The EFL Celebrity Derby: Birmingham City Faces off Against Wrexham in a Battle for U.S. Fandom | Sports

The phrase ‘Monday Night Football’ could also be no stranger to heavyweight clashes however an all-time NFL nice taking up Deadpool needs to be a first.

This is Tom Brady tackling Ryan Reynolds, League One’s large spenders going head-to-head with Hollywood FC — or just, Birmingham City versus Wrexham.

No matter how we costume up a fixture lately described on X by Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney as “an absolute banger”, Monday night time’s showdown is a large deal on and off the pitch. Two golf equipment who're the very embodiment of globalised soccer will meet in a sellout conflict that's being broadcast stay on each side of the Atlantic.

“A really, really high-profile match,” says CBS Sports govt vp Dan Weinberg earlier than Birmingham host Wrexham, which might be proven on two channels as a part of the community’s four-year cope with the English Football League (EFL).

“We’ve carried every Wrexham game this season and we’ll continue to lean into them as much as we can. They are impossible to ignore in this country with the celebrity influence they have and the visibility of Ryan and Rob. We are enthused by the growth of their profile in the market.

“These two clubs have owners that resonate very well in this country.”

Not so way back, few would have batted an eyelid in the United Kingdom over this specific Anglo-Welsh contest, by no means thoughts in the United States. The two golf equipment have little or no shared historical past, aside from the £1million City paid for Bryan Hughes in 1997 that is still Wrexham’s report switch price.

Now, although, the facility of superstar — plus back-to-back promotions for Wrexham and final May’s shock relegation for Birmingham — means this League One fixture carries loads of intrigue.

Deadpool star Reynolds and McElhenney, via the success of the Emmy-award-winning Welcome to Wrexham documentary, have turned a beforehand provincial membership into a world sensation with two profitable pre-season excursions of North America underneath their belts.

Birmingham aren't any much less fascinating because of the 2023 takeover by Knighthead, the U.S. funding agency fronted by co-owner Tom Wagner and supported by minority investor Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion.

Relegation on the finish of their first season was definitely not a part of the script but it surely has achieved nothing to dim the group’s large ambitions, which embrace constructing a new stadium after shopping for a 60-acre plot of land round a mile from St Andrew’s.

City clearly don’t intend on hanging round for lengthy in the third tier, judging from the £20million ($26m) they splashed on transfers this summer season. Around half of that's understood to have gone on wrestling striker Jay Stansfield from Fulham’s grasp, with Birmingham paying between £12m and £15m earlier than add-ons.

To put that determine into context, the earlier report paid by a membership in this division earlier than the current window was the £4million Sunderland paid for Wigan Athletic striker Will Grigg.

Wrexham co-owner McElhenney will little doubt recall that specific signing resulting from it that includes closely in sequence two of Sunderland ‘Til I Die, the Netflix show that first gave the comedy actor the idea of buying a football club.

His team have been no slouches with recruitment, either. The £2million spent during the summer window was an unprecedented outlay for Wrexham, made possible by last season’s annual income smashing via the £20million barrier. Blue-chip sponsors, corresponding to United Airlines, contributed closely to that club-record determine.

Both camps have been getting into into the spirit in the course of the build-up to Monday’s eagerly-anticipated encounter, with Wrexham enlisting the assistance of Eli Manning, a long-time NFL rival of Brady.

In response to Manning donning the Welsh membership’s workforce shirt, Brady took to X and Instagram — the place his mixed following stands at 18 million — with a cheeky video that includes one in all his prized Super Bowl trophies that ends with an attraction to McElhenney to “educate the Wrexham fans just a little bit on the history of the NFL?”

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See you Monday! @BCFC @Wrexham_AFC @RMcElhenney @VancityReynolds https://t.co/Ny87RekOPR pic.twitter.com/YyvkWmL5JK

— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) September 14, 2024

AJ Swoboda, managing director of sports activities intelligence agency Twenty First Group, believes Wrexham are a prime instance of tips on how to faucet into the U.S. market over the long run.

“High-profile figures like Tom Brady or Ryan Reynolds will always help bring clubs into the spotlight,” he says. “Especially in crowded or foreign markets like the U.S.

“But, while celebrity owners generate a short-term buzz, long-term fan engagement requires sustained sporting success and smart marketing — largely digital — strategies.

“The Welcome to Wrexham docuseries has been key to growing Wrexham’s global fanbase but the club’s owners have then backed up these efforts through material sporting performance improvements.”

He cites how an evaluation of Google Trends information during the last yr reveals Wrexham had 22 instances the curiosity in the U.S. in comparison with Birmingham and 1.4 instances that of Premier League neighbours Aston Villa, though the latter have certified for the Champions League.

“Tom Brady’s appeal and status should continue creating interest for Birmingham City in new markets,” provides Swoboda. “But, as with Wrexham, this attention needs to be converted into deeper fan engagement. Celebrity minority ownership is not as unique as it used to be.”

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As Wrexham co-owner McElhenney made clear when tagging Brady on X, Monday night time’s conflict underneath the St Andrew’s floodlights has all of the substances to be a cracker — however, maybe their greatest battle lies forward.

In a current report titled Connecting and Winning U.S. Fandoms: A Guidebook For European Clubs, fan information specialists CLV Group recommend that 36million U.S.-based soccer followers — or 44 per cent — are nonetheless undecided on which workforce to help. The group’s CEO Neil Joyce estimates a potential $1.1billion is up for grabs.

The large Premier League golf equipment or members of the European elite, corresponding to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, are anticipated to vacuum up a sizeable chunk of this bounty, however Joyce additionally believes golf equipment with high-profile superstar homeowners, corresponding to Wrexham and Birmingham, can earn a piece of the motion.

“Wrexham’s story is phenomenal,” he says. “It has the underdog element, a club on the brink of extinction that starts to work its way back up. Americans love that kind of storytelling.

“Then, there’s the measurability of it all. United Airlines, one of the biggest airlines in the world, is on the jerseys. That kind of link makes a huge difference. I was on a flight with United earlier in the summer and they were handing out the (free amenity) bag with the Wrexham (pyjamas).

“It isn’t about just the match. It is the personalities around it. Look at how Taylor Swift has brought new fandom to the NFL (her partner Travis Kelce plays for the Kansas City Chiefs) in the same way Ryan Reynolds has brought Deadpool fans to Wrexham.

“Given the new EFL rights deal (with CBS), there will be a lot more exposure to Wrexham for sports fans in the U.S. They can tap into that. Same for Birmingham, with arguably the NFL’s greatest of all time.

“Look at Tom Brady’s adjacent sports investments. He has the (NFL team) Las Vegas Raiders, he has a WNBA team (Las Vegas Aces). Again, I’d be tapping into those fanbases and bringing them on the journey with Birmingham as well.”

As Joyce factors out, central to creating any potential inroads into the U.S. sports activities market is CBS Sports changing into the brand new residence of the EFL. With 250-plus matches being proven stay throughout the community per season for no less than the subsequent 4 years, the potential publicity is large.

CBS doesn't reveal publicly viewing figures for particular person matches however govt vp Weinberg says he has been “really, really happy with the viewership in the first month”.

He believes a key issue in America’s growing EFL curiosity is the promotion and relegation setup that sees golf equipment probably transfer up and down the pyramid, corresponding to how Birmingham dropped into League One final May and at the moment are decided to bounce straight again up.

“The U.S. market has wrapped their arms around that,” says Weinberg, who's at pains to emphasize that showcasing all 72 EFL groups is essential to the community. “It’s compelling and dramatic.”

Recent years have seen a flurry of U.S. buyers getting concerned in the EFL. By final Christmas, 22 of the 72 groups had been both wholly owned by or had minority buyers from throughout the Atlantic. Fourteen of these had accepted new funding since Wrexham’s takeover in 2021.

“What Wrexham have done brilliantly is globalisation and diversification,” says Laurie Pinto, a specialist in soccer financing and membership acquisitions. “That’s easier said than done. (Wrexham director) Shaun Harvey and others should get a lot of credit for that.

“There’s lots of people who think they can do the same. That’s the challenge: trying to make a global push with partners outside the UK to diversify the income stream.”

Asked if he felt future years will deliver much more funding from North America, Pinto replies: “Yes, there is a lot more interest. Most of these American owners think global and they put money in.

“U.S. sport is expensive — if you want to buy a basketball, NFL or baseball team, we are talking in the billions.”

With the U.S. internet hosting the 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico, sports activities media analyst Larry Johnson believes the brand new four-year TV deal means EFL golf equipment are in a prime place to profit.

“Viewership data from the last couple of World Cups shows a rise in popularity (in the U.S.) for sports in Europe,” he says. “They did quite a bit for La Liga and the Premier League, even a bit for the Bundesliga.

“All the arrows point towards the next World Cup pushing up the numbers on the Premier League and EFL. Wrexham have an opportunity here, especially if they get promoted this year, to really do something special.

“Wrexham are already drawing numbers. They had a friendly with Chelsea (in July 2023) on ESPN, one of the largest cable networks. It pulled 300,000 viewers. That’s comparable with a Major League Soccer game on the same network.”

As is maybe inevitable in an age when regular-season video games in the NFL and Major League Baseball are performed in London, there was speak of the Premier League or EFL probably doing related by switching one-off fixtures to the States.

Such a transfer could be massively controversial. When the Daily Mail instructed this summer season that Birmingham and Wrexham had been in talks over a doable change, Canada-born Reynolds was very fast to vehemently deny the story.

Nevertheless, such speak stays, with CLV Group’s Joyce believing it may assist a European competitors steal a march in attracting followers.

He says: “The monetary gain and attempts to capture the market would be a lot easier if European clubs played competitive games in the U.S. There is more than $1billion on the table.”

Such discuss rising audiences and realising potential is, in fact, for the boardoom. On the pitch, all that may matter come Monday night are the three factors.

Dan Scarr joined Wrexham in the summer season from Plymouth Argyle, the place he received the League One title in 2023. He is a lifelong Birmingham fan who spent three years on the taking part in workers at St Andrew’s after arriving late in the skilled recreation at 22.

“What’s been going on there is crazy,” the defender tells The Athletic. “Good for the city and, being a Birmingham City fan, it is great for them. The atmosphere will be electric and it’s a sellout. There’s also the bragging rights between the owners, both being American and stuff like that.

“But we want to stop that (title-winning) parade. Everything else doesn’t matter.”

(Top photographs: Getty Images)