WREXHAM, Wales (AP) — Fortunes are rising on and off the field for soccer club Wrexham and its Hollywood celebrity owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Record turnover reported on Monday of 26.7 million pounds ($34.5 million) last season was a 155% raise and helped the fast-improving club to repay all of its loans and interest totaling 15 million pounds ($19.36 million) to The R.R McReynolds Company.
Wrexham “is now free of all loans towards its shareholders,” the club from north Wales said in a statement.
Reynolds and McElhenney paid $2.5 million in 2020 to buy Wrexham, one of the world’s oldest soccer teams then in the fifth tier of the English leagues.
On the field, the team was on track for a third consecutive promotion as it sat second in the third tier.
The costs of promotion last season, including staff bonuses, contributed to an annual loss of more than 2.7 million pounds ($3.5 million). The previous year’s loss was 5.1 million pounds ($6.6 million).
A new documentary series of the Emmy-winning “Welcome to Wrexham,” taking viewers behind the scenes, is scheduled to debut in May when the club hopes to seal its place in the second-tier Championship.
“While the documentary does not contribute any direct financial return for the club, it delivers incredible global exposure for the Wrexham brand,” it said.
More than half of Wrexham’s turnover was “generated from the rest of the world primarily North America,” with a slate of sponsors including Meta Quest, United Airlines and HP.
Commercial revenue soared sevenfold to almost 13.2 million pounds ($17 million) and match day income including game tickets was up about 60% to more than 5 million pounds ($6.45 million).
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The Associated Press
