How a Football Documentary Transformed Wrexham, Wales Into a New Tourist Hub
Most destinations develop over time. Not so in the age of streaming.
It was a sunny day in June, and I was on the way to Wrexham. The Welsh city of fewer than 45,000 doesn’t have an airport and I’d stopped to buy a coffee during my train transfer in nearby Chester. Making small talk, the cashier asked where I was headed.
“Why?” came his quick reply.
It was a fair question. Most tourist destinations develop over time—the process is less Big Bang Theory and more Theory of Evolution. But in the age of streaming, that’s not always the case. On August 24, 2022, just as the world was emerging from pandemic-related lockdowns, FX released Welcome to Wrexham, a show about the triumphs and setbacks of the third-oldest professional football club, as told by new owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Thousands of people who'd spent the better part of two years hunkered down decided to binge one more television show. And when they were finally able to take a vacation, they knew exactly where they wanted to go. These new fans wanted to see the Racecourse Ground—the home stadium of Wrexham A.F.C.—for themselves.
“On match days now you’re almost as likely to hear a North American accent in the vicinity of the Racecourse as you are a north East Wales accent," Nigel Williams, a member of Wrexham's city council, told me.
As a result of raw star power and exposure, Wrexham quickly became a new hub for international visitors, which also heralded something of a reinvention for the beleaguered city that was previously most well known outside the UK for a 1934 mining disaster that claimed 266 lives—including those of men who’d traded shifts to attend a game later that day. And its football club itself has a troubled past. In the early 2000s, former owners made shady backroom deals to financially benefit themselves at the cost of the team and the town. In December 2004, the team filed for the UK’s version of bankruptcy. As I would soon learn from locals, children donated piggy banks, while adults remortgaged their houses and contributed from their savings for weddings and holiday funds. Within seven hours, the town had raised the equivalent of $62,340. A fan-owned coalition, the Wrexham Supporters’ Trust, raised money to purchase the club outright in 2011 and ran it until Reynolds and McElhenney took the helm in late 2020.
Soon after pulling into town, I headed to The Turf, a pub well-known to viewers of the show. Laws prohibit the sale or consumption of alcohol at England and Wales football matches, so the pub is where celebrations after the games take place, where those without tickets gather to watch matches, where locals come for a pint most anytime, and where tourists arrive by the dozens to see the now-famous haunt in person. It’s also where Wrexham AFC was founded in 1864.
While there, I shared a pint with owner Wayne Jones, who told me that business had tripled since the show's premiere. “On match days, between locals and out-of-towners, there’s a line before we even open,” he said. That’s not entirely surprising, given that in the month after the 2022 premiere of the show, online sales of the team’s logoed items added up to $407,844, compared to $67,605 the same month the previous year—a more than 500% increase. But even though Wrexham has taken a bit of a star turn in recent years, it still ended up providing a relaxing vacation relatively free from the tourist hordes.
From the Turf, I ventured out into the countryside along winding roads and emerald hills, stopping at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. While I chose to walk along the 126-foot-high cast iron trough, part of an 11-mile, UNESCO-designated area along the Llangollen Canal, other options for visitors include a canal boat tour or renting a boat to explore Wales or nearby England. I also stopped at the nearby 700-year-old Chirk Castle, part of the UK National Trust. One might not normally think of a castle as part of an outdoor activity, but this place is an important habitat for rare invertebrates, bats, fungi, and wildflowers. Its 5.5-acre garden shined with different blooms throughout as a result of seasonal planting.
That evening, I stayed at the Hand Hotel, which described itself as “charming,” “quaint,” and “full of character” on its website. I found the description apt. Built in 1610, this 13-room hotel, one of the oldest in Wales, had a welcoming fireplace in its tiny entrance. I looked out onto a hot tub from my room, which was decorated in calming gray and white. Later, while taking a dip, I stared out onto the verdant hills dotted with dozens of sheep, reminding myself that I was in Wales and not New Zealand.
As the documentary has concentrated on the city itself, the outer areas within the county haven’t seen the influx of tourism the city has. “The documentary, whilst wonderful, fails to include the rest of the borough of Wrexham, and no reference whatsoever is made of the epically beautiful Ceiriog Valley,” said Jonathan Greatorex, referencing the location of the hotel he co-owns.
The next day, after my brief bit of a break from football fanfare, I enjoyed a drink downtown at the Lemon Tree, a restaurant and hotel in a neo-gothic building originally built in the 1860s. While there, I spoke with Neil Roberts, the captain of the Wrexham men’s team in the mid aughts. He told me that two years into Reynolds and McElhenney’s ownership company tenure, the club was promoted to a more prestigious league. And in 2024, they achieved promotion once again. Now, ESPN is even showing some of their matches.
And it’s not just the men’s team that has given the city a triumph to brag about. Neil’s daughter, Mia, grew up in Wrexham and played on the women’s team, which won their division in 2023. This year, they were nominated by the Women’s Football Awards for being both the best club of the year and for having the best coach. “It was a statement, I think, that the women are part of the strategic overview for the future of the club,” Roberts said.
Roberts is taking advantage of the city’s newfound fame, entering in as a co-owner of Vault33, a recently-opened wine bar with short-stay apartments, a venture he attributed to a belief that the city was continuing to develop year after year. Meanwhile, back in town, I soon learned that the Wrexham Museum was temporarily closed with a plan to reopen in 2026 as The Museum of Two Halves—one half would continue to house important town archives, while the other would be designated as The Football Museum for Wales.
Wrexham’s arts scene is also growing along with the added attention. FOCUS Wales is a multi-venue, music and film festival with an adjacent conference that’s certainly benefited from the added attention. More than 18,000 people attended their 2021 event and, after the premiere of “Welcome to Wrexham” the following year, the next event saw 5,000 more attendees. The upcoming event is expected to be an even bigger draw.
In 2022, King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla attended services at the 500-year-old St. Giles’ Parish Church to congratulate the town of Wrexham for being promoted to a full-fledged city. But as one local put it to me: “It’s a city with a town at heart.” Wrexham’s current challenge, according to the city’s tourism manager, is the urgent need for better infrastructure to support all of this tourism. That means more office space and hotel rooms, additional higher-end hotels, more frequent trains with higher capacity, and added road access. Though they were recently turned down for a grant provided by the UK’s Levelling Up campaign, city officials hope to receive additional funding through other government programs and private donations.
Locals clearly welcome the interest in their town—and the tourism dollars. But Wrexham’s star turn has been sudden, and a bit exhausting, too.
Jones, for his part, told me that he has no desire to expand The Turf. “These recent years have been good, but there are drawbacks,” he said. “I have less time to spend with my family and I don’t want to continue that way. That’s most important.”