During the first episode of Welcome to Wrexham season two, the club co-owner was dealt some bad news about redevelopment plans. His solution to the problem? Sell one of his children…
The first episode of Welcome to Wrexham season 2 aired this week, picking up where the previous Disney+ docuseries left off. The warts and all documentary chronicles the day to day operations of Wrexham AFC, famously owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Ryan and Rob took over the club in 2021, and already in a short space of time have managed to transform the club’s fortunes. They were promoted from the National League last season after winning the title, and are now in League Two, the fourth tier of English football, for the first time in 15 years.
Ryan Reynolds jokes he’d ‘sell one of his children’ to fix Wrexham’s £20m problem
Despite their success to far, running a football club is never plain sailing. During the season 2 premiere of Welcome to Wrexham, we see Ryan and Rob find out that they need $24.8 million (£20 million) to renovate the team’s stadium, the Racecourse Ground.
The club had filed an application to the UK Government in a bid to get work started on the refurbishment of stadium, specifically to redevelop the western side of their Kop stand.
However, during the episode we see the co-owners and Shaun Harvey, Wrexham AFC’s advisor to the board, discuss missing out on the funding.
“It’s a huge problem,” Reynolds told Harvey, before asking if there’s anything they can do “to help see this through”.
“We’ll find a solution because we are going to need to think outside the box and do things differently,” replied Harvey.
“I’ll sell one of my children,” Reynolds joked, adding, “I have four. I don’t even know their names.”
Fellow co-owner Rob McElhenney then says: “I don’t have £20 million lying around. I don’t know if Ryan does, but I don’t think so.
“He might say he does, but I would talk to Blake [Lively – Ryan’s wife] because I bet you he doesn’t.”
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Welsh government to provide £25million grant to redevelop stadium
However, thankfully for Rob and Ryan, it was later reported by The Athletic that the club would be receiving a £25million ($31m) grant from the Welsh government that could be used to fund the redevelopment of the stadium.
Plans include building a new hotel on the Racecourse site, conference facilities and club office space planned along with a new Kop stand. Plans are to build a new 5,500-capacity stand that will take take the stadium’s capacity to 16,000.