Despite Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s massive investment into the success of Wrexham, the club’s success among fans in the United States is smaller than expected
Thanks to Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s efforts to revive the club and city, Wrexham’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent years.
The Welsh team’s recent success can be attributed to the players it has signed, including Paul Mullin, Ben Foster, and Jack Marriott. The club was founded by McElhenny, the creator of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and Reynolds, the star of “Deadpool.” Even with the club’s growing popularity, Wrexham still doesn’t seem to have a firm presence in one of the largest untapped markets in the world: the US.
Director of Wrexham and advisor to Reynolds and McElhenney since the two Hollywood stars acquired the club, Shaun Harvey described the extent of Wrexham’s global appeal. They still have to make a significant impression on the American market in order to be considered an English Football League (EFL) team.
Harvey told The Guardian that “there’s probably 5,000 US households that have an annual subscription to watch Wrexham games live.” “In isolation that might not sound like a lot, but it’s a massive amount in comparison to the majority of other clubs in the EFL.”
Right now, Wrexham assert that they have the biggest overseas fan base of any EFL team. The “Welcome to Wrexham” documentary has been given the go-ahead for a third series, although the former EFL chairman does not reveal the actual viewership figures and instead refers to it as the club’s “biggest commercial asset.”
Harvey continued, saying that “access is absolutely key” if Wrexham and other EFL teams want to start moving forward in the US. Regarding that, the 54-year-old thinks that video games
“From a market perspective the best rights deal, for the US or any other market, is one that makes matches free to air and accessible for anyone who wants to watch them,” Harvey went on to say. “There’s a balance to be struck between exposure and financial return so it makes sense to combine free-to-air with some direct consumer subscription type channel.”
American supporters of Wrexham can currently watch their matches on ESPN+ and iFollow, the EFL’s international streaming service. It is challenging for fans in the United States to comprehend and choose which streaming service to use in order to see their favourite team play because of the variety of ways they can watch games.
It remains to be seen if the foreign rights deal the EFL is presently negotiating will offer any relief from the problems that Wrexham and other lower-tier English football teams are currently facing with receiving appropriate exposure.
Harvey thinks the teams themselves will have to take advantage of the platform the Premier League established in order to grow their fan bases in the US.
“The US is always going to be massively important to the EFL, because there’s such a strong market and fanbase for football and the work has already been done by the Premier League to get a foothold there,” Harvey stated. “The EFL clubs now face a challenge.
