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Hollywood and hometowns collide as Vancouver native and blockbuster actor Ryan Reynolds is bringing his Red Dragons to B.C. Place for an exhibition game on July 27
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Published Apr 25, 2024 • Last updated 5 days ago • 5 minute read
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Ryan Reynolds, co-owner of Wrexham, celebrates his team’s promotion in 2023 along with his team’s mascot, players and staff. The team has been promoted again, this time to League 1, and will play the Vancouver Whitecaps in an exhibition in July. Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images /PNG
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Welcome To Wrexham is a critically-acclaimed documentary, one that has won scads of Emmys, Critics Choice Television Awards, and legions of new fans around the world for the team it follows — Wrexham AFC.
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And Vanni Sartini hasn’t seen it.
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“It’s my fault that I haven’t watched it yet,” said the Vancouver Whitecaps coach. “I will watch the show because I want to arrive prepared, and of course, you know that I love the spotlight, so I hope to be in the show in the next season.”
With hints dropping all over social media the past few days, the tantalizing teasers were made official Thursday morning — Wrexham, the Hollywood-powered überdog, will play the Whitecaps in an exhibition game on July 27 at B.C. Place.
Tickets went on sale Thursday, with prices starting at $104 and reaching as high as $350.
Wrexham nudged its way into the global consciousness in February of 2021, when news broke that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney had bought the then-fifth-division club for around $3.4 million, rescuing the world’s third-oldest professional soccer club from oblivion. A year later, that interest exploded when a documentary not only boosted the 159-year-old team to new heights of exposure, it also helped soccer on this side of the Atlantic.
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“I’m really excited, to be honest,” said Sartini. “There’s a lot of reasons why. A big star like Ryan Reynolds, he’s from Vancouver (and) coming back home and having this possibility to showcase us even bigger audience.
“The fact that this show, this documentary, with big stars involved in this project, I think helped the momentum of soccer in North America.”
Wrexham toured the U.S. last year, but didn’t come to Canada. This year, as part of the three-game 2024 Wrex Coast Tour, the Red Dragons will play a North American pro team for the first time.
Their other games this year will be against AFC Bournemouth on July 20 at Harder Stadium, in Santa Barbara, Calif., and with Chelsea FC on July 24 at Levi’s Stadium, in Santa Clara, Calif.
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“Last year, Rob got to bring Wrexham to Philly. This year, it’s my turn,” Reynolds said in a news release. “I am so excited my hometown club, the Whitecaps, will get to square off against the Red Dragons. My official stance on the match will be a very friendly ‘neutral’ — even if I will be screaming for a Paul Mullin hat trick.”
The game has been in the works since the darlings of English soccer — well, Welsh, to be accurate — completed a four-game tour of the U.S. in 2023. The teams played Chelsea, Manchester United, and the reserves of the L.A. Galaxy and Philadelphia Union in games across three states, and drew in a total of 112,000 fans.
Whitecaps CEO Axel Schuster and his staff had been in contact with Wrexham, Reynolds and TEG Sport, the promotion company which is overseeing the tour, since that time.
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“We approached them because we really wanted to bring this team to Vancouver. We want to bring Ryan Ryan Reynolds to Vancouver,” Schuster said Thursday from New York, where he was meeting at MLS headquarters before his team’s game against Red Bulls on Saturday.
“It didn’t felt right that they are coming the second time to North America, and he is the face of the franchise and the team is not coming to Canada and not to his hometown.
“From the very first moment, there was absolute openness from them and he was actually pushing a lot. You also saw probably his quote on this, that this was important for him.
“It is not the classic version of an exhibition game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Wrexham where we invite Wrexham and we run and operate the game and cover everything. This is more a game that is organized by TEG and both teams are invited to this game.”
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The ticket prices, while trending towards eye-watering territory, seemingly haven’t dissuaded sales, with plenty having been snapped up already. It’s TEG that sets the prices, not the Whitecaps, and Schuster wanted to make it clear this isn’t a cash-grab by the team.
“I can guarantee everyone that as long as we are not selling out the stadium or have a crowd that we haven’t seen in the stadium yet — please carve out the one game that is coming end of May — this will be only a break-even game for us,” he said, citing the May 25 game vs. Miami as the exception. That game, featuring Leo Messi, still has tickets available, although the floor is near $300 and the ceiling more than $11,000.
“It’s not a money thing for us. It’s more about the story having this game, and also thinking that from a technical side that makes sense for us.”
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Wrexham has risen from the fifth tier to the third level of the English soccer pyramid, just two steps below the Premier League, but most admit League One isn’t considered to be on par with Major League Soccer in terms of quality.
But Reynolds and McElhenney have invested their own money, along with the proceeds from their documentary and new sponsors, back into the club, feeling their ascent up the English ranks. They are expected to splash out even more cash this year to improve the team enough to break into the English Championship, just below the EPL.
But they’re now fighting against teams with budgets as big or bigger than their own, and their own storied histories.
Sartini’s opinion is MLS is equivalent to the Championship side, with the Whitecaps being one that would challenge for promotion to the EPL, when asked to compare the leagues.
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For the Vancouver, this game comes a week after a regular-season home game against Houston, and three days before they travel to California for their Leagues Cup game against LAFC.
It gives them a consequence-free chance to test out tactics they may want to use, and being the day after the summer transfer window opens, help ease any new signings into the lineup.
But it remains, first and foremost, a spectacle, and entertainment.
“It’s cool. As a fan of the show, it’s going to be cool to kind of see those guys up close and personal,” said Whitecaps striker Brian White. “It’s going to be a fun game, and hopefully it’s a fun experience.”
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/soccer/mls/vancouver-whitecaps/wrexham-vs-ancouver-whitecaps-july-27