NP8 A A 7, 2 0 2 4 A A A I Welcome to Wrexham FX Canada and ALICIA RANCILIO Four years after purchasing Wrexham A.F.C., Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney seem to have no regrets de- spite the high costs of ownership. The team recently clinched a promotion and is now two tiers away from the top level, known as the Premier League. The last few years have been a crash course for Reynolds and McElhenney in both the game of English soccer and the econom- ics behind it. The experience has been captured in the FX docu- series Welcome to Wrexham, which debuted its third season last week. The actors spoke with The Associated Press about separat- ing their inner fan with pub- lic-facing jobs as chairmen.
Has learning the business of sports changed you as a spec- tator? McElhenney: No. I have to sep- arate myself. I think im- portant about that is it allows me to give space to the supporters of Wrexham, because they deserve the right to complain and get upset when things going well because their right as supporters. I have that relationship with the Philadelphia Eagles. I both have respect for all the players in the organization, but (foot- ball) is a way I deal with my frustrations and anxiety and something I look forward to on the weekend.
also something I have a passionate feelings about that I express to my friends, not neces- sarily publicly. As chairmen of a football club, we have to hold ourselves to a different standard. We have to have at least a modicum of deco- rum in our exchanges about how we talk about things, because these are human beings, not characters on a screen. These are not athletes who mean nothing to us. These are our friends.
These are our employees. These are people who we have to treat with dignity, grace and respect, and to recognize that this is their livelihood, so a very clear line of demarcation. Reynolds: Just to piggyback on that, we do have each other. We have the public-facing side of it, but then we can also take a moment to enjoy a festival of ex- pletives when frustrated or if things going according to plan. You obviously express your joy for the team succeeding outwardly.
You want to make sure being expressed to all those supporters who have been there. With a show like this, viewers can do an internet search to see some of the outcome. Has there become a pressure to churn out episodes quicker? Reynolds: Absolutely, but what most excited about with respect to season 3 is that as the episodes are finished, we will get closer and closer to continuity with the actual football season happening. So, by the time midway through season 3, see we have any idea going to happen. Just from that sort of macro narrative standpoint, we have no clue.
Everything that doing right now is for broke. We have to get promoted. no real consolation prize if we So we are all in. McElhenney: truly the most exciting part about season 3, is that it will coincide with the end of the season. There was such a large gap between the end of last season and the documentary coming out.
And we thought, if going to continue to make the show, we want to innovate a little bit, so that it becomes more exciting, so both the fans and the docu- mentarians know going to We will catch up with the end of the season and those final few episodes. We actually will have trucks in the racecourse parking lot that will have editing facilities in them, and they will be taking footage and cutting the show as quickly as possible to get it out on onto the air, because we want it to happen in real time. Reynolds: And if this season so far has taught us anything, this is going to be an absolute nail-biter yet again. Obviously the money been put into the team has helped and been a great emotional investment. What about financially? Where are you at? Reynolds: Accountants really want to hear about the emotional investment.
McElhenney: You want to know, like how far in the red I am? pretty significant. true that in the beginning when we asked our advisers if this was a good eco- nomic investment, there was not one person that I can remember that was like, It was more like, Reynolds: Run away, yeah. Histo- ry has an unbelievable amount of examples of how this was not the best idea, but not in it to make money and goddamn it, we (Laughs) I think we rec- ognize how lucky we are that we can be in this position where it about making money or any of those things. I mean, you have to be in a pretty privileged spot to be able to do this to begin with. But eventually, you know, as we climb up the leagues, going to need outside help in order to sustain this club.
One of our great mission statements and this is something that is still a huge target is to create a sustainable model for a sports club like this and allow it to support itself long after dead and gone. The Associated Press BEYOND THE PITCH Reynolds and McElhenney separate fan from chairman as Welcome to Wrexham returns Ryan Reynolds, left, and Rob McElhenney predict that the third season of Welcome to Wrexham will be abso- lute for fans after their team was recently promoted. BEN HI DE www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/weather/saskatchewan/saskatoon Warm Front Occlusion Cold Front Trough Snow T-storms Rain Rain- Snow LEGEND C-Cloudy FG-Fog FR-Freezing rain HZ-Haze PC-Partly Cloudy R-Rain RS-Rain-Snow S-Sun SN-Snow SF-Snowflurries SH-Showers T-Thunderstorms W-Windy Ultraviolet Sun Air Quality National Extreme Temperatures Comfort Indexes Waning Crescent North America Weather SASKATOON Regional Forecasts Regina Battlefords Swift Current Prince Albert Yorkton Moose Jaw CANADA Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow RESORTS Today Tomorrow USA Today Tomorrow WORLD Today Tomorrow.
