22 December 2023 , 12:28
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Wrexham owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are set to take another financial loss on the back of building a temporary new stand at the Racecourse Ground.
Reynolds and McElhenney have created their own film script since taking over at Wrexham, returning the Red Dragons to the Football League for the first time for first time in 15 years after promotion last season. It has not been all glitz and glamour for the Hollywood stars though.
Having invested heavily in the North Wales club to get them back into the Football League, the pair have not seen much financial reward back after battling their way out of the non-league pyramid.
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One of the biggest issues facing the club has been the ability to build a new stand behind one of the goals at the Racecourse, after the old Kop was demolished for safety reasons last year. The Hollywood stars released plans to rebuild the iconic stand, but for now construction has been put on hold.
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In the meantime Reynolds and McElhenney have overseen the building of a temporary stand in its place, and whilst this will get more fans through the turnstiles, it will once again come at another loss. Club director Humphrey Ker told The Athletic “We can’t recoup the money the stand has cost to build and then operate.
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"Unless we get a big sponsor, maybe. But this is something we expect to lose money on. I’ve seen fans on social media doing calculations and saying, ‘They can do this and that to make it pay’. But a lot of those were way off. For a start, every ticket isn’t £20 as not everyone is an adult. We also have to hire staff, install new turnstiles, make the entire area safe — on top of the original outlay. Everything has to be maintained, too.
"Shaun [Harvey, club director] did his own calculations, working out what you make per seat with all the additional costs. And we will lose money. But that’s a small price to pay for getting more fans into the stadium.” The stand will see an extra 2,289 fit into the ground for this weekend's all-Welsh clash against Newport County.
Earlier this year the club were told construction of the permanent stand would not be able to get underway until at least the end of season, which led co-owner McElhenney to push for the temporary stand idea. "I was very resistant to the idea. To start off with, anyway," Ker added.
"This was because I didn’t want to delay the start of the Kop. Even if it takes two weeks to put up and then two weeks to take down, my thinking was, ‘I want spades in the ground and to get on with it ASAP’. In contrast, Rob was the one pushing for us to do this. Rather annoyingly, time has once again proved that he was right and I was wrong."
Despite McElhenney's keenness it is expected to bring more financial loss to he and his fellow co-owner Reynolds. Appearing on the Disney+ documentary 'Welcome To Wrexham' the two Hollywood owners were told by Ker they had lost 'loads' of money, with the figure standing at £12 million.