Reynolds and McElhenney plan for Wrexham’s stadium to hold up to 55,000
Wrexham’s owners, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, plan to develop the club’s Racecourse home into a stadium with up to 55,000 seats. The club will be playing in League One next season after back-to-back promotions and have attracted a worldwide fanbase thanks to the FX docuseries Welcome to Wrexham and the presence of their Hollywood A-listers.
But the ground holds only about 12,600 fans, with a temporary stand on the derelict Kop end behind one goal. “We have a plan in place right now that would work from stand to stand so eventually you get all four sides,” McElhenney said in an interview with the entertainment website Collider.
“It’s hard to say for sure, but we think we could get between 45,000 and 55,000 people in there.” Reynolds added: “The whole town could come to a game.”
McElhenney and Reynolds expressed frustration with UK building regulations. “Of course safety concerns and all those regulations are in place for a reason, but then some things just seem hurdles for hurdles’ sake,” McElhenney said. “It’s a lot harder to build in the UK than I have found almost anywhere else in the world.
“Getting to the Premier League is the ultimate goal – and staying in the Premier League so it’s sustainable. But only doing it in a fashion that the community supports because there are all sorts of ways to succeed. We feel that there are only a few paths to be ethically viable to do so.”
Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground is the world’s oldest international football stadium that still hosts matches, having staged its first Wales home game in 1877.