Wrexham owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are set to take another financial loss on the back of building a temporary new stand at the Racecourse Ground.
Reynolds and McElhenney have created their own film script since taking over at Wrexham, returning the Red Dragons to the Football League for the first time for first time in 15 years after promotion last season. It has not been all glitz and glamour for the Hollywood stars though.
After extensively investing in the North Wales team to get them back into the Football League, the couple have not seen much financial return after clawing their way out of the non-league structure.
After the old Kop was dismantled for safety reasons last year, one of the most difficult difficulties the club has faced has been the possibility to build a new stand behind one of the goals at the Racecourse. The Hollywood celebs revealed plans to reconstruct the iconic stand, but construction has been halted for the time being.
Meanwhile, Reynolds and McElhenney have overseen the construction of a temporary stand in its place, and while this will bring more spectators through the gates, it will come at yet another cost. “We can’t recoup the money the stand cost to build and then operate,” club director Humphrey Ker told The Athletic.
“Unless we get a big sponsor, perhaps.” However, we expect to lose money on this. I’ve seen followers on social media performing calculations and saying, “They can do this and that to make it pay.” However, many of them were incorrect. For starters, not every ticket is £20 because not everyone is an adult. On top of that, we need to hire people, build new turnstiles, and secure the entire region. Everything must also be kept in good condition.
“Shaun [Harvey, club director] did his own calculations, calculating what you make per seat after deducting all the extra costs.” We will also lose money. But it’s a minor price to pay to bring more people inside the stadium.” The platform will see an extra 2,289 fit into the ground for this weekend’s all-Welsh clash against Newport County.
Earlier this year the club were told construction of the permanent stand would not be able to get underway until at least the end of season, which led co-owner McElhenney to push for the temporary stand idea. “I was very resistant to the idea. To start off with, anyway,” Ker added.
“I did this because I didn’t want to postpone the start of the Kop.” Even if it takes two weeks to put up and then two weeks to take down, my thinking was, ‘I want spades in the ground and to get on with it ASAP’. Rob, on the other hand, was the one who insisted on it. Time has once again proven that he was correct and I was incorrect.”
Despite McElhenney’s enthusiasm, it is likely that he and his colleague co-owner Reynolds would incur additional financial losses. Ker told the two Hollywood owners on the Disney+ documentary ‘Welcome To Wrexham’ that they had lost ‘tonnes’ of money, with the total standing at £12 million.
Leave a Reply