In 2024-25, for example, they definitely will lock horns with Reading, Wigan Athletic and Charlton Athletic, famous English clubs with loyal fanbases who were competing in the Premier League not too long ago.
Depending on how things pan out in the Championship this season, they could also end up colliding with Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield Town or – whisper it – Tom Brady’s Birmingham City.
Their entry point to the Carabao Cup and FA Cup remains unchanged, though, so there is no guarantee of bigger ties in those competitions unless they earn it by winning games. However, a run of wins in either competition would have the effect of introducing millions to the coffers in prize money.
While they no doubt have sponsors lining up to work with them already, being in a higher league will naturally boost their negotiating position.
These payments come in the form of a ‘Solidarity Payment’ (teams recently relegated from the Premier League receive a ‘Parachute Payment’ instead), a ‘Basic Award’ and facility fees.
In the 2023-24 season, League One clubs received £778,500 as a Solidarity Payment and a £920,000 Basic Payment – a total of £1,698,500. In terms of facility fees, for televised matches in League One, home teams would receive £30,000 and away teams got £10,000.
To give an idea of the scale here, the club’s income from sponsorship and advertising rose from just over £1 million in 2022 to £1.8 million in 2023.
links >> Stream 1 HD Stream 2 HD Stream 3 HD Stream 4 HD
The figures for the 2023-24 season will be released in June and should make for interesting reading, but, either way, Reynolds and McElhenney will be anticipating further growth in 2024-25.
Similarly, Wrexham will be hopeful that they can continue to build their expanding retail operation in 2024-25, having enjoyed huge growth from 2022 to 2023.
With the improvement of capacity and awareness (thanks to the documentary) in recent years, Wrexham reported £3.4 million in retail sales in 2023, which was an incredible increase from the £1.3 million reported in 2022.
