Better not kick a ball into someone's 'yard'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65325867
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Games against Chelsea in North Carolina and Manchester United in San Diego, with two further games still to be announced.
Better not kick a ball into someone's 'yard'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65325867
I think this could potentially be a rare slip up from R+R.
I’m not sure how I’d feel if I were a Wrexham fan and seeing the ownership catering so heavily towards American bandwagon fans who a year ago couldn’t pinpoint Wales on a map.
If they’re playing 4 games in the states it’s probably unlikely they’ll do more than 1 friendly at home. If that ends up being Chesterfield or Shrewsbury or someone like that I’d be a bit miffed.
There’s already been a few fractures between the original Wrexham fans and the new American fan base online.
I think there’s a line the owners could cross where Wrexham get seen as a bit of America’s plaything.
Revenue obviously. Makes perfect sense.
Better than when we went to America
The Wrexham story is great (and wish it was us). All R+R are doing is taking the real deal over to the states. Ideal for Americans - they cant be accused of jumping on the glory tail bandwagon - Lets remember Wrexham are in the National league and next year maybe in League 2. It gives the yanks a chance to start supporting a team from the ground - which these days rarely happens.
Good luck to all of them
It’s crazy how people’s opinions can differ so massively. Of course your opinion here is true to how you feel and I wouldn’t challenge that but I feel almost the complete opposite.
The way of the football world at the moment is that every club is someone’s plaything, but these 2 guys are doing it differently. I live in North America and it has emotionally connected people I know here to football in a way that hasn’t been done before. On one of my rare visits to Twitter last week I read that the Wrexham v Notts County game had 10 million mentions and at the same time Arsenal v Liverpool had 3 million. That’s nuts.
If they make Wrexham self sustaining I think they’ll have done a miraculous job and if attracting an audience of 10’s of millions helps with that then they deserve all the credit.
Tickets for the Man Utd game are in the $300 range!!! $300 FFS!!!!
I get that they might piss off a tiny proportion of Wrexham’s 10-15,000 current fan base, but they’re not putting Malaysian dragons on their badge amd telling Ben Foster to shoot…
I love what they’ve done and I’m more than a little jealous
Well I think it's brilliant what they're doing and it's give the club and community a huge lift and put Wales back on the map as far as the states are concerned. I went to Barnet last week and their fans were superb, our youngsters could learn a thing or two when it comes to chants and songs - they sing men of Harlech with their own lyrics about promotion creative and original, our lot in the last ten years have become lazy and just copying the big clubs.
This.
I'd take a bit of what they've got all day long!
All they're doing is some pre-seasons over in the U.S , I can't stand pre-seasons / any friendly/non competitive football so if I had the opportunity to miss those games for the benefit of the club i'd take that!
A friend of mine who works on the retail side at Man Utd told me their game against Wrexham is a sell out but other games on the tour Dortmund, Real Madrid...were not yet.
If you crack the US that is a huge revenue stream. The fact Man Utd want to align with and play them just shows the exposure Wrexham are getting especially in North America.
The way the Rob M and Ryan R have approached football club ownership is an absolute breath of fresh air. I'm sure they have probably alienated some of the fan base but on the whole it seems they have done an incredible job not only on the football side but also fan and community engagement. They have embraced Wrexham and Wales and have actually put the time in to lean about and understand the culture.
Compare that to Tan, who apart from injecting cash into the club, did not embrace the culture or our identity, alienated and divided fans and as time as past and his interest has waned, been a diminishing presence at the club.
I totally agree wih this, they really seemed to have done things the right way - and yes there is some jealousy that if Tan had only handled things the same way
The Man Utd game is indeed a sell out, one of my US colleagues said they had been offered 2 tickets at 450USD each!!
Haters gotta hate
Personally I can see why people were wary of Rob & Ryan at the start, but they really appear to have brought into the emotional side of football, when its good, its a massive Drug, Im not saying they will leave the cub in a better position to when they took over, but they cant be much worse, they were going no-where under fan ownership as they simple didnt have the cash
good luck to them, reminds me of our time in Div 4 ( in old money ) under Eddie May
They've charged interest above base rate, have ST prices higher than some Championship sides, wanted Levelling Up funds used for the redevelopment, when tuned down now have Wexham council (ie taxpayers) stumping up the cash want Wrexham Trust to give them the leasehold. Shares in the club were given to them with the caveat they invested.
People are forgetting those guys are actors.
Things will be very different for them in League Two.
I guess they are not a Charity
Fans don't have to buy them, supply and demand
Business owners asking others to fund things, its not the biggest crime in the world, didnt Cardiff council help us when we were building the new ground
Pretty sure they have invested something
They dont have to fly over for the games though, think Ryan dragged his family over for a recent Saturday game and fly them back intake for School on Monday, sure that might be acting and for the TV show, but its taking it a little far imho
Yes L2 will be different, but for the fans, its been fun upto now
I can't see any negatives in this.
Of course they aren't, but the reality is different from the public image they want to portray.
Being a football fan isn't the same as going to a supermarket for shopping.Fans don't have to buy them, supply and demand
Business owners happy for the media to report how much they are interesting without mentioning how much others are contributing.Business owners asking others to fund things, its not the biggest crime in the world, didnt Cardiff council help us when we were building the new ground
Cardiff Council helped us? Land with a value was not being used or subject to planning permission from memory. We took on board the development of a stadium and retail park, Council got Ninian Park land, removed Covenant, sold to property developers for money. We did the work on the stadium and retail park, Council enjoying the benefits of business rates et al. We weren't given money.
Didn't say they haven't but it's minimal.Pretty sure they have invested something
IYHO indeed.They dont have to fly over for the games though, think Ryan dragged his family over for a recent Saturday game and fly them back intake for School on Monday, sure that might be acting and for the TV show, but its taking it a little far imho
It was fun under Hammam till we had to fly Kav off by helicopter.Yes L2 will be different, but for the fans, its been fun upto now
Oh I definitely would prefer them than Tan.
And I don't think they've done anything wrong yet but this could potentially be the start of some careless mistakes. Ryan Reynolds is known for being a good businessman and there are several things a good businessman could do that would be at odds with being a good football club owner. Is there a possibility he puts the business' interest ahead of the fan's interests in the future?
You've already said tickets in the US are 300 dollars and a sell out. If they even earn 10% of the revenue from that game it would be more than 3 or 4 pre season fixtures at the Racecourse. With that in mind, why wouldn't they do another pre season tour in America next summer? Then the summer after that and the one after that, etc.
They sold out 25,000 shirts this season. The majority of it to Americans. Considering Americans are willing to spend a lot more money on sporting events and paraphernalia than Brits, the smart move from a business sense is to jack up the prices of kits and merch. Instead of selling a shirt for 40 quid you can sell it for 80 quid. You might lose 3,000 customers in Wales but there's potentially 10,000 people in America lining up to buy the merch.
As someone has pointed out their season tickets are more expensive than some Championship clubs yet they still sold out. With promotion almost certain they've got an excuse to raise prices even higher, potentially pricing out long term fans.
Plenty of Americans online have been asking about the possibility of reserving seats at the Racecourse specifically for international tourists. Currently the club doesn't do that but is it something the owners are considering doing?
On a sillier note, their away kit last season was green because of Rob's connection to the Philadelphia Eagles. What if they decide that to appeal to Americans more they change the traditional colours from red and white to red, white and blue. Or incorporate stripes or stars into the kits. Unlikely of course but they wouldn't be the first owners to go fiddling with tradition
Currently I think they've been great owners and as I said, I'd love to have people like them at Cardiff. But as they climb the leagues they might decide to make some changes that won't be popular with the locals just to appease the international fans.
Most of your comments fall into the ‘what if?’ or speculative ‘might’ categories, but a couple of comments.
If they sell out pre-season in the US then why not repeat and repeat? Feels like a no brainer
Shirts - It’s OK to have different price structures in different markets. Happens all the time
Ticket Pricing & Season tickets.. isn’t that just pragmatic economics which they can adjust as necessary