Defying The Odds

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When you look at football clubs around the world very few make any type of profit and the only profit the owners make is when they sell the club.

We all like a good underdog story and there is no better story right now than Wrexham Football Club. Back in 2021 when actor Ryan Reynolds and business partner Rob McElhenney bought the then fifth tier football club for $2.5 million no one really paid much attention. The two of them fell in love with the passion of the fans and the story that Wrexham was one of the oldest surviving football teams in the UK. Combine that with the real threat the club was at the brink of going out of business the two stepped in and the rest is reading like a fairy tale.

What I find great about this story is they knew nothing about football and let the manager of the team run the club like it used to be in the good old days. They did not employ some fancy big name manager and believed in the process which has now seen the team being promoted 3 years running. Next year the team is playing in the Championship which is only one promotion away from the Premier League. The team is already rewriting the history books as they are the first side to be promoted 3 seasons on the trot.

One can not help but think there is a Hollywood movie being written if that happens because this is not something that seems remotely possible yet what they have achieved is mind boggling. They have take a team on the brink of financial collapse and turned them into a financial beast printing money making the club totally debt free and in profit. There are very few football clubs who are debt free so this is a achievement on it's own.

Remember the figure they paid was $2.5 million back in 2021 when the club was basically bankrupt well thigs are looking rather good when we look at the books for a club in the valleys of Wales and not in a major city. The clubs revenue back in 2021 was around $1 million per year which is survival mode when you think about his has to cover all the salaries, transport costs for the team and the upkeep of the stadium.

Two years ago when the club was promoted from League 3 into League 2 they had a revenue of $32 Million. Many of Wrexham's club games are now being televised in the US due to the Ryan Reynold's connection and public interest. Football jersey sales are up to $5 million per season and outside sponsorship is up to $14 million along with match day tickets recording another $5.5 million.

The good news is the promotion is going to cost the owners a reported $2.5 million in bonuses, but the upside is the clubs revenue is going to almost triple over the next season. The television revenue is an estimated $10 million per season for the Championship excluding the extra from the US audience. The other bonus is the Premier League solidarity payments which would add another $6 million.

All of this new revenue does not guarantee them promotion next season and I guess at some point they will have to dig into their pockets and buy some key players to add to the squad. I am not being negative but more realistic as I do not think it will be possible this next season and could take the club a good few years to get into a position to take a crack at the Premier League. The jump is so big which is far bigger than what the club has already achieved as Wrexham comes up against squads that have spent hundreds of millions attempting at reaching the top tier of English football. I am not saying the dream is dead it is just going to be a proper Hollywood ending if they can get it done.

Posted Using INLEO