Tom Brady warned Birmingham will have to ‘work much harder’ than Wrexham to balance books with Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney making ‘exceptional’ impact at Racecourse Ground

Despite Birmingham beating Wrexham 3-1 in League One on Monday, a football finance expert believes the Red Dragons are in a better spot stability wise – and much of that is down to Hollywood owners Reynolds and McElhenney. He pointed to their links with broadcasters, the Welcome to Wrexham TV show, shirt sponsors and more; and while minority Blues owner Brady will generate more interest – the West Midlands team need to do more to be financially stable.

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  WHAT HAS BEEN SAID

  Dr Rob Wilson, an expert in the economics and governance of professional team sports, told Grosvenor Sport: “The big difference between Tom Brady at Birmingham City and Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at Wrexham is that they have huge links into Hollywood, into TV broadcasting and into media operations. That’s how they’ve been able to leverage the Wrexham story through the docu-series, but also through new partnership arrangements and new front of shirt sponsors.

  “Look at some of the activations they did in particular last summer whilst touring the United States. They had that game against Manchester United which brought in record revenues for an overseas tour for a club the size of Wrexham. Whilst Tom Brady will generate an additional following and he might be able to open new doors for Birmingham in terms of commercial and sponsorship opportunities, he certainly doesn’t have the access to those kinds of media rights organisations in the same way that Ryan and Rob have at Wrexham.

  “So I don’t think the story will be similar and that will mean that Birmingham have got to arguably work much, much harder in order to generate a sufficient amount of revenue to balance their books. When you spend the sort of money they have done this summer, there is naturally going to be a really, really big hole in their books as a consequence of those transfers in that they’ll either need to plug in this year or they will fall foul of the wage cost controls that they have in the Championship.”

  • THE BIGGER PICTURE

    Wrexham are riding a wave right now after back-to-back promotions, whereas Birmingham were relegated from the Championship in the first season US-based Shelby Companies Limited took control of the club. They have spent heavily to get out of League One at the first time of asking and while they are on track to do that, the club’s owners may need to think outside the box to bring in much-needed revenue to counteract their losses.

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    WHAT NEXT?

    Wrexham, who saw their unbeaten run this season come to an end this week, next host Crawley Town in League One on Saturday, whereas Birmingham travel to Rotherham United on the same date.