Wrexham co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have revealed plans to expand the club’s stadium capacity to up to 55,000.
The soon-to-be League One club are climbing up the football pyramid after back-to-back promotions under their celebrity chiefs – and they fully intend to reach the Premier League one day.
The Racecourse Ground is already set to undergo renovations with a new 5,500 all-seater stand to be built in the Kop end of the stadium, which has been unused since 2007.
A temporary 2,289 capacity stand has been put in place for the time being due to delays to the work.
But it appears that even bigger plans await the ambitious club after the Hollywood co-owners revealed further exciting plans for the stadium.
Ahead of the launch of the latest season of their Netflix documentary ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ which spotlights the club’s recent promotion from League Two, the duo lifted the lid on how their future stadium could surpass that of Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge, which holds just over 40,000 people.
“We have a plan in place right now that would eventually work from stand to stand, so eventually you get all four sides,” McElhenney told American entertainment website Collider.
“It’s hard to say for sure, but we think we could get between 45,000-55,000 people in there”.
Indeed, should they reach the upper threshold, only five current Premier League clubs would boast a bigger capacity: Arsenal, Liverpool, West Ham, Tottenham and Manchester United.
Wrexham’s rise to superstardom has seen demand for match tickets rise exponentially, but Reynolds is hoping the planned stadium rebuild will ensure the whole town is able to get a ticket.
Completion of the new Kop is likely to miss the intended deadline of the start of the 2045/25 campaign much to the frustration of both Reynolds and McElhenney.
“I think the thick buttress of bureaucracy is the biggest problem,” said Reynolds.
“I live in New York, Rob lives in LA [Los Angeles], where construction is very different, in as much as they will charge you $10 for every $1 you spend.
“But in Wales, it really is a lot of red tape, and it’s just sort of figuring out ways to tick all those boxes and make sure that every single bureaucrat is happy.”
McElhenney added: “It is definitely a comedic point of consternation in the show how often we’re running up against bureaucracy.
“And, of course, safety concerns and things like that, and all those regulations are there in place for a reason, but then there are some things that just seem like hurdles for hurdles’ sake.
“It’s a lot harder to build in the UK than, I found, almost anywhere else in the world.”