Canadians and Wrexham — How Ryan Reynolds and Soccer Sparked a Travel Boom

“I love an underdog story,” Ryan Reynolds says in the first episode of “Welcome to Wrexham”.

The Vancouver-born movie star and his business partner, actor and comedian Rob Mac, have orchestrated one of the greatest such narratives in sports history. As the COVID-19 pandemic was winding down, the pair purchased the third-oldest soccer team in the world and ignited a turnaround that is equal parts “Bad News Bears”, “Rocky” and “Miracle”.

If “working-class town” needed an epitome, it would be Wrexham. A centre for coal mining in the 19th and 20th centuries, it endured an economic collapse in the 1980s and subsequent setbacks. Its unemployment rate in 2022 was the third-highest in Wales. It was poor. Not a place on a traveller’s map. Now, shockingly, it is a must-visit locale for fans of Reynolds, Mac, and the spotlight they have bestowed on Wrexham.

“We chose to come to Wrexham because of the show,” says Cari Taylor of Edmonton, who journeyed to the town in the northeast corner of Wales with her friend, Milena Laban. They were staying in Chester, a nearby English town popular with travellers, and made sure they took the 30-minute train ride to visit Wrexham, because of the Canadian connection to Reynolds and their affection for the show.

“It’s a feel-good rags-to-riches story and we thought since we were so close, we should check it out,” Laban says.

Wrexham Scores a Tourism Win

The pair’s travel choice is indicative of the activity Wrexham residents have witnessed since the show debuted. The town attracted 2 million visitors in 2025 and tourism brought in approximately £190 million (about $360 million CAD) in revenue. Wrexham is now in contention to become the U.K. City of Culture 2029, an honour that includes £10 million ($19 million CAD) in investment. The success is welcome, of course, but for some it is also a surprise.

Fearful that the silver-screen duo’s ambition would amount to a gimmick or hype scheme, the community of Wrexham was at first hesitant to believe in a Hollywood ending for their beloved club. That trepidation has completely evaporated, says Wayne Jones, the owner of the Turf Pub who has become a beloved figure because of the authenticness he exudes during appearances on the program.

“I don’t think, locally, people grasped what it was going to become six years ago when it all started,” Jones told me on September 13, just two days after the start of the team’s new season. “You hope it can become as large as you can imagine, because that’s the sports fan in you. But no one would have fathomed six years on that the team would be worth 300 to 400 million pounds and playing in the league we’re playing in. It’s really remarkable.”

Reynolds and Mac (who legally changed his last name from McElhenney in 2025) purchased the team for £2 million ($3.8 million CAD) in 2021, when the club was near bankruptcy and dwelling in the National League — the lowest tier of professional soccer in the United Kingdom. The Red Dragons’ rise to the Champions League — and, in 2025, a victory from the unfathomable: reaching the English Premier League of Erling Haaland and Bukayo Saka — is astounding and people from around the world want along for the ride. Indeed, Wrexham AFC has a legitimate claim to the largest bandwagon in modern sports history.

“After the first season of the docuseries was released in September 2022, Google searches for Wrexham jumped about 30%, a University of Michigan study found. As the series continued, metrics measuring employment, per-capita GDP, social-service spending and mental health improved significantly,” a Yahoo! Sports story noted.

I don’t know what Wrexham was like before I walked through it on a warm, sunny Sunday, when much was closed and the streets were quiet. But from accounts I heard and read, it wasn’t nearly as pretty as it is now. No murals of soccer players and certainly no life-sized Deadpool statues or Emmy Awards at his feet, which is what you will find at the official Wrexham AFC store. It’s a must-see spot for soccer memorabilia, with some Marvel gems thrown in.

What It’s Like to Visit the Home of Wrexham AFC

After the Racecourse Ground, the team’s historic home pitch, and the Turf Pub, the most notable attraction is St. Giles’ Church, which was built in the 1500s and contains a pre-Reformation font as one of its artifacts. It is also famous for a landmark outside of its walls — the grave of Elihu Yale, controversial namesake of the famous Connecticut university.

Farther afield are a pair of scenic delights, the Llangollen Canal and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct that it flows into. Kayaks and river boats float through the canal at a leisurely pace while foot travellers can go wild with their cameras as they take in the views from the aqueduct, which has earned the nickname “The Stream in the Sky”. Built in 1805 and extended in 1975, the aquaduct is 38 metres (126 feet) tall and runs 307 metres (1,007 feet) above the River Dee. It is the highest aqueduct in the world and the longest in Great Britain. Your heart will pump faster than your thumb clicking on your phone camera as you traverse it. Once you make it to the other side of the aqueduct, a good pint and order of fish and chips can be had at Telford Inn, a historic watering hole alongside the canal.

The economic windfall of “Welcome to Wrexham” has sparked an increase in infrastructure, including the new Football Museum of Wales and Wrexham Museum, a dual attraction that debuted on September 25.

The name of Wrexham in Welsh means “working man’s water meadow”, a nod to the River Gwenfro that flows through the town. Credited for quality H2O, the river is a reason why Wrexham was once a hub for beermaking. At one point it was home to 19 breweries. Now, only two remain, Magic Dragon Brewing and circa 1882 Wrexham Lager, the U.K.’s oldest existing lager brewery. You can do worse on your travels than spend an afternoon in the Turf Pub drinking a pint and listening to locals discuss their town’s fortune.

And, of course, you are likely to run into a fellow Canadian. There’s now an undeniable connection between Wrexham and the Commonwealth nation on the other side of the pond. As Edmontonians Taylor and Laban proved, Wrexham is a place for which there is affinity and shared affection. Jones concurs.

“Purely because of what Ryan does for us we have tons of people who look kindly on Canada. For example, we had a lot of local people supporting Canada in the World Cup,” Jones says while standing behind the bar of the pub. “And here there are lots and lots and lots of Canadian tourists who come in all the time and they really help to boost the economy. So there is plenty of mutual respect there.”

More About Visiting Wrexham

Getting There: A recently added WestJet flight from Toronto to Cardiff, the Welsh capital, has sparked a boom in Canadians visiting Wales. From Cardiff, Wrexham can be accessed via a 2 1/2-hour train ride or by driving (225 kilometres (140 miles). Air Canada has direct flights to Manchester, England, which is only about 90 minutes by car or train to Wrexham. For more trip-planning info, peruse the Visit Wales website.

Wrexham AFC Tickets: Getting into a match at the Racecourse Ground is extremely difficult. Tickets are in high demand among local supporters. Resale markets are likely the only option for most out-of-town fans. Visit the Wrexham AFC website for details.

Note: Vacay.ca is featuring destinations outside of Canada that our editors feel will appeal to travellers seeking to diversify their choices in the midst of ongoing tensions with the United States. In this article, Managing Editor Adrian Brijbassi features a Wales destination with a notable Canadian connection. His visit was supported by Visit Britain and Visit Wales. No organization or business reviewed the article before it was published.