheduled to debut next month when the club hopes to seal a place in the second-tier Championship.
“While the documentary does not contribute any direct financial return for the club, it delivers incredible global exposure for the Wrexham brand,” the club said.
More than half of Wrexham’s turnover was “generated from the rest of the world, primarily North America,” with a slate of sponsors including Meta Quest, United Airlines and HP.
Commercial revenue soared sevenfold to almost ￡13.2 million and match-day income including tickets was up about 60 percent to more than ￡5 million.
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