Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham acquires substantial grant to expand stadium

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney continue to make good on their pledge to expand the team and raise their status to the professional ranks.

The club has secured financial backing from the Wrexham council. After seeing an application for UK government Levelling Up Fund Money turned down in January, the council board will now reallocate a “substantial amount” of a £25 million Welsh government grant to the plan.

Wrexham is one game away from the Tier Two professional league, and is now a world renowned soccer team, thanks to Reynolds’ substantial investments in marketing, trademark acquisition, and the Disney+ docuseries, ‘Welcome to Wrexham’.

Wrexham to build more seating

Now Wrexham is looking forward to a grounds expansion for their team’s infrastructure, as team co-owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, received a grant from the Welsh government to build a new grandstand of seating at the Wrexham home pitch, the Racecourse Ground.

With the team on the brink of National League promotion, Reynolds and McElhenney look to accommodate more fans.

The pair of Hollywood actors plan to build a new 5500-seat grandstand, which will be largely funded by the local taxpayers.

A unanimous decision

The co-owners applied to the UK government’s program, the Levelling Up Fund, in January but were denied. However, the council’s executive board then unanimously voted to go ahead and back the funding for the new seating.

After the club wins their next game, they will advance to the pros — a feat they haven’t accomplished since 2008. As Reynolds and McElhenney notoriously attend games, and even reportedly maintain a strong presence in the team’s dressing room, Wrexham games are regularly sold out.

The expansion will lead to a total stadium capacity of 15,000 people, which is one of the largest Tier Four grounds.

“It’s been brilliant,” Reynolds commented previously to the BBC. “I love getting here early because I get to meet some of the locals as well, and some of the supporters who’ve been coming here for decades and decades. I met a supporter the other day whose grandfather’s ashes were scattered across this (football) field, so I look at this place a bit like a church, is what it really is.”

“It’s really bore a special place in my heart and my entire family’s heart and I think across the pond as well,” the Canadian-born actor continued. “In Canada, where I’m from, people are obsessed with this club and this community, and so are people in the United States, and it’s just been pretty remarkable.”