Every sport today, from cricket to padel, wants to crack America. Soccer is already a major cultural force across the US, but its incursion into the American sporting psyche has been led by MLS and the top leagues of Europe, the English Premier League in particular. If you’re a club battling away in the English Football League Two, how exactly do you stand out to the median US soccer fan? What place does a midweek cup fixture between Accrington Stanley and the Fulham Under-21s have in a footballing world of volcanically hyped top-flight matchups and potential super leagues?
One solution for a lower league club fighting for international attention might be to get bought by Hollywood celebrities and launch a slickly produced, multi-season documentary about the club’s quest for promotion through the lower tiers of British football on a popular US cable network. That, of course, is the solution that Wrexham famously devised to build its following among the American public, with the third season of Welcome to Wrexham set to premiere in the US on 18 April. Now the Welsh club, owned by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and currently sitting third in League Two, wants to build on its recent successes to help all 72 clubs across the three tiers of the English Football League gain a foothold in the American market.
