**Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney Face £2.3m Bill After Wrexham’s Historic Promotion**
Wrexham AFC’s remarkable rise under Hollywood ownership continues to capture the imagination of football fans worldwide. Yet after a jubilant weekend sealing promotion to the Championship, the club’s co-owners, actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, must face the less glamorous side of success: a bill for a hefty £2.3 million.
Wrexham secured their move up to the second tier of English football by decisively defeating Charlton 3-0 at the Racecourse Ground. This victory not only marked an astonishing third consecutive promotion under the stewardship of Reynolds and McElhenney—taking the club from non-league obscurity to the Championship within three years—but also triggered significant financial obligations as contracts and incentives take effect.
According to the club’s recently published accounts, which detail the financial year ending 30 June 2024, promotion comes with a cost. The documents, lodged with Companies House, reveal that Wrexham is now liable to pay a total of £2.3 million in promotion-related fees. Of this, approximately £1.5 million will go towards paying bonuses promised to players and staff for reaching the Championship, while a further £875,000 is owed to other clubs as a result of transfer agreements based on promotion success.
Although these figures may seem daunting to most, they appear less so when set against Wrexham’s rapidly improving financial health. The club’s revenue for last season reached an impressive £26.7 million—outperforming the average income of Championship clubs, which Deloitte recently cited at £22 million. This is a dramatic change from just a few years ago, when the club’s annual revenue, while in the National League, hovered slightly above £1 million.
Financial experts, such as Kieran Maguire, believe the club’s valuation now has the potential to soar. While Reynolds and McElhenney originally acquired Wrexham for around £2 million in 2021, the club’s Championship status could push its estimated worth to as much as £150 million. This stark increase reflects the unique combination of sporting achievement and global attention that has come with its Hollywood-backed renaissance.
The immediate costs of promotion are, in fact, overshadowed by the new revenue streams now open to the club. Wrexham’s ascent is projected to net at least an additional £13 million per year, including around £8 million from lucrative television deals. The club will also benefit from larger solidarity payments from the Premier League, set to increase their intake from £780,000 to about £5 million annually.
Besides the financial windfall, the emotional bond between the co-owners and Wrexham has only grown stronger. In a heartfelt message to fans following the weekend’s celebrations, Reynolds reflected on the club’s journey and spoke of his deepening connection with the local community. “We’ve been with Wrexham for what seems like the blink of an eye, but so much has happened,” he remarked. Reynolds reminisced about their ambitious dreams for the club—dreams which initially elicited scepticism—and underlined his admiration for the sense of community, resilience, and hope he has found in North Wales.
The actor paid tribute to the traditions and spirit ingrained in Wrexham’s DNA, mentioning the collective memories shaped both on and off the pitch, and the special place the Racecourse Ground holds for supporters. “The Stadium feels like a church. I know so many of you now,” Reynolds wrote. His note spoke to the transformative power of football and community, describing how fans have become regular fixtures in his life and how he has shared in significant, even solemn moments with them.
Reynolds concluded with his trademark sentimentality and humility, hailing the “heart of a poet and the fist of a fighter” he has found among local people, and wishing that everyone could experience the unique spirit of Wrexham.
While a sizeable bill now awaits Reynolds and McElhenney, it comes as the price of dreams rapidly becoming reality. For Wrexham and its growing global fanbase, the cost of success appears to be outweighed time and time again by the returns—both financial and emotional—of a footballing fairytale still very much in the making.