Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have confirmed today that the Wrexham Football Supporter’s Society Limited is set to surrender their lease to the pair.
Since their acquisition of Wrexham in 2020, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have done their utmost to improve the club on and off the pitch.
With Phil Parkinson at the helm, the Reds have gone from strength to strength on the pitch. They are currently sitting in the League Two play-off spots.
Off the pitch, in recent months, the focus has been on the development of the new Kop stand. However, it had been reported that there were some stumbling blocks in recent weeks when it came to capacity.
With that being said, the announcement coming from the club’s official website today is very positive.
What have Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney said?
Back in June 2022, the owners paid £2m to purchase the freehold of The Racecourse and now they are looking to acquire the lease.
The Wrexham Football Supporter’s Society Limited currently have control of the lease and its directors are likely to accept the proposal. The proposal being the surrendering of the lease to Reynolds and McElhenney.
This comes at a price to the owners. On that, they said: “The payment of £187,000, is an equivalent amount to that contributed by fans to save the Club. To know that we will provide the funding to effectively pay everyone who contributed to save the Club is worth every penny and gives us a great deal of satisfaction.”
The club will also pay £1,000 per annum and the legal costs of the WST which have been accrued as a result of the surrender.
Despite the high costs, the owners are clearly pleased. They said they are: “delighted to receive the support of the Directors of the WST and share their desire to protect the long-term future of the Club.”
This move will allow for the continuation of the Kop Stand project and see it move forward in the coming months.
There appeared to be an issue in the existing contract which Reynolds and McElhenney wanted to sort out.
On that, they said: “We wanted to address the anomaly in the WST lease for the Racecourse Ground that did not include the requirement for the team to actually play at the stadium. We didn’t want anyone in the future to be able to exploit that position.”
It is clear that they care for the club and want the best for Wrexham and the fans moving forward. Although they won’t be here forever, they are doing all they can while they are.