Since Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds took over AFC Wrexham in 2021, things have been looking up for the Welsh club. The AFC currently plays in the second division, but the goal is to reach the Premier League – and to achieve this, experienced investors are now being brought on board.
As announced by AFC Wrexham, Apollo Sports Capital is acquiring a minority stake in the club. “The investment is in line with Wrexham AFC’s long-term growth strategy and its ambitions in the Premier League,” said a club statement, which also emphasized that “majority shareholders Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds will continue to oversee the club as controlling owners.”
Apollo is to provide financial resources to advance the ongoing renovation of the aging Racecourse Ground stadium, which has been used by AFC as its home ground since 1872 and was last expanded in 1999. AFC Wrexham has owned the facility since June 2022 and has been pushing ahead with its modernization ever since. The investors also committed to a long-term involvement. “This is a multifaceted investment in which Apollo Sports Capital can provide long-term and patient capital to help Wrexham achieve its goals,” explained Lee Solomon, partner at Apollo and co-portfolio manager at ASC.
“From the outset, we wanted to build a sustainable future for Wrexham,” said Reynolds and McElhenney in a joint statement: “The dream has always been to take this club to the Premier League while remaining loyal to the city. Such growth requires world-class partners who share our vision and ambition, and Apollo absolutely does that. We have known Al Tylis, CEO of Apollo Sports Capital, for many years and are delighted that ASC is now joining the Wrexham family as we take the next step forward together.”
Tradition with a new look and big ambitions
AFC Wrexham was founded in 1864 and is the oldest football club in Wales. For many years, it moved between the second and fourth divisions and never achieved any particular success in England. In 2008, it fell into obscurity in the fifth division, but since the club was taken over by actors Reynolds and McElhenney, it has gone from strength to strength – the Red Dragons are writing a success story that is otherwise only found in Hollywood scripts.
When they took over the club, they announced their goal of reaching the Premier League, which people laughed at at the time, McElhenney later revealed. But the charisma of the new owners attracted investors, and the hugely popular documentary series “Welcome to Wrexham” played on the underdog image and made the club popular worldwide – and ultimately a real brand; around 50 percent of the club’s revenue in the 2023/24 season came from the US.
In terms of sporting success, the big wins were slow to come at first, but in 2022/23 the club was promoted to the fourth division, then marched straight into the third division and was immediately promoted to the Championship – never before had a club in the English Football League managed to be promoted in three consecutive seasons. The newly promoted club currently occupies 12th place in the 2nd division with 27 points from 19 games and still has its sights set on the play-off places, trailing sixth-placed Stoke City by just three points.
A billion-dollar business
The Welsh club’s goal is clear: the Premier League is the target – and the arrival of Apollo has certainly increased the funds available to achieve it. Apollo Sports Capital is a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, a billion-dollar financial services provider listed on the stock exchange since 2011, which, according to its own information, covers the entire spectrum from credit bonds to private equity and manages assets of $908 billion (as of September 30, 2025).
The company had already been active in the sports and entertainment industry for some time, but intensified its activities with the founding of ASC, which most recently made headlines when it became the majority shareholder of Spanish top club Atletico Madrid. The CEO of Apollo Sports Capital is Al Tylis, an experienced sports investor and former real estate manager who has already worked with Reynolds and McElhenney on the acquisition of Colombian first division club Club Deportivo La Equidad and the minority stake in Mexican club Necaxa.
