Unless you’ve been living under a rock or have absolutely zero interest in the sporting world, back in September 2020 rumours started spreading that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney wanted to buy Wrexham Association Football Club (AFC).
Most people thought it was absolute nonsense, or at the very least a publicity stunt. But no, it turns out they really wanted to buy Wrexham football club, a non-league team in the north of Wales. And they did.
They created the company RR McReynolds in November 2020 and by February 2021 the duo were the proud owners of a club they knew nothing about, in a sport they knew nothing about.
Welcome to Wrexham is the documentary series that chronicles the story of how the two Hollywood A-Listers took a club, struggling to survive, and rejuvenated not just it, but the entire town and community around it. And it is great tv.
With 18 episodes, Welcome to Wrexham gives us a chance to peek behind the curtain and find out just what it takes to make it back into the Football League in the UK.
The first season was a huge success and we are clamoring for a second. So the big question is: Welcome to Wrexham season 2 – when is it coming to Disney+??
WELCOME TO WREXHAM SEASON 2 RELEASE DATE
Even though Disney didn’t confirm it until April 2023, make no mistake, we already knew that there would be a second season.
After all, FX ordered the first two seasons together. And anybody who has been following Reynolds and McElhenney on social media can also see them constantly trailed by a tv crew every time they’re in the UK.
So our only question is when will it finally make it to Disney+ (who own FX which is why it streams on that platform).
Based on the fact that the football season has ended in the UK, and that it was filmed chronologically, we’re going with the same time period as the first season.
So on that basis we fully expect to see Welcome to Wrexham season 2 drop on Disney at the end of August 2023.
How Much Did It Cost To Buy Wrexham Association Football Club?
The story behind this question is a little trickier than normal. Wrexham AFC had previously been owned by a rather dubious character who basically only bought it so he could run it into the ground and sell off the land to make himself rich.
Refusing to let that happen, the passionate fans of the club blocked the sale, ousted the owner and took on the burden of running the club themselves. The created the Wrexham Supporter’s Trust, a fan-operated company, in 2011 and had kept the club alive ever since.
But with the arrival of the pandemic, the club was struggling again and in real danger of going out of existence. They had spent 15 years in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. That means there is no financial support from the Football Association, making it exponentially harder to get promoted back into League Football.
So how much did it cost Rob and Ryan to buy Wrexham AFC? The exact financial details of the acquisition were not publicly disclosed.
However, it was reported that Reynolds and McElhenney invested around £2 million (approximately $2.7 million USD) into the club. This investment was meant to support the team’s operations and infrastructure improvements, rather than being an outright purchase of the club itself.
Ultimately they have spent significantly more than that given the work needed to bring the club and it’s ground, The Racecourse, back to its former glory.
How Much Did Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney Make?
There are no publicly disclosed figures as to how much FX paid for Welcome to Wrexham though some estimates suggest it is around £600,000.
That would have been put towards the purchase and upkeep of the football club.
