Tampa Bay Times: How ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ helped the small Welsh town rise up
I recently read a remarkable interview with two famous actors, one who had played Deadpool and the other a star and creator of “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.” But Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney weren’t talking about Hollywood.
They wanted to chat about teaming up exactly five years ago to buy a sad-sack Welsh soccer club with the promise of turning around its fortunes and thereby uplifting a downtrodden town. Crucially, they planned to film the process, and the resulting sports docuseries famously became “Welcome to Wrexham.” It has won eight Emmys.
How did they resurrect Wrexham? My research partner, Jan Boehmer, a professor of sport management at the University of Michigan, and I both happened to be enjoying “Welcome To Wrexham” when we had the same thought: What we’re watching is exactly what we study, so let’s examine how this docuseries creates economic and social impact. Our work adds analytical backbone to the anecdotes that the actors relate in their interviews.