A global audience tuning in to watch the ‘Hollywood Derby’, as Wrexham versus Birmingham City has been dubbed in some quarters, is nothing new.
All five fixtures between the two clubs since NFL great Tom Brady joined Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac on the roster of EFL owners three years ago this month have been broadcast live on both sides of the Atlantic.
What perhaps raised the stakes further ahead of Friday’s surprisingly-comfortable 2-1 away win for Chris Davies’ English side, however, is that it came in the wake of a World Cup that had cemented football’s place in the North American sporting landscape, a key target market for both Wrexham and Birmingham as they look to realise long-standing Premier League ambitions.
Such was the tournament’s success that fan-data specialist CLV Group estimates the number of U.S. soccer fans has grown from 83 million in 2024 to around 129m today. And only 20 per cent of these are committed to supporting a certain club, according to its CEO Neil Joyce.
“There is a massive opportunity,” adds Joyce, who is adamant that teams with high-profile celebrity owners, such as Wrexham and Birmingham, can earn a piece of the action even amid the inevitable cash-grab by the big Premier League sides or members of the broader European elite.
“The key to being successful in the U.S. will be working out the value of the fans. Not purely the optics of views, shares, likes and so on. What we look at now is the fan valuation model we’ve developed through our technology. This looks at precisely sizing, and also unlocking, direct consumer revenue opportunities.
“For Birmingham and Wrexham, for instance, what’s the opportunity to sell more merchandise? Or digital subscriptions? What collaborations should they be doing? And also, what’s the value of their fans to the sponsors?”
Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac have turned Wrexham into a story that fans around the world want to follow (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Wrexham were quick out of the starting gate this summer in terms of trying to capitalise on the success of the World Cup, arriving on the East Coast just a few days after Spain’s victory in the July 19 final to kick-off a tour featuring games against Liverpool, Leeds United and Sunderland.
It was the third time in four years that the Welsh club had toured the States, underlining a business strategy under Mac and Reynolds that has so far proved very successful thanks, in the main, to the popularity of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary.
In the last set of accounts publicly available for the 2024-25 financial year, 57.7 per cent of Wrexham’s £33.35 million annual revenue came from outside the UK and Europe, primarily North America.
Birmingham’s accounts do not offer a similar breakdown but their total income for the same 12 months stood at £35.6 million, a new record for a League One club not in receipt of Premier League parachute payments and proof that their own strategy is working well.
This includes the extensive use of social media, especially surrounding fixtures such as Friday’s at The Racecourse Ground with Brady having proved adept at stoking a budding rivalry with Wrexham’s equally digitally-aware co-owners.
“Big W. It’s always more fun to beat your friends,” gloated Brady on Instagram following Birmingham’s 2-0 win over Wrexham last April. Reynolds and Mac responded in kind earlier this month when talking to the Men in Blazers podcast.
After It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Mac had picked out the West Midlands club where Brady is a minority shareholder as the game he was most looking forward to in the coming season, he added: “Just to know those owners so well and to be able to go to the games together and sort of shake hands and have a drink and have fun and then kind of hate each other for 90 minutes and then afterwards go back to the pub and have a good time and talk about workouts or whatever Tom talks about.”
No doubt Brady once again enjoying the bragging rights on Friday — Birmingham have won three and drawn two of the five meetings since the former quarter-back became involved at St Andrew’s — will be similarly discussed online by the trio.
Brady pictured watching Birmingham at Wembley in April 2025 (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
“Storytelling is one of the key pillars in terms of trying to drive that audience,” adds fan economy expert Joyce, who sees huge potential in Wrexham’s recent sponsorship link-up with Firefox due to gaming and technology being pivotal in building relationships with potential supporters.
“Wrexham have ridden the crest of a wave with the story of progressing through the leagues after almost going extinct, with the celebrity of Reynolds et al within it.
“The next leap is going after those fans who haven’t picked Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Liverpool, all the obvious clubs. This is where there are opportunities for Wrexham to get really creative and leap ahead of the larger clubs.
“Birmingham also have an interesting play. Not just Brady but the Peaky Blinders angle, the investment in a new stadium. That type of storytelling is key for engagement.”
Wrexham and Birmingham make for unlikely protagonists in a rivalry that has piqued interest across the Atlantic, with contact having been minimal before the recent locking of horns in, first, League One and now the Championship.
There was a famous 1997 FA Cup fifth round victory for Wrexham at St Andrew’s that is still talked about fondly in north Wales. But, really, that and the subsequent £1 million sale of Bryan Hughes, still a Wrexham record, was about it for two clubs who had shared a division just twice before the 2024-25 season.
Now, though, there is an edge to this burgeoning Anglo-Welsh tussle, fuelled in part by an ambition on both sides of this relatively new divide to reach the Premier League.
Promotion would certainly do no harm to those attempts to crack the American market. But, it might not be everything in an age when celebrity is proving every bit as big a draw as on-field success.
“First-mover advantage is a big thing,” adds CEO Joyce. “But, it’s the continuation and the storytelling that is going to be key for engagement.”
