Wrexham are currently in the midst of their latest pre-season tour of the United States.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac’s club have enjoyed much success in America already this summer, including beating Premier League team Leeds United 3-2.
With matches against Liverpool and Sunderland still to come in the U.S., HITC have spoken exclusively to finance expert Adam Williams about how much money Wrexham can expect to earn from their tour.
Wrexham could earn over $6m in revenue from U.S. pre-season tour
Williams predicts that the Red Dragons won’t net as much as former Premier League champions Liverpool, who are looking at a windfall of somewhere around £10-£15m for the U.S. leg of their pre-season.
But he goes on to explain that Rob and Ryan’s team could now expect to earn similar money to Sunderland from promoters in America, with a total revenue of around £5m-£6m ($6.6m-$7.9m) from their pre-season tour.
Williams said: “Wrexham pose a challenge for financial people like myself because it is not easy to benchmark them against other Championship clubs. Because of their global profile and the unique commercial strategy, they are a one-off.
“The biggest driver of revenue from pre-season tours for most clubs is fees from promoters, who organise exhibition matches and retain most of the money from ticket sales after costs. On top of that, you might have tour-specific sponsors, merchandise sales and so on.
“Liverpool, who are on the same tour as Wrexham, can expect probably £10m-15m in direct revenue from the tour. Because they are a bigger draw than Leeds and Sunderland, promoters pay them accordingly.
“The question is, where do Wrexham fit into that hierarchy? Their fanbase is more digitally native, yes, but one would assume that a fair few fans in the US will want to see them in the flesh too. My instinct is that they will still lag behind Leeds but maybe be roughly level with Sunderland in terms of how they are valued by promoters.
“Commercial income is a good proxy to compare their respective profiles worldwide, and Wrexham’s was higher than Sunderland’s by about £10m in the last financial year.
“So if I had to put a figure on how much they will earn, I’d say £5m-6m in revenue. Not all of that is profit; there are big costs associated with staging these tours too. But for Wrexham, it’s more about flying the flag in the U.S., attracting more paying customers for the future who might buy a shirt, visit Wrexham and hire one of the new hospitality suites and so on. The immediate revenue is a nice-to-have, but it’s more about long-term strategy.”
After playing Liverpool at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, Wrexham’s pre-season tour will come to a close versus Sunderland on August 2.
They will then face Middlesbrough on August 7 in a Carabao Cup match before their league campaign begins against Cardiff City 10 days later.
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