Wrexham

[mozo]

4 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

That'll all change when Lansdown reveals the foreign investors he is in talks with are George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp...  

Maybe not those individuals but we'd definitely be an interesting Championship project for a US celeb and their rich mates. We can see from the (irritating) Wrexham situation that the glamour of Hollywood really elevates the brand of a football club, which is (irritatingly) a big part of football nowadays. In a way it's exactly what we need.

[Red-Robbo]

5 minutes ago, mozo said:

Maybe not those individuals but we'd definitely be an interesting Championship project for a US celeb and their rich mates. We can see from the (irritating) Wrexham situation that the glamour of Hollywood really elevates the brand of a football club, which is (irritatingly) a big part of football nowadays. In a way it's exactly what we need.

 

It's clear the Hollywood touch gives you the sort of glamour that brings attention and more money. My post was a joke, but two of those actors have West Country homes and the other has one in the Cotswolds so - why not! 

(As long as they don't make one of their kids chairman)

[handsofclay]

One of the greatest Hollywood stars of all time used to watch us play.... Cary Grant. But we didn't make a song and dance about it like these other clubs.

Joe Jordan said that the reason he continued to live in Bristol is because when he is out people don't bother him, they acknowledge him but then leave him be. I like to think that's what makes us appeal to Hollywood stars and Bollywood ones for that matter. That they can come to Ashton Gate and enjoy the game and atmosphere in a relaxed fashion and not be bothered by the demands of fans. We can simply give them a nod and a smile of appreciation and concentrate on the match and not act any differently than if we were sat next to Joe Bloggs from Bemmy. *

*Obviously, though, if one of our players nears goal it's best not to shout 'shoot!' if Alec Baldwin is the star sitting next to one. 

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by handsofclay

[Kingswood Robin]

9 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

It's clear the Hollywood touch gives you the sort of glamour that brings attention and more money. My post was a joke, but two of those actors have West Country homes and the other has one in the Cotswolds so - why not! 

(As long as they don't make one of their kids chairman)

 

Would we be good if those actors came in and formed a holding company called Ocean's Eleven.   

I must say I'm looking forward to the One Show coverage when Boreham Wood go up via the play-offs !

[robinforlife2]

It's all well and good, but had they come over and bought us, pumped loads into the community and got us to the Premier League, we would be lapping it up big time, and if you say you wouldn't have, they I think you and I both know you're lying. Fair play to them I say. 

[maxjak]

1 hour ago, Open End Numb Legs said:

Here is the game that went 2-0, then 2-4, then 4-4.

The video is not great quality. Much like the defending!

 

Then we got stuffed in the replay....Ha!

[Open End Numb Legs]

58 minutes ago, robinforlife2 said:

It's all well and good, but had they come over and bought us, pumped loads into the community and got us to the Premier League, we would be lapping it up big time, and if you say you wouldn't have, they I think you and I both know you're lying. Fair play to them I say. 

I think most on here have criticised the media, not the owners or the club or the fans.

Personally my pride would be greatest if a City side full of academy products could get us promoted, a golden generation if you like. Of course if AS goes in the summer that tells us where we stand in the big scheme of things but I genuinely would rather we didn't go up just due to a Hollywood type of connection. Rich arabs? Boom and bust? Not for me, I want strong foundations before celebrating. I don't want to see City do another 3 x division drop.

[Leveller]

1 hour ago, robinforlife2 said:

It's all well and good, but had they come over and bought us, pumped loads into the community and got us to the Premier League, we would be lapping it up big time, and if you say you wouldn't have, they I think you and I both know you're lying. Fair play to them I say. 

This. They haven’t tried to buy a glamour club, they’ve revived a good traditional club in a rather depressed city, and revitalised the whole area in the process. I accept it’s hard on Notts County etc, but frankly every league has richer and poorer clubs, which is something that will never change.

I think it’s a positive story all round.

[mozo]

3 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

It's clear the Hollywood touch gives you the sort of glamour that brings attention and more money. My post was a joke, but two of those actors have West Country homes and the other has one in the Cotswolds so - why not! 

(As long as they don't make one of their kids chairman)

Imagine Depp calling the shots. It would be chaos (but the team Christmas parties would be epic)

[1960maaan]

5 hours ago, Open End Numb Legs said:

Here is the game that went 2-0, then 2-4, then 4-4.

The video is not great quality. Much like the defending!

 

Bloody hell , don't think I've seen that before.
We were in the back of the East End, so excited with the comeback we were determined to go to the replay. Decided not to in the end, I'm glad to say, 3-0 I believe.

[Thomas_red]

I’m 9 episodes into the series. After watching all the ‘all or nothing’ series I found it refreshing to see how things work at lower league level. Ryan and Rob aside it’s an insightful look into a world we’re fortunately insulated from due to Steve Lansdowns generosity (but still not immune to) Rovers aren’t far off this level with their tents. 
 

I jumped on here to see what our fans thought and I’m honestly embarrassed by the anti-Welsh rhetoric and the fact that the majority haven’t seen the show (it is a show, not a documentary) which I think would convince most that the story is one of newsworthiness. Wrexham do have a great history and they were in dire straits. Rob & Ryan fully bought the club with this show as part of the business plan and it’s working… I’m sorry if that frustrates you somehow. There are parallels that are naturally drawn with other premier league owners from the US regarding lack of appreciation for the English Football League pyramid and our games culture and I get that, it’s a business after all, but I don’t think anyone can argue that these guys haven’t tried to understand how Wrexham fits into the community and how the community makes the club.

 

Super story and I’m happy for them. If it was us and we were closer to the prem we’d all be loving it. 

Edited May 3, 2023 by Thomas_red
Spelling errors

[Spike]

I think it's a good thing, hate them all you want but they are getting more eyes on the lower leagues and imo that's only a good thing. Had the whole Wrexham coverage been so high I wouldn't be following Notts County to see how they do after Wrexham took the title. I probably also wouldn't be looking at league 2 to see who their opponents are next season. 

I understand people getting fed up of seeing them but i actually like Rob Mcelhenney, not as an actor but as a football fan. He's not your traditional fan buy a long shot but you can tell he loves Wrexham now, he's embraced the culture of the fans, he's got involved in their community etc, I think it's a very positive thing and the only real reasons to not like what is going on there is jealousy and gatekeeping football fans who don't like a different breed of football fans coming into the game. 

 

[DaveInSA]

On 03/05/2023 at 15:44, maxjak said:

May i ask.....Re: your username....do u live in South Africa?

I used to.

back in the UK now tho’

[The Journalist]

On 03/05/2023 at 11:11, DaveInSA said:

I find all the attention their getting a bit like vomit inducing. I can't remember who went up from the national league last year - there was literally zero publicity.

And now we have a Hollywood star owning a football club suddenly it's everywhere, Wrexham this, Wrexham that, Wrexham the other. It's a fairytale and aren't they great blah, blah, blah.

So is it good, bad or indifferent?

Discuss.

Posted this in another Wrexham thread the day they sealed promotion. Think it's worth repeating because everyone here criticising the media has no grasp of the scale of the story, nor the wider interest in it...

I think the whole “media love-in” thing is interesting - it’s very much a two-way street. You can promote the shit out of a story/event but if people aren’t interested it doesn’t land (and, believe me, we do plenty of that).

The interest in this story has been genuinely phenomenal today though - the traffic some of the content has driven has been extraordinary and blown me away, I guess because it’s a story that transcends sport.

So yeah, just wanted to make that point from a position of actual knowledge - yes, the media have bought in but so has the audience. Why? Because whether you like it or not it’s a good - and pretty ridiculous - story!

 And when asked where the audience was based...

Predominately the UK. It’s fair to say the story has done relatively big traffic in North America (last month the Wrexham page was the fourth-most visited by US readers, more than Man City!), but actually BBC audience numbers for sport in the US aren’t that huge in the grand scheme of things.

What is interesting though, as you allude to, is the type of audience coming to the story. Yesterday’s live page was particularly popular with younger readers, for example.

We were also interested in the thumbs up/thumbs down balance on the goal posts. I’d have expected it to be relatively even, a mixture of well wishers and cynical fans who want Wrexham to fail (a bit like on this thread), but there were 3,300 ups v 130 downs on the third goal. That’s fairly unprecedented.

So yeah, I think it just goes to prove this is way more than just a straight football story/run-of-the-mill ‘non-league team wins promotion’ tale. It’s a great news story which the audience has engaged with to a level way beyond my expectations.

[Oh Louie louie]

What's more appealing weekend in Wrexham or Paint balling with alec Baldwin?

[maxjak]

On 03/05/2023 at 12:01, GrahamC said:

Absolutely nauseating.

The fact that they’re Welsh & the BBC has to find something for the disproportionate number of journalists they have to report on is definitely a factor, but the blanket coverage is farcical.

Plenty of Championship sides doing very well like Coventry & Luton are getting a small fraction of the airtime they are.

Shame that the number of Welsh sides in the league has returned to 4, be far happier myself if it was zero & they played in their own little league.

Nine members of OTIB liked this comment...............of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion  .......But FFS..really?   

[Kashmir]

3 hours ago, maxjak said:

Nine members of OTIB liked this comment...............of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion  .......But FFS..really?   

Indeed.

The only thing that’s absolutely nauseating is that post.

imagine getting upset over a Welsh football team getting more media coverage than Coventry or Luton.

Get a life!

[Wanderingred]

I’m just imagining a Welsh League including Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Wrexham and then the teams from the League of Wales…. What a bore of a league that would be, although it might be funny at first watching Cardiff vs Port Talbot or somebody.

[W-S-M Seagull]

On 03/05/2023 at 13:36, WarksRobin said:

It will be interesting to see how they get on with FFP rules in the league. What is it, a limit of % of income can be spent on salaries?

And this is exactly why I'm happy for Lansdown to remain as our owner. A new owner can't invest money without putting the club at risk of breaching FFP. 

But in Wrexhams case its a bit unique. They've been able to increase their income worldwide because of who their owners are and the TV show. 

If they continue to sell out every week and sell merch etc around the world then they'll be just fine with ffp. They'll no doubt be able to afford to pay top wages in league two. I can seem them getting another promotion next season. 

[the1stknowle]

On 03/05/2023 at 18:16, Leveller said:

This. They haven’t tried to buy a glamour club, they’ve revived a good traditional club in a rather depressed city, and revitalised the whole area in the process. I accept it’s hard on Notts County etc, but frankly every league has richer and poorer clubs, which is something that will never change.

I think it’s a positive story all round.

Yeah, I cannot get the negativity. It’s something different and nothing fundamentally wrong with what they are doing. They seem to be doing things right, programme is watchable and they have centred the fans. 
 

What will be interesting is when it starts going wrong. Because football fans turn on every owner eventually. Because football fans are the worst. When results aren’t flying it will start. And the entire brand (and associated sponsorship and player attraction) is now built on this wholesome goodwill. So if that is diminished, it’s a trickier proposition for them. 
 

Same sort of issues with what happens when people stop watching the show. Do the owners keep on? If not, how do they exit? Obviously becomes commercially less appealing once they are gone or once they aren’t on tv. 
 

Which is all to say it’s not like they’ve discovered some cheat code that is ruining football. It’s just a slightly different version of the (comparatively) rich owner story that you see in every league every season. 

[Baba Yaga]

8 hours ago, Wanderingred said:

I’m just imagining a Welsh League including Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Wrexham and then the teams from the League of Wales…. What a bore of a league that would be, although it might be funny at first watching Cardiff vs Port Talbot or somebody.

I think travelling from North to South quite a few times a year would be a real pain, you can imagine the whole route being slow single track roads/country lanes, scenery of only green hills and sheep for hours at a time, pissing down with rain 6 days a week, getting lost and taking wrong turnings amongst places that have stupid names with lots of l's, taking several hours to make an 100 mile journey where the home team has a handful of supporters. You can definitely see why they prefer to play in England.

[Leveller]

3 hours ago, Baba Yaga said:

I think travelling from North to South quite a few times a year would be a real pain, you can imagine the whole route being slow single track roads/country lanes, scenery of only green hills and sheep for hours at a time, pissing down with rain 6 days a week, getting lost and taking wrong turnings amongst places that have stupid names with lots of l's, taking several hours to make an 100 mile journey where the home team has a handful of supporters. You can definitely see why they prefer to play in England.

I can see you know Mid Wales really well! I did that drive recently and the one thing that struck me was that the cliche about omnipresent sheep was well founded in reality.

[Red-Robbo]

3 hours ago, Baba Yaga said:

I think travelling from North to South quite a few times a year would be a real pain, you can imagine the whole route being slow single track roads/country lanes, scenery of only green hills and sheep for hours at a time, pissing down with rain 6 days a week, getting lost and taking wrong turnings amongst places that have stupid names with lots of l's, taking several hours to make an 100 mile journey where the home team has a handful of supporters. You can definitely see why they prefer to play in England.

 

A470/A483 is a really good-quality fast road, as is the A44. Both, a pleasure to drive.

Both put the so-called A roads in Somerset to shame.  

[Sir Geoff]

3 hours ago, Baba Yaga said:

I think travelling from North to South quite a few times a year would be a real pain, you can imagine the whole route being slow single track roads/country lanes, scenery of only green hills and sheep for hours at a time, pissing down with rain 6 days a week, getting lost and taking wrong turnings amongst places that have stupid names with lots of l's, taking several hours to make an 100 mile journey where the home team has a handful of supporters. You can definitely see why they prefer to play in England.

Sounds like Cornwall.

[Kid in the Riot]

Half hour documentary on BBC2 now on Wrexham, for those interested.