Welcome to Wrexham: City in spotlight with Ryan Reynolds' new show

A documentary about Wrexham FC puts its "underdog story" in the spotlight, according to its celebrity owners.

Welcome to Wrexham charts its takeover by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney since 2021.

Former club director Spencer Harris said Wrexham was a community that "battles against odds constantly". Fans saved it from collapse in 2011.

Last season the club lost in the play-offs for a sixth time, delaying hopes of a return to the Football League.

But Wrexham's fanbase continues to grow at home and abroad with the actors helping to write a new storyline for the club.

Season ticket sales are almost three times higher since before they took over.

There have been near capacity crowds at Wrexham's first two home games of this season.

And data shows growing engagement with fans in US logging on to the club's social media accounts such as Instagram.

"The thing that we love more than anything is the football," said Harris who helped to seal the deal with Reynolds and McElhenney last year.

He was among an army of fans who set up Wrexham Supporters' Trust after voting to save the club from collapse at a meeting on 24 August 2011.

Harris said the "great story" was that the people of Wrexham had put it in a "viable" position before the new owners "saw its potential and fell in love its charm".

He believes the club could go a "very, very long way to realise its potential", although a return to top flight football would not be easy, even with celebrity backers.

This season marks Wrexham's 15th out of the Football League, with fans hoping it will be their last.

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Fans: 'Absolutely buzzing'

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"The town is absolutely buzzing," said Wrexham supporter Tom Evans, prior to watching his team thrash newly promoted Maidstone United 5-0 on Saturday.

Dragons co-chairmen Reynolds and McElhenney were also at the stadium to watch the victory.

"They have been awesome - raised our profile immensely," added Tom, who was sporting a cap saying "Make Wrexham great again".

Prior to kick-off, fellow supporter Jamie Dyson said the new owners had lifted spirits on and off the field.

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"After so many years in the doldrums, they've changed the belief, I think, more than anything in the community," he said.

He has his "fingers crossed" the team can lift themselves out of the National League.

"We have gone from being a little bit embarrassed to be from Wrexham and support Wrexham to having a real belief to where we are going in the future," he said.

The plan is to build a 5,500-capacity seated stand in the Kop, extending the stadium's capacity to 15,000

Fan Karen Meredith, enjoying a pre-match drink with fellow supporters at Wrexham's Turf pub, said she felt Reynolds and McElhenney "very genuine".

"And I think they have been very good for the club," she said.

"But, most importantly, they have been good for the community of Wrexham."

Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have donated cash to help locals, including £20,000 for four-year-old Aria Hodgkiss, who has a brain tumour.

The club also plans to redevelop part of the Racecourse stadium with a 5,500-capacity seated stand in the Kop, to boost capacity to more than 15,000.

Football fans are hoping the development could lead to the return of international football to north Wales, as Cardiff has become its only national home.

Developing the Kop is part of a wider plan to improve one of the main gateways into Wrexham city centre, along Mold Road

In 1877, the Racecourse was one of the first places international football was played, with its last Welsh football match against Trinidad & Tobago in 2019.

The plans for the Kop are part of the Wrexham Gateway Project - supported by the local authority and other partners - to improve one of the main routes into Wrexham city centre as Mold Road includes the stadium and railway station.

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"Over the last couple of years it's really making some strides forward," said Harris, referring to Wrexham becoming a city to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in May and reaching the finals of the UK's City of Culture which could have brought in £200m to the wider area.

Reynolds said that Welcome to Wrexham, which starts this week, highlighted the "inter connectivity between the club and the community".

Wrexham's brand goes global

That 'community' is growing globally as well as locally, according to club figures.

At home, season ticket sales are up 20%, standing at 7,118 this season, compared with 5,892 for 2021-2022 - and that doubled from 2,609 season tickets sold for 2019/20.

So far, the club's first two home games have been at near capacity with attendances of 9,897 and 9,863, according to officials.

And away from home, the club has seen its social media profile "explode" since the names of Reynolds and McElhenney were first linked to the club in September 2020.

It has more than 130,000 followers on its Instagram account. More than 16% of the audience came from the US last season, data shows.

The documentary makers began promoting its release to an American audience last week, with a bus tour in Los Angeles.

Former Wrexham employee Andrew Higgins, who now lives in California, said it was "surreal" to see his club being publicised locally with a "Welcome to Wrexham" billboard outside Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the double deck bus and promotional films being shown locally.

"I can't believe it," he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

And Andy Gilpin, who runs the Fearless in Devotion Podcast with other Wrexham fans, said the documentary could "really put us on the map" with a global audience.

"Once I saw it I knew how big this could really be, not just for Wrexham but for north Wales and Wales as a whole," he said.

Andrew Higgins says it's "surreal" to see his home town club being promoted in California where he now lives