To those that say soccer is just a sport, inform them to visit Wrexham.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s an unbelievable place now,” marvels 76-year-old John Evans in his wheelchair outside the town’s historic Racecourse football stadium. A crowd has gathered around a brass band playing Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon and a carnival atmosphere fills the Mold Road.
Evans, who has terminal cancer, used to cycle 23 miles to watch his beloved Wrexham as a teenager but has not watched many games recently due to his ill health. The club learned about his situation and gave him two of the most sought after tickets in Wales. “It’s really special. It’s a dream come true,” he says. “The good days are back now, aren’t they?”
In a script from a Hollywood movie set, little Wrexham AFC are on the point of a go back to the soccer league for the primary time in 15 years following their beguiling takeover via the actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. The international’s third-oldest skilled soccer membership, nicknamed the Dragons, will likely be promoted on Saturday in the event that they beat Boreham Wood, in a birthday celebration that might neatly be heard around the Atlantic.
“I just wanted to be here in person to experience the atmosphere,” stated Joe Donahue, 42, sipping a Wrexham lager reverse the stadium after a 9,000-mile round-trip from his local Alabama. He is considered one of legions of North American lovers who’ve develop into hooked at the crew after gazing the Disney/HBO documentary Welcome to Wrexham, which charts its takeover via Reynolds and McElhenney in November 2020.
Tourists from in every single place the sector have descended on Wrexham because the takeover and the membership has a rising swell of A-list lovers. Will Ferrell was once pictured having a pint with lovers in February whilst the actors Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Kaitlin Olson, McElhenney’s co-stars within the sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, watched Tuesday night time’s 3-0 win over Yeovil Town on the Racecourse flooring , the oldest global soccer stadium nonetheless in use.
Maurice Cargius, an area taxi driving force, was once requested via an Australian customer remaining weekend for “a grand tour” of the city (native other people insist on calling Wrexham a the city, in spite of it being given town standing in December). A wall within the Turf pub, which options prominently within the display and is subsequent to the stadium, is stuffed with the signatures of honeymooners and holidaymakers from so far as Malaysia and South Africa. One informed the owner he was once amazed it was once an actual pub, no longer a movie set.
Donahue, a loud-talking Alabaman with a goatee dyed Wrexham purple, stated he felt a “special connection” to the membership and have been greeted enthusiastically via locals: “I don’t really have any friends in Alabama and everybody here has just been so quick to talk to me and be friendly. They’re just nice people.”
“I think it’s amazing,” stated Paula Masters, 51, shaking Donahue’s hand between pulling pints at Maesgwyn village corridor. Some lovers had been “a bit resentful” about vacationers purchasing up tickets (house video games promote out weeks upfront) however most of the people welcome the inflow of recent cash, she stated. The documentary was once “putting us on the map,” she added: “No one would ever come and visit Wrexham, let’s be honest, would they? I think it’s wonderful.”
Once the biggest club in Wales, Wrexham have languished in the fifth tier of English football for 15 years. After coming close last season to escaping the “purgatory” of the National League, the lowest level of professional football, they are now only one win away from promotion. It would, says the club’s honorary vice-president Spencer Harris, be “one of the biggest days in the history of the town”.
Outside the stadium, the stars and stripes fly as prominently as the red dragon. There is a buzz of excitement as McElhenney emerges from a blacked-out people carrier in sunglasses to sign autographs. At first, some fans were suspicious about why two actors who knew little about football wanted to buy a club in England’s fifth tier.
McElhenney described in the documentary how he was drawn to Wrexham as it reminded him of working-class Philadelphia, where he grew up. But to take the 158-year-old club back up the football pyramid he needed “movie star money – more than that, I needed superhero movie star money,” which is where Deadpool star Reynolds came in. They bought the club for a rumored £2m and transformed its prospects almost overnight. “Ryan and Rob are like gods around here,” says Masters.
Any cynicism is long gone as fans sing their names from the terraces: “Less than a mile from the center of town, a famous old stadium’s crumbling down. No one’s invested so much as a penny. Bring on the Deadpool and Rob McElhenney,” goes the song by lifelong supporter Michael Hett, whose band, the Declan Swans, have been invited to open two shows for Kings of Leon at the 10,000-capacity Racecourse next month. “We’ve played in front of a maximum of 700 people before,” Hett laughs. “I’m still pinching myself now.”
It is simply a decade since Wrexham lovers gave their lifestyles financial savings to boost greater than £100,000 in simply seven hours to shop for the membership, which had previous spent 18 months in management. After years of laborious instances the city merits its newfound good fortune, says Wayne Jones, the landlord of the Turf pub: “As the saying goes, It’s Always Sunny in Wrexham and it’s our time to have a bit of sunshine”.