Hollywood turns its attention to English soccer

In November 2025, former American football player Tom Brady appeared in a Birmingham City promotional video looking at models of a 62,000-seat stadium. The $3.35 billion project includes 12 structures shaped like industrial chimneys. Brady has been a minority shareholder since August 2023.

Rapper and entrepreneur Snoop Dogg became a co-owner of Swansea City in July 2025. And in Wrexham, actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the team in February 2021 for $2.5 million. Four years later, it is seeking investors with a valuation of $475 million — a 19,000% increase.

These are not isolated cases. As of 2025, 11 of the 20 Premier League clubs are majority-owned by American proprietors. In the Championship, the second tier of the English league pyramid, nine teams have North American capital. Across the top four divisions, nearly a third are owned by Americans.

The starting point was 2005, when businessman Malcolm Glazer bought Manchester United for £790 million (around $1.05 billion), becoming the first American owner in the Premier League. Two decades later, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Chelsea are all American-owned. The phenomenon has spread downwards because playing at the elite level has become prohibitively expensive; Chelsea cost $3.35 billion.

The Championship offers something different: clubs with history at an affordable price. Sheffield United was sold in December 2024 for $180 million. The promotion and relegation system acts as a speculative accelerator, impossible to replicate in closed American leagues.

When Reynolds and McElhenney bought Wrexham in 2021, the club had been in the fifth tier for 15 years. Welcome to Wrexham, the FX and Disney+ docuseries, has been key. The series has been running for four seasons and has picked up eight Emmy Awards.

The promotions came thick and fast. In 2023, Wrexham won the fifth-tier National League with a record 111 points. In 2024, they finished second in League Two. In April 2025, they secured their third consecutive promotion, becoming the first team to achieve three automatic promotions in a row. The club, based in a town of 66,000 inhabitants, sells over 100,000 shirts a year. Its turnover rose from $14 million to $35.7 million in 2024.

Birmingham City has tried to replicate the model. Amazon premiered Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues in 2025. The club was relegated to the third division after appointing Wayne Rooney as manager, but returned to the Championship as League One champions. In late November 2025, The Guardian revealed that Wrexham had received almost $24 million from the Welsh government to fund the renovation of its stadium. This is the highest figure ever recorded for a British club. Keith Wyness, former CEO of Everton, called it “absolutely despicable.”

In July 2024, CBS Sports announced an agreement to broadcast 250 EFL matches per season in the United States. With 10 of the Championship’s 24 clubs under American ownership, the aim is to attract an audience accustomed to Hollywood-style storytelling.

On Saturday, October 4, 2025, Wrexham hosted Birmingham in the “Hollywood Derby.” Reynolds and Brady greeted each other in the stands. The match ended 3-1 to Birmingham.

The question is no longer whether celebrities will continue buying British clubs. The question is what will happen when the spotlight fades.

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