Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s success at Wrexham is expected to come at a hefty price next season.
The club are currently in the midst of a very tight battle to secure promotion from the third tier of English football.
Ahead of the midweek action getting underway, Wrexham sat second in League One with a three-point lead over Wycombe Wanderers.
The Red Dragons are still slight underdogs to take the second automatic promotion place, given Wycombe have a game in hand and better goal difference.
But the Chairboys will likely be dreading their end-of-season run-in, which includes tough meetings against the likes of Stockport County, Charlton Athletic, Leyton Orient, and Huddersfield Town.
Even if Wrexham don’t finish second, however, their place in the play-offs come May is all but confirmed.
Wrexham wages will need to quadruple in Championship
Should Wrexham indeed go up, it will be a historic feat but one that will, according to Humphrey Ker, come at some cost.
Wrexham’s 2023/24 accounts have emerged in the last seven days and there were some interesting figures.
One of those was that the club spent over £11m on wages across the previous season. (That includes all staff at the club, not just players, as some rival fans think.)
Regardless, it’s now been reported in the Mirror that Ker said Wrexham will need to quadruple their current wage bill if they win promotion and want to be competitive in the Championship.
Given their wage bill is likely to have already risen from the £11m figure from the previous season, it means at minimum, the Red Dragons will, according to Ker, have to spend around £44m on wages if they are in the second tier in 2025/26.
How Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney feel about increased Wrexham wage bill
Going from spending £11m to over £40m on wages in the space of two years is quite a leap.
However, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds have Premier League aspirations for Wrexham, and if they want to continue the rise, more money will need to be spent.
And, unsurprisingly, given what excellent owners they have proven to be, Ker revealed the pair looked ‘very calm’ when discussing potential budgets for the Championship.
He said on the Fearless in Devotion podcast: “This was something that was discussed very early on this season in terms of what it would likely end up costing. Everybody is very aware of what would be required, which is good.
“When we had that Zoom, I watched like a hawk and I was looking at Rob and Ryan’s boxes to see what their faces do when these kinds of sums come up. They both looked very calm, which was good.”