Wrexham, Burnley and Birmingham have all been promoted, with celebrity owners capitalizing on success with aplomb
Todd Boehly wanted 12 players on the pitch. At least, that's what we were told. It was 2022, and with Cristiano Ronaldo out at Manchester United, the American businessman saw an opportunity. He tried to piece together a picture for then-manager Thomas Tuchel. Ronaldo, he surmised, could play in Chelsea's front line – the final piece of the puzzle.
What he didn't realize is that, after piecing together the formation, Boehly has 12 players on the pitch, a unique but yet-to-be-tried 4-4-3 formation.
That tale has been a beating stick to bash American owners by English fans in recent years. Americans don't know anything about football. They are ruining sport. They don't even use the right word for it. And there are, indeed, plenty of examples of poor American ownership (although it is not just Americans that can be bad owners in football – see Tottenham's Daniel Levy, pride of Essex, for more!)
But in the past 12 months, something has changed. Chelsea notwithstanding – that will always be a dumpster fire until they come up with a coherent strategy, hire a manager for a long-term project, and renovate the ailing Stamford Bridge – American ownership in English soccer has looked, well, good.
Wrexham's Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, Birmingham's Tom Brady and J.J. Watt's Burnley have all achieved promotion from their divisions. Throw in the Leeds ownership – 49ers enterprises – and Americans are four-for-four on successful seasons. Promotion is good. It makes fans happy.
And more broadly, it could prove to be vital for the growth of the game in America, with big names operating in foreign countries showing the United States how soccer in its most traditional form works – and how to be successful at doing it.
Getty Images NewsAmerican ownership: Why it works
American ownership in European sports in a relatively recent phenomenon. It has, in fact, only broken into the mainstream consciousness over the course of the last 20 years. The Glazer Family bought Manchester United in 2005. Tom Hicks and George Gilette purchased a majority stake in Liverpool two years later.
The latter duo were booted from the club by angry fans within four years. The former have drawn the ire of supporters for their repeated mismanagement of United (although it is worth pointing out that club level decisions, not a lack of funding, have contributed to the Red Devils' decline.)
All of that set a pretty miserable table for those who followed. Celebrity culture has changed that, though. But instead of swinging big, a series of big names did perhaps the smart thing, and got involved in lower leagues. The Hollywood duo of McElhenney and Reynolds bought Wrexham in 2021. Brady invested in Birmingham in 2023. Watt became the face of Burnley – although he owns a minority stake – the same year.
And there's more. RedBird Capital, who also have a stake in a small baseball team known as the New York Yankees, are controlling owners of Milan. Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Lyon and Roma all have majority U.S.-based investment.
There's no single, sweeping generalization to be made here. United's owners are clueless. Wrexham's are creative. Bournemouth and Crystal Palace are successful and financially sustainable. Lyon and Chelsea are nightmares. But there are tangible clues as to how this can all work.
AdvertisementGettyWelcome to (a sensible) Wrexham
Wrexham, if you zoom out, have nailed it. There was plenty of reason to be skeptical when the Hollywood duo bought the club nearly five years ago. It is often forgotten that Wrexham were not their sole choice. And when it became clear that they intended to make a documentary, chronicling their ownership of the club, which would then be sold to FX and Hulu, few fans were convinced.
It seemed a vanity project of sorts. Here were a couple of guys who used the wrong word for a sport, taking on an ailing team in a forgotten post-industrial city, and packaging it into a must-watch series. Not exactly the best way to endear yourself to defeatist Brits.
Of course, the reality has been different. Wrexham weren't promoted in their first season, but they were stable. Since then, they have achieved three consecutive promotions, rising from non-league soccer all the way into the English Championship. They have made it all look rather easy, too. Welcome to Wrexham, season four, drops May 15, and the show remains a PR project of sorts. It's captivating, something that really scratches the American feel-good itch. The U.S. loves a plucky underdog.
But their success is only partly due to the documentary. Wrexham are not underdogs. Or at least, they haven't been. They are richer, more willing to spend, and better run than pretty much everyone else they have faced. Promotion, given their wealth, should be an expectation.
It helps, of course, that there are a couple of funny guys at the center of it all who have made what seems to be a sincere effort to improve the town around them. But they have money, and they're doing the basics well. Toss in a few concerts, celebrity appearances, and TikTok sponsorship, and these guys are showing how a small club can improve – regardless of where the owners are from.
Getty Images SportJ.J. Watt, Burnley, and the power of winning
Burnley have stuck to a similar formula – albeit in a different way. J.J. Watt had a Hall of Fame career in the NFL and will go down as one of the best defensive ends of all time. His ownership in Burnley, though, is financially insignificant.
Alan Pace – a senior figure in investment firm ALK Capital – owns 50 percent of the club. Michael Smith and Stuart Hunt own around 17 percent apiece. Watt, whose estimated net worth is $70 million, has not disclosed how much of Burnley he is invested in. But it is very much a minority stake.
But Burnley have been smart. No one cares about Pace, Smith or Hunt, from a PR perspective. They're guys in suits. Watt, meanwhile, is the fun one who wears baseball caps, goes to games, and interacts with the players and fans. He represented Burnley's team at 7 a side tournament TST in Cary, North Carolina last summer. He's the one that Americans know and English fans are starting to like.
This is PR mastery. Watt, like Reynolds and McElhenney, is the smiley dude who is warming to soccer, and has the kind of infectious personality that U.S. fans love. He tweeted at goalkeeper James Trafford after Burnley's historic run of clean sheets in the EFL Championship, and joked he would come out of retirement if he went the whole season without conceding a goal (Trafford went 12 games, and Watt admitted to getting a bit nervous.)
Burnley, too, are in a similar situation. Parachute payments down from the Premier League have meant that they are far richer than their competition. They have a squad filled with talent too good for the Championship. Trafford is perhaps England's long-term starting goalkeeper. Their manager, Scott Parker, has bona fide Premier League experience. Watt is the grinning face of a winning team that has very little to lose.
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Getty Images SportTom Brady, celebrity, and well-timed interviews
Brady, meanwhile, is slightly different. If Wrexham and Burnley are rich relative to their competition, Birmingham are unimaginably wealthy. They are a club that has spent 57 seasons in England's top flight. In League 1, their stadium rivals only Sunderland in terms of size and facilities.
Birmingham have stumbled in recent years with a series of poor managerial appointments and financial mismanagement, bringing about a transfer embargo in the early 2010s. In 2023, they were purchased by American hedge fund manager Tom Wagner's subsidiary, Shelby Companies – yes, named after the family in the Birmingham-based Peaky Blinders – after two other takeover attempts fell through.
Brady was brought on as a minority investor. They got it badly wrong in 2023, making the baffling decision to hire Wayne Rooney, who, with two wins in 15 games, took them from Championship playoff contenders to relegation candidates. They went down without much of a fight.
Their response was to spend big. They dropped nearly $30 million last summer on new signings and have built one of the best seasons in League 1 history. Brady has not shown a deep interest in soccer, and he certainly isn't celebrating like a madman in the cheap seats. Instead, he sort of stands there in sunglasses, looking robotic, and peering over the team he had a little-to-no role in constructing.
But Brady – as has been a theme with a lot of his post-NFL career – has been shrewd in the way he has pieced together an image. It starts with a vague interest. Wagner has insisted that Brady texts him regularly about the state of the club.
"Tom is engaged with the club 365 days a year. Not a day goes by where he and I don’t FaceTime or talk or message about Birmingham," Wagner said in April.
He has appeared on English TV twice in the last seven months to spill vague platitudes about team success. He has talked about "processes" and "development." He has insisted that Brimingham are "not done yet" after achieving promotion. That NFL media training, it seems, has come in handy. But his PR presence is felt.