Incredible story of how Ryan Reynolds transformed Wrexham FC
There is an incredible story of how Ryan Reynolds completely transformed Wrexham FC in just a couple of years.
The star was joined by fellow actor Rob McElhenney in the genius investment into the once fifth-tier Welsh footy team.
After working tirelessly together to tell the story of the unlikely crossover between the two Hollywood A-listers and the small-town team alongside some very cracking marketing, the pair were able to turn Wrexham Association Football Club into the famed success story it's now known for across the globe.
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But, it's clear that none of this could have happened without the much-appreciated help of the team's dedicated fans.
Supporters were once able to triumphantly save the club from extinction with a whopping £100k of their own crowd-funded money.
While Wrexham is currently the centre point of the famed global success story, especially given the recent promotion landing the club in League 2 for the first time in 15 years and impressively breaking the transfer record, it's surprising to think there was ever a time when North Wales' only professional club was mere hours away from being axed altogether.
Just a matter of days before the 2011/12 season commenced, the Football Conference issued an ultimatum to the club's owners to cough up a £250,000 bond to keep the club in the league.
An SOS appeal was immediately blasted to raise the funds and, miraculously, the die-hard supporters raised £100,000 in just seven hours.
It's clear that there would be no story today if it wasn't for what those dedicated fans rallied together to do all those years ago.
Flash-forward some years to 2020 and Reynolds and McElhenney first started showing interest in the footy club - which was previously primarily owned by its adoring loyal fans.
Boasting historical status after being crowned the third-oldest football club in the entire world, it's clear that these two actors were going to totally revolutionise the once struggling team and launch it into success.
Before forking out the cash, the dynamic duo spent hours upon hours meeting with more than 2,000 of the team's supporters to get their verdict on the unconventional, but clearly advantageous, investment.
After receiving the go-ahead from the community, the pair then put forward a hefty offer of $2.75 million (approximately £2.2 million) on the football team.
The offer went into great detail about what the money would be spent on, explaining how they would revamp the club's facilities alongside the massively increased pay grades for players.
To really sweeten the already super-sweet deal, they even signed a whopping 25-year stadium lease in Wrexham to assure fans that the team would stay put in their beloved town before buying back the stadium alongside redeveloping both the stand and the new training ground.
And that was only the start.
To spread the word about the exciting new developments, Reynolds and McElhenney teamed up for the Welcome to Wrexham docuseries that aired last summer (24 August).
The doc played a major role in bringing attention to the financial move, allowing fans alongside wider audiences to quite literally follow the team's journey as a former underdog into the club the world is now rooting for.
The series' official synopsis reads: "From Hollywood to Wales, from the pitch to the locker room, and the front office to the pub, the docuseries will track Rob and Ryan's crash course in football club ownership and the inextricably connected fates of a team and a town counting on two actors to bring some serious hope and change to a community that could use it."
And that it did.
The series went on to rake in a massive $3.2 million (approximately £2.5 million) in revenue as well as garnering an avalanche of rave reviews from viewers worldwide.
The success of the series was also helped out by the US tour which gained the club heaps of American fans gunning for the team's victory alongside the TikTok sponsorship deal, which was monumental for Wrexham given the global audience of the social media platform.
But the real genius lay in how Reynolds and McElhenney - neither of whom had any experience in football or working with each other - teamed up with a visionary approach to completely transform the club.
From outside-the-box storytelling and creative social media marketing to using their star power for pretty much everything it was worth, it's clear that these co-owners knew exactly how to shape public opinion.
Topics: UK News, Sport, Football, Ryan Reynolds, Wrexham FC, Celebrity
Rhiannon Ingle