No chance this happens unless some kind of financial compensation for the MLS owners. There is no reason for them to vote for it, as much as I would like to see it.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney | Wrexham AFC Watch
- Thread starter Salt Bailly
- Start date
No chance this happens unless some kind of financial compensation for the MLS owners. There is no reason for them to vote for it, as much as I would like to see it.
There you go. Everything points to them continuing to rise. It's only when you reach the top echelons of the football pyramid that top, top resources (scouts, managers, players, administrators etc.) become scarce enough that it meaningfully halts momentum.
Ipswich got B2B promotion last season, year before Luton came up after being in the National League 6 years prior. Before that Forest came up after years out of the PL, year before that it was Brentford. Sure it isn't three different teams per year, but recently it has been trending one non-yoyo per year. This year Sunderland (not really that small/been out of the league that long), Bristol, Coventry, Millwall all have a reasonable shout in the play-offs.
"The five clubs in receipt of parachute payments had average revenue of £66m, with the other 19 clubs averaging revenue of £22m" - that's for 22/23.
If Wrexham's revenue in L2 was 26.7m, then in the Championship it should be over 40m at least.
So big summer for recruitment. I'd imagine they'll aim for mid table stability and then have a go at promotion the following season.
That's basically what they aimed for this season, then found themselves in the promotion hunt.
It's why they went relatively big in the January transfer window.
As mentioned by a few people now, basically anything is on the table for them next season.
It'll be an interesting summer.
I still think this is the biggest jump yet though.
The upper Championship level is cash rich, ambitious owners.
I think they'll have no problem surviving. Maybe mid table security with a good cup run is a realistic aim.
Complete the new stand and start on the training ground. That would be a positive season.
I think them being based in the NW is another advantage to attracting players.
They've 3 ex united players.
If they want to go up again, they will have to be cut throat and get rid of Parkinson. He has had a free ride so far because of their investment, but he won’t cope at this level with inferior players.
They should be looking at the likes of Farke if they want to go for it this year.
They should be looking at the likes of Farke if they want to go for it this year.
It's a big ask for them to go up again. I don't think you can just sack a manager who has won you 3 promotions in a row. The interesting thing will be if they keep him on, how far up the league can he take them with investment?
I predict they'll be alright in around midtable and they'll come to an agreement for him to go at the end of the season.
I mean, they have been quite ruthless with players who have helped them up the league, so I don’t think he will get too long if they don’t look good early doors.
The Championship is one of those leagues where you could just as easily go down as get a playoff push depending on a few patches of form.
I just can’t see them keeping him when he has no success in a league at this level to date.
He hasn't really had a proper opportunity at Championship level though. The other teams he managed were doomed from the beginning.
This will be his first proper go at it.
He's an extremely experienced manager now though. Has managed over 1000 games.
I think his underrated quality is recruitment. Most of his signings have been very good.
Maybe we should hire him to oversee our recruitment.
I think he'll definitely get another year unless their in a relegation battle.
they bought it for 2.5m and it's now worth over 100m
Dare I say it but...Rooney or Gerrard if Parkinson gets sacked?
Why do you hate them so much?
I reckon they'll go full muppet.Mark Hughes
That's too sensible!
Ryan Giggs
Now you're talking...
I wonder if they'd try their hand at a young manager like Will Still to try and build for the long term.
Will Still require a lot of new players.
We all know who it will be.
They want a big personality and someone who loves the media but has top tier managerial credibility, someone who has a history of winning things with weaker teams, they don't care about developing youth, they want someone to get them into the PL in as short an amount of time as possible. But who would take the Wrexham job with that background you ask?
Respect man! Respect!
I just think there is too much money riding on it now, and he has got nothing to point to and say, “I can do this”
It’s the size of the project and the expectations more than anything else now. The Championship is punishing and they will need unbelievable recruitment in one summer to be competitive at this table now.
He'll definitely get a full season unless they're battling relegation after spending lots.
They'll probably review it again next season. You can see R&R love him right now though. He's turned a 2.5m club into 100m.
There's lots of managers experienced in promotion from the Championship so they'll be tempting to hire by then.
I think Parky's a canny operator despite being conservative. He sticks to his principles. His recruitment is excellent although now's the hard part.
Where's that valuation from? Just interested to know how clubs are valued in the different leagues, and how the whole process works.
Someone bought 87.8% of West Brom last February, for a reported £60m but I'm not sure if anyone really knows the price.
Would have guessed a club like that would be worth much more than Wrexham, because if you were to buy Wrexham it means a likely end to the documentary as the Hollywood connection is a big part of the appeal. No documentary = no American company sponsorship or Americans buying merch and you're left with a regular recently promoted 12,600 stadium club in the Championship with nothing out of the ordinary about it. Pretty much Oxford United.
Are Oxford worth 100m?
Unless there's a way of putting worth on something without selling it and realising that value? I don't really understand business concepts like that. Wrexham must be worth more to the current ownership than anyone else, but if something isn't for sale, or new ownership would see a big drop off in revenue how would worth be calculated in that sense?
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Steve Bruce
Correct. Reynolds is a huge fan of Striker
100m is a guestimate but I think if they sold off 10% for example, the club would be valued at 100m at a minimum, possibly more. So the 10% would cost 10m.
"US private equity firm Bright Path Sports Partners have bought a 40% stake in Championship club Ipswich Town at a cost of "up to £105m""
This is from March 24 when Ipswich were 3rd in the Championship. Ipswich are a bigger club historically and a bigger fan base. But it gives an idea.
I think the growing global fan base adds a lot of value to Wrexham though. They've the potential to be the biggest club in North America.
https://fortune.com/2025/03/07/ryan-reynolds-wrexham-afc-is-now-worth-4900-more-at-100-million/
This valuation is based on nothing.
But like anything else, it's worth what anyone is willing to pay for it.
I think he has been extremely fortunate to have the ability to outspend his rivals and attract players that wouldn’t be in their respective divisions otherwise. His contibution to that rise in value is up for debate.
I think he will get absolutely rocked in the Championship and won’t last the season. Time will tell I guess.
On the other hand you could say his contribution is impossible to appraise accurately.
They weren't the biggest spenders in L1 though. I think they were 4th or 5th.
We'll have to see what happens I guess. Surviving next year with a few games to spare would be an achievement also.
Thanks for that, and buying a share while Rob and Ryan remain as figureheads and majority owners would seem a lot smarter than buying the whole lot currently as that would probably nuke the potential returns. Multiply it all out to put a total figure on it.
Very unusual set of circumstances, particularly in football. Suppose you could draw parallels with other companies with big celebrity buzz around them. At the height of the company, what would George Foreman grills have been worth if his name was removed from them and he stopped advertising them? Perhaps worth investing while he is. Prime energy drinks for a more recent example with the youtubers names attached to it.
Cheers mate!
Rob is definitely in it for the long haul. He said he wants to pass ithe club onto his kids.
I could see Ryan selling off his share in the future.
They sold a minority stake to an American billionaire family but they didn't disclose any details.
Celebrity branding is a huge business. Lots of Hollywood actors have drinks brands. I think before they just got paid for doing the ads but now I think they have a profit sharing agreement.
Consumers are sheep and will buy anything with a celebrities name attached.
I guess Michael Jordan started it all.
I reckon the club is funded by a Phil Parkinson swear jar
I don't think they would get anywhere near that valuation if they sold outright. Their only chance of getting that kind of valuation would be to bring on a partner to own a significant share but with them also committing to staying on long term and keep using their marketing connections and Disney+ and celebrity friends to keep the Hollywood fairy tale narrative going.
It's easily worth 100m on the condition that R&R stay on as owners i.e. I bet they'd have no problem selling 10% for 10m.
But you're correct that if they sold it outright, it's value drops considerably.
It's unprecedented in football and maybe even sport that the value of a club is dependent on the owners celebrity.
The sky's the limit for the club now. Once they upgrade the stadium and get attendances to 28,000 they will be very competitive.
If I was them I'd try to hire a young data analyst from Brighton or Brentford.
Aye, that seems to be the thing as per your previous posts discussing it with me.
Suppose in a way the overarching plan is building the club up to a certain level so that even if it they did lose the documentary and the American cash that comes as a result of it they'd still be in a good place. At least that should be the fail-safe.
As long as the razzmatazz is there they can keep growing quickly.
I think by the time the documentary has run it's course, they'll be in the PL.
I follow them on reddit and lots of the North American fans say they didn't even watch soccer before the documentary, so it's hard to know how loyal they'll remain.
The majority of football fans get hooked as children.
But at the same time, soccer is growing considerably in north America and I could see Wrexham becoming the biggest supported club there. It's a huge market.
On top of that they're big in Australia, Europe, Asia also. They can start to buy players from these countries also.
If they signed an exciting young American player, it'd do wonders.
It's like us with Antony but in reverse
That's the problem spot is the stadium, the proximity to Mold Road, and how close that is to the by-pass means the side of the ground where the Turf pub is limited in how big it can go. The University next to it I'm not sure it they'd want to relocate, they sold the campus site I was at, years ago and relocated everyone to that campus. So expansion that way would be difficult and behind the other stand is student flats, which could be bought and moved. I'm guessing they'd possibly have to buy up land beyond the student flats and build big there, and possibly move the pitch a bit to help provide capability to increase the other stand.
Just writing that has added another zero or two onto the end in terms of cost in my thoughts. I'd love them to do it, but to get that far, it would make more sense to build the new Kop, which they've already planned expansion abilities into, get the team established in the top two tiers of the leagues and make sure they've captured the North Wales market. Then they should consider spending big.