Wrexham have headed down under, going on a pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand. But a few observant fans on social media have noticed that ticket sales appear somewhat low so far.
Wrexham have flown to Australia for their pre-season tour, which sees them play Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC in Australia, and then Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand.
It comes after Wrexham won promotion from League One last season. Owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney remain keen for the club to build a following in all corners of the globe and Oceania is the next, after the Wrexham Coast Tour of the US and Canada last summer.
Speaking recently, club CEO Michael Williamson explained why Wrexham have gone to Australia this summer, citing the club’s wish to keep on broadening their global fan base in order to keep the international sponsorships and revenue flowing in: 50% of the club’s revenues come from ‘international sources’.
But it seems as though tickets for games against Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix aren’t selling as fast as might have been hoped.
How many tickets are still available for Wrexham’s games in Australia and New Zealand?
The first thing to note is that there are a few places to buy the tickets for each game: the first game against Melbourne Victory for example, if you were to source your ticket from Viagogo then you’d be left with a choice of 12 tickets inside the entirety of Melbourne Victory’s 53,000-seater Marvel Stadium.
But a look on the main ticket outlet for these games, Ticketek, reveals the sheer amount of seats still available for fans to attend the game on Friday (Wrexham themselves link to Ticketek when purchasing tickets through the club website).
Tickets for Melbourne Victory against Wrexham range from AU$59 (£28.34) all the way up to AU$209 (£100.40), of which there are surprisingly few left. But the AU$149 ticket option remains largely unsold, along with large swathes of the AU$99 and AU$79 options.
The same largely applies for the Sydney FC game on July 15th, at the Allianz Stadium which has a capacity of 45,000. Not a single ticket remains for the most lucrative AU$239 (£114.81) ticket, but large gaps remain in the stadium for the more general AU$189, 149, 99 and 79-priced tickets (£90.79, 71.58, 47.56, 37.95).
Meanwhile, Wrexham’s game against New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix on July 19th could be the most deserted of the lot. The game at Phoenix’s Sky Stadium, which has a capacity of 34,500, sees almost entire blocks with unsold tickets.
Their ticket prices range from NZ$59 (£26.03) all the way up to a staggering NZ$599 (£264.28) for a private lounge, of which there appears to be one left on Ticketek. Tickets then range from NZ$249, 149, 99, and 79 (£109.86, 65.74, 43.68, 34.85).
There is no mention of being able to pay on the day for the Melbourne or Wellington games. Sydney FC state on their website that there will be ‘no General Admission available for this match’.
| Game | Most expensive ticket £ | Least expensive ticket £ |
| Melbourne V | 100.4 | 28.34 |
| Sydney FC | 114.81 | 37.95 |
| Wellington Phoenix | 264.28 | £26.03 |
Did Wrexham sell out tickets for their Wrex Coast tour in 2024?
This tour of Australia is very similar to the club’s Wrexham Coast tour in the summer of 2024. That summer, Parkinson’s team went to the USA where they played Bournemouth and then Chelsea in California, and then the Vancouver Whitecaps in Vancouver, Canada.
Wrexham drew 2-2 with Chelsea before then playing them again in what was the Florida Cup final, losing 5-0 in a game that was a sell-out at the Kenan Memorial Stadium in North Carolina: more than 15,000 more than Wrexham’s biggest-ever attendance at the Racecourse which was 34,445 for an FA Cup game against Manchester United in 1957. Coincidentally, Wrexham lost that game 5-0 as well.
| Game | Attendance | Stadium capacity |
| Bournemouth | 13,332 | 17,000 |
| Chelsea (2-2) | 15,641 | 68,500 |
| Chelsea (5-0) | 50,596 | 50,500 |
| Vancouver Whitecaps | 34,738 | 54,500 |
How popular is football in Australia?
Cricket and Australian rules football are the nation’s two most popular sports. In 2023, 7,474,000 fans attended Aussie rules football games, whereas 810,000 attended Australian A-league games in the 2023/24 season.
The Premier League meanwhile is understood to be the third-most watched league in Australia behind the Australian Football League (Aussie rules) and the National Rugby League. A 2020 study from Roy Morgan even found that the Premier League had more TV viewers than the A-League (1,748,000 viewers for the A-League compared to 1,794,000 for the Premier League).
So why are there so many tickets left for Wrexham’s games in Australia?
Whilst football is an established sport in Australia, its own league is certainly still developing its own following. The Premier League has a strong following but the time difference means many Australians would have to wake up in the middle of the night to tune in and watch it live, making it less desirable.
The country is also enduring a cost of living crisis similar to the UK: high inflation and stagnant wage growth have hit locals in the pocket, meaning less and less are willing and/or able to pay for non-essential things like football tickets.
But Wrexham and their story under McElhenney and Reynolds is a popular one in Australia and New Zealand, hence why the club has opted for this summer’s pre-season tour down under. The Welcome to Wrexham docuseries seems to have garnered a popular following in Australia, as a study from Parrot Analytics claims.
Season four of Welcome to Wrexham aired in mid-May, specifically on May 16th in Australia on Disney+. Parrot Analytics report that, in May 2025, the docuseries ‘displayed exceptional audience demand in Australia’ with 16.5x ‘the average demand of TV shows in the region’, whilst also ranking in the 99.9th percentile in the documentary genre.
Analysis
There remains a couple of days before the Melbourne Victory game and almost a week until the Sydney FC game: only more tickets will be sold in the time before those games and on the day too, potentially, and we might yet see a full and vibrant couple of stadiums to watch both games.
But the early signs are of slight concern. Whilst Wrexham and their docuseries might have a popular following down under, perhaps the timing isn’t right for this summer’s pre-season tour: the nation’s cost of living crisis and the generally high price of tickets for these pre-season games, combined with the nation’s preference for other sports (the ARF season is currently in its regular season, so too the NRL).
Interestingly, Melbourne’s ARF team Melbourne Football Club don’t play next until the 13th, whilst the city’s ARL team, Melbourne Storm play away on the 12th. The Sydney Swans (ARF) play on the 13th and 19th, missing the 15th clash against Wrexham, and the city’s NRL games miss the clash too.
It simply suggests that football as a sport just isn’t as popular out there as other sports, nor is it as popular as it might be in USA right now. Whether or not Wrexham’s tour of the country changes that in any way remains to be seen.