Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney owed more than $19m by Wrexham Football Club

Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds poses with fans ahead of the National League soccer match between Wrexham and Boreham Wood at The Racecourse Ground, in Wrexham, Wales, Saturday April 22, 2023. Photo / AP

Owning a soccer club is hitting Ryan Reynolds in the wallet.

Wrexham, the Welsh team bought by Reynolds and fellow Hollywood actor Rob McElhenney in 2021, released its accounts for the latest financial year on Thursday and reported that the amount owed to celebrities has risen to nearly £9 million ($19m).

That was up from £3.7m ($7.8 million) from the previous year, ending June 2022.

While the club said turnover rose from nearly £6m to £10.5m and that future prospects are positive, its losses increased to £5.1m from £2.9m.

Reynolds and McElhenney purchased Wrexham, one of the world’s oldest soccer teams, for £2m while the club was in the fifth tier of the English game.

It has since been promoted to the English Football League and is bidding for back-to-back promotions, which would take the team to third-tier League One.

Wrexham owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds. Photo / Getty Images

Wrexham is third in League Two heading into a home game against leader Mansfield on Friday. The top three teams at the end of the season are automatically promoted and the next four enter a playoff for one last promotion spot. Wrexham is three points above fourth-place MK Dons with a game in hand.

Wrexham said the club’s losses were “deemed necessary to allow the club to maximise its full potential in the shortest time practically possible”.

“The club is under no immediate pressure to repay these loans at the expense of the progress we seek to achieve,” Wrexham said, “and further financial support will be provided/secured to support the capital expenditure projects the club is currently planning.”

Those projects include increasing the capacity of its Racecourse Ground stadium. Wrexham is regularly getting crowds of more than 10,000 spectators, more than three times the number attending before the takeover and a remarkable figure for a fourth-tier team.

“The financial losses suffered by the club since the takeover shouldn’t be repeated,” Wrexham said, “with income generated by the club now sufficient to meet the operational costs of the club going forward.”

Wrexham pointed to the “continued popularity of Welcome to Wrexham” — the fly-on-the-wall documentary charting the progress of Reynolds and McElhenney as soccer owners — and more money earned in the EFL as reasons to predict that turnover will carry on growing.