E147: Inside the Wrexham takeover

Perhaps the biggest, most interesting, surprising sports business story of the last year has been the takeover of Wrexham football club by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.Like you, I saw the announcement and the social media campaign and wondered, why? What’s their plan, are they serious about investing in the third oldest professional football club which now resides in the lower reaches of the English Football pyramid, or is just about making a behind the scenes documentary, a content play or a way of promoting gin?So, to answer these questions we’ve got hold of the two people entrusted to carry out the plan on behalf of the two superstar owners.Humphrey Ker is a friend and colleague of Rob McElhenney, and a writer on the Apple TV show Mythic Quest. He’s the one who put the idea in McElhenney’s head in the first place and is now the club’s Executive Director.With him is Shaun Harvey, who many of you know will know as the former CEO of the EFL and before that Chief executive of Leeds United and Bradford City football clubs. Harvey has been working as a consultant for Wrob and Wryan, via his connection to Inner Circle Sports, the boutique investment bank focused on the sports industry.So, if anyone knows what’s going on, it’s these two. And over the course of an entertaining fifty minutes or so, all your questions will be answered, and more besides.If you like the Unofficial Partner podcasts, you’ll really like our weekly newsletter, which is read by thousands of people across the global sports business, and is where we talk about the topics and themes that arise from our podcast conversations.We can send it direct to your inbox every Thursday, all you have to do is sign up via unofficialpartner.com, where you’ll also find our back catalogue of podcasts.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.