How Ryan Reynolds Turned a $2.5M Soccer Gamble Into a $100M Business

Today's newsletter includes a deep dive into Wrexham's finances, including annual revenue, merchandise sales, loan repayments, profitability, and valuation. This is the best story in sports.

I’m not going to lie; I initially thought Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were crazy when they purchased Wrexham AFC for $2.5 million. Not because of the money; what’s a few million to a guy like Ryan Reynolds? He has made hundreds of millions acting and even more money when Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile sold for $2 billion.

The truth is, I didn’t think the juice was worth the squeeze. The story at the time was that Reynolds and McElhenney would use the 160-year-old Welsh club for content, selling the exclusive rights on a docuseries to one of the deep-pocketed streamers.

The economics made sense — streaming providers were paying $400,000 per hour of final-cut content at the time. If Wrexham produced an eight-part video series, they could generate an additional $3.2 million in revenue. At an estimated profit margin of 25%, the club would walk away with about $800,000, instantly becoming profitable.