In March, Wrexham AFC filed their annual report for the year ending 30 June 2025 revealing turnover of £33.33 million, a record revenue for a club still in League One, the third tier of English football system. After securing three back-to-back promotions, which in itself is another first-time record in English football leagues, Wrexham presently is playing in the second-tier EFL Championship. At the time of writing, club’s ranked sixth and knocking doors to Premier League promotion through play-off stage!
The Wrexham saga, right from the takeover by two famous Hollywood personalities to achieving global attention and recognition along with exceptional growth is an incredible story. Looking from the business perspective, what’s more fascinating is the strategic marketing acumen displayed by the leadership team. Global fan following, increasing tourists from different countries, particularly from USA, growing list of sponsorships from some of the biggest global brands like HP, United Airlines, TikTok, it’s nothing short of marketing masterclass combining the finest storytelling to calculated moves all the keeping the community interlocked in the whole growth story.
This blog aims at deconstructing the marketing moves of Wrexham AFC.
The Revenue
An idea of Wrexham’s fairytale growth can be gauged by increase in revenue over the years since takeover. In 21/22, in the first season of new ownership, £5.97mn revenue was reported. Since then, growing at an astounding 54% CAGR, Wrexham’s total revenue has reached £33.33mn in 24/25 while they were in League One! To give a context, an average League One club revenue was reported to be £8.9mn (23/24 figure, as per Matchday Finance), that is almost one-fourth of the Wrexham revenue. Even the average Championship club revenue in 23/24, including clubs receiving parachute payments, was £40mn taking Wrexham’s revenue within touching distance. Now that Wrexham is in the Championship league, it’s revenue for 25/26 is sure to exceed most league clubs.
The Commercial Angle
The key behind achieving the record revenue, is the outstanding growth in commercial stream made possible with the help of extremely well-planned and astute marketing. Of the total 24/25 revenue, commercial stream including retail contributed 67%, that is, £22.49mn which is 27% over its 23/24 numbers. In sponsorship, the major jump occurred in 23/24 when United Airlines and HP joined the list taking the revenue from £1.88mn in 22/23 to £13.18mn in 23/24. Since 21/22, income from sponsorship has been growing at an astonishing 102% CAGR while combined with retail, the growth is at 76% CAGR!
Can it get any more incredible? See chart.
The commercial income displayed by Wrexham at a League One level is not only higher than the league average but can be compared with that of the average commercial income gathered by a Championship level club. The comparison chart between average revenue from commercial stream (23/24 data) of clubs from different leagues points to the fact that Wrexham (24/25 data) lies below Premier League clubs and above Championship clubs and League One clubs.
Documentary that Kickstarted it All
Here’s where the marketing genius came in play. Both, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds come from Hollywood background, both incredible at their work and very successful story-tellers. It is here they played on to their strengths and converted the real-life story into a world class, award-winning series, Welcome To Wrexham. The series managed to create deep cultural impact of Wrexham beyond the club. That’s where audience related, not just with the club but also with the people of Wrexham who played an equally important part of the series. Operative keywords for the series can be summarised as culturally relevant and clever storytelling.
Precisely the reason why United Airlines tied itself to the club – becoming contextually and culturally relevant. The connection fits so strategically well. Think United on front-of-shirt which is seen not only during live matches but also in every season of ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ making the brand relevant and inclusive to the entire Wrexham, players and inhabitants alike.
The phenomenally well-received documentary, now extended for three more seasons, is instrumental in making the club ‘one of the most popular European football teams in the US’, as told by Maggie Schmerin, United Airlines’ chief advertising officer in an interview with Marketing Brew. It was also key to securing 57% of total revenue share from Rest-of-the-World, primarily North America, in the form of sponsorship, licensing etc. growing from 24.6% share in 22/23.
The documentary effect translated into approximately 4.5mn followers on social media with 71% follower-share over TikTok and Instagram combined.
Economic Impact of Wrexham AFC
The series did more just acting as the club’s marketing vehicle, it also shaped the town’s economic transformation.
Tourism data compiled by the Scarborough Tourism Economic Assessment Model and Visit Wales and other reports, shows an extent of impact. Consider this:
- In 2019, before the Hollywood takeover, tourism contributed £135mn to Wrexham County’s economy which dipped to £49mn during pandemic. Sensational growth was experienced with the release of the documentary. By 2022, tourism spend reached £151mn which climbed to £179mn in 2023 and subsequently £191mn in 2024.
- Visitor numbers reflect this too. In 2024, Wrexham County experienced over 22% surge in visitors reaching 2.07mn. Data, compiled from various reports, shows, almost 1.6mn of these were day visitors.
- The average international football tourist to Wrexham was spending significantly more per visit than a typical domestic leisure visitor which led to a revival of the real estate, hospitality jobs and experiences, hotel stays, new business and reopening of closed ones and of course, new investment.
The economic revival of Wrexham has begun and progressing rapidly. Should the club make it to the Premier League, either by the end of this season or in the near future, the town is expected to see further economic boost.
In Conclusion
The ‘Wrexham Model’ is being seen not just as an investment playbook but also an inspiration for investors to consider lower division clubs with the view of transformation. At the same time, one has to be cognizant of the fact that Wrexham is not a copybook model, it was created keeping the spirit of the place in mind combining the elements of vision, the fans and community, marketing, including strategy, stage-wise plan, story-telling and execution, and of-course supported by the brilliant on-field performances continuously for four successive years and going strong.
It’s only a matter of time before Wrexham enters the Premier League club and that would only explode the growth further. Looking forward to see this!
