Cliff Notes – Wrexham chief has ‘no doubt’ of club’s Premier League future
- Wrexham’s CEO, Michael Williamson, emphasises the importance of expanding the club’s global brand to ensure sustainability and success in the Championship and beyond.
- The club’s recent rise from League One to the Championship is marked by significant financial challenges, particularly with competition from clubs receiving parachute payments.
- Williamson highlights the necessity of building a strong connection with the global fanbase, ensuring the club’s identity transcends its Hollywood owners and the documentary “Welcome to Wrexham.”
Wrexham chief has ‘no doubt’ of club’s Premier League future
MELBOURNE — Wrexham chief executive Michael Williamson has no doubt the Welsh club can one day reach the heights of the Premier League.
And as it prepares to make the massive leap from League One to the Championship, he’s told ESPN that the expansion of the club’s global brand through efforts such as its tour of Australia and New Zealand will help “future-proof” the club and ensure once it gets to the top flight, it stays there.
Owned by Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, who purchased the club for just £2 million back when they were playing in the fifth tier of the English pyramid in 2021, Wrexham made history this season when it finished second in League One, earning a spot in the Championship and making history with back-to-back-to-back promotions.
The English second-tier, however, represents a whole new level of spending and scale. Wrexham’s average crowd of 12,757 during their League One campaign in 2024-25 would have been the third-smallest in the Championship — Sunderland, per Transfermarkt, led the league with an average crowd of 39,000 — and relegated Premier League clubs Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton will receive “parachute payments” of £39 million.
Few Championship clubs, however, can match the global brand that Wrexham have been able to build since the arrival of their Hollywood owners and the production of Disney’s Welcome to Wrexham documentary.
The club’s front-of-shirt sponsor is currently United Airlines and after touring North America in their previous two preseasons, they land Down Under this week ahead of games against A-League sides Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC, and Wellington Phoenix.
“Going from League Two to League One, I commented, ‘Listen, this is League One, it’s really F’ing difficult,'” Williamson told ESPN.
“Now, I’m saying again to the board and to Rob and Ryan, going from League One to the Championship is a huge step forward. League Two to League One was a big step. This is a very large step, very giant step.
“We’re playing against clubs that have been just recently relegated from the Premier League that are sitting on very large parachute payments. It’s difficult; it’s a significant financial investment.
Wrexham chief executive Michael Williamson has told the club’s celebrity owners, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, that the step up to the Championship will be a big one. Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
“But over 50% of our revenues are from international sources. So having these types of preseasons but ultimately, just being able to connect and engage with our fans through global distribution of merchandising, being able to be available for our matches on streaming and linear channels worldwide. All of that drives that continued growth and sustainability, because that’s really what this is about.
“I have no doubt we can arrive at Premier League at some point, but what I want to make sure is that we’re future-proofing, so that when we arrive there, we’re able to stay there, and that we don’t just come falling crashing back down, like you’ve seen other clubs do.”
Part of this, he acknowledges, is ensuring that a rapidly expanding global fanbase builds a connection with the club and the community that surrounds it, as opposed to just its Hollywood owners or the Welcome to Wrexham documentary.
“Future-proofing is how we make sure as a club that we stay connected to that global fan base, and that we’re telling stories and sharing content that is relevant to them and engaging to them and still connects with them,” he said. “That we’re really making sure that we’re investing in understanding who our fans are and being able to have, at a grassroots level, a relationship with our fans.
“That’s why these tours are critical and part of that. Because we need to make sure that the brand is the club, and not just Rob and Ryan and the documentary. I think you’re seeing that happen and that’s what’s been really exciting to see that grow, as well as the growth of the success on the pitch.”
Before Wrexham, Williamson spent nearly five years working in Italian football with Serie A stalwarts Internazionale. The Italian giants were owned by current Indonesian FA head Erick Thohir during this period, as well as Chinese businessman Steven Zhang.
And while nothing is yet planned, the worldwide presence that the Welcome to Wrexham documentary is one that Williamson knows will give the Red Dragons opportunities to expand into some of football’s fastest-growing markets across Asia.
“One of the things that will evolve is that as the documentary enters into some of those marketplaces, whether it’s China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, that obviously will allow us to not just have a football presence, but also to have that brand presence of the storytelling of the documentary,” he said.
“And certainly, as that goes into those markets, then that’s something we’ll continue to explore — where can we find opportunities to grow the brand, in Southeast Asia and Asia in general? I have some strong connections there, especially in Indonesia, which has 280 million potential fans.”