Back-to-back promotions, a glamorous takeover from Hollywood movie stars, and a documentary. For Wrexham FC and its fans, their fairytale success story seemingly knows no bounds with the club on an extraordinary upward trajectory since Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over in February 2021.
As the Welsh club aims for its third straight promotion, they enter the difficult world of League One football. We’ve seen many clubs taken over by numerous rich owners wanting to invest large sums of cash but it doesn’t always equate to automatic success.
With Wrexham climbing up the English Football League ladder, the money they have paid their footballers has increased season by season.
Wrexham has the fourth-highest wage bill of any team in League One with an annual payroll total of $6,403,892, per a report by Capology. Here’s how the 24 League One clubs rank based on how much they’re spending annually on player wages:
| Rank | Club | Annual payroll |
| 1 | Huddersfield | $12,395,000 |
| 2 | Birmingham | $9,858,914 |
| 3 | Reading | $6,559,233 |
| 4 | Wrexham | $6,403,892 |
| 5 | Blackpool | $5,443,373 |
| 6 | Barnsley | $5,351,464 |
| 7 | Bolton | $5,268,616 |
| 8 | Mansfield | $4,740,460 |
| 9 | Rotherham | $4,590,305 |
| 10 | Wigan | $4,365,062 |
| 11 | Charlton | $4,234,317 |
| 12 | Wycombe | $4,138,522 |
| 13 | Cambridge | $3,997,422 |
| 14 | Leyton Orient | $3,987,066 |
| 15 | Bristol Rovers | $3,785,123 |
| 16 | Stockport | $3,447,258 |
| 17 | Exeter | $3,416,194 |
| 18 | Lincoln | $3,030,432 |
| 19 | Stevenage | $2,740,463 |
| 20 | Peterborough | $2,701,628 |
| 21 | Burton | $2,533,342 |
| 22 | Northampton | $2,059,553 |
| 23 | Crawley | $1,804,536 |
| 24 | Shrewsbury | $1,295,798 |
This chart compares Wrexham’s wage bill against teams that have dropped down from the Championship such as Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town who have the two highest wage bills in the league.
Wrexham shell out an average of $104,951 per week on player wages. The Welsh club has been able to prise talent away from Championship clubs or with players with previous Premier League experience.
Salary Sport reports that the highest-paid Wrexham players are midfielder George Evans signed from Millwall in 2023 earning $9,319 per week, former Premier League footballer James McClean earning $7,895 per week, and former Sunderland striker Steven Fletcher earning $7,248 per week.
All three players are aged 29 or above highlighting Wrexham’s ability to mix in players with a history of playing at the top level combined with a squad that has an average age of 24.
Staggeringly, the only clubs who will have a higher wage bill than Wrexham in League One for the 24-25 season are Huddersfield Town, Birmingham City, and Reading.
It may seem like a rags-to-riches football story, but the odds have been stacked in favor of Wrexham. However, spending millions of dollars doesn’t guarantee success. Just look at Salford City, co-owned by David Beckham.
The financial clout of Reynolds and McElhenney has allowed for Wrexham’s success to be fast-tracked with the owners taking on significant losses. Wrexham’s losses jumped from $3.75 million in 2022 to $6.6 million in 2023. The increasing wage bill is a huge factor in the jump in losses.
On the other hand, the club generated revenue of $13.5 million last year as a League Two club, which is significantly higher than the League One average per club of $12.6 million.
Reynolds and McElhenney were smart to strike a deal with FX/Disney for the Welcome to Wrexham documentary, charting the club’s rise. That, in turn, attracted worldwide commercial interest and increased Wrexham’s notoriety, which for a club not in the Premier League is extremely savvy.
This has expanded the club’s horizons internationally with Wrexham stating 25% of their revenue comes from outside of the United Kingdom helping them to secure commercial partnerships like United Airlines.
Increasing interest means increasing fans. Increasing fans means increasing shirt sales, and eventually stadium expansion.
Though the club is currently operating at a loss of income, you feel as though Wrexham has the owners and resources to continue its expansion.
In October 2021 when first taking over, Reynolds hesitantly said “We’d be lying if the dream wasn’t the Premier League.”
Wrexham is now halfway there though they will have to continue to grow to manage increasing costs. Their owners have smartly put the club in a position to eventually become self-sufficient.
Reynolds and McElhenney have certainly flexed their financial muscles but there is a means to an end with their Wrexham project. At some point, the co-owners will need more investment in the club especially if it’s serious about pushing for promotion to the Premier League.
Photo: IMAGO / PA Images
