Wrexham, Ted Lasso, and Messi: Is Soccer About to Explode in America?
The post Wrexham, Ted Lasso, and Messi: Is Soccer About to Explode in America? appeared first on Consequence.
Season 3 of FX’s soccer docuseries Welcome to Wrexham premieres this week, and there’s a fascinating moment depicted in its first episode. The team of Wrexham A.F.C. — a Welsh soccer team that had just been promoted to the fourth tier of English football — arrives in America, presumably for the first time in the club’s 120+ year history, and people show up in droves to watch them play. To put it in an American perspective, that’s like a triple-A minor league baseball team selling 25,000 seats at Wembley Stadium in London.
But, of course, those minor league teams do not have an internationally syndicated docuseries or celebrity owners. “I never thought I’d see little old Wrexham playing in America against Man[chester] United and Chelsea, and have thousands and thousands of supporters cheering on us, rather than United and Chelsea,” says Wayne Jones, owner of Wrexham’s trusty supporter pub The Turf and a newly-minted documentary star. Amidst the global appeals of clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal, there sits Wrexham, a much “smaller” team (historically) that has seen a significant boost stateside since Welcome to Wrexham premiered in 2022.
Of course, it’s not just the glory of the team’s recent promotion that has Americans paying attention. Very likely, it’s because of co-owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ relentless efforts to promote this venture over the last two years — which have included several skits, stunts, and frequent cross-promotional branding that make use of the duo’s other investments and beloved properties like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Deadpool.
But now onto their fourth football season as owners, Ryan and Rob have moved the club much further beyond its period of financial turmoil and are focused on actually achieving their original mission: making this underdog team into champions, and shining a spotlight on the town of Wrexham and its legion of supporters. Meanwhile, they’ve managed to capitalize on a growing trend that many — myself included — doubted Rob and Ryan could ever do: They’ve given the American people a reason to care about soccer.
Obviously, there are large swaths of Americans who have always cared about soccer because of cultural, regional, and/or sociological ties. But it’s almost always taken the backseat to more beloved American sports, like basketball, American football, baseball, and all their collegiate versions. Most Americans only pay attention to soccer once every few years for the World Cup, both men’s and women’s — and even then, the stateside support of our own national teams pales in comparison to other countries, where soccer is a religion and the national team players are their prophets.
But something has shifted regarding American attitudes towards soccer at home and abroad in the last few years, and there are several factors responsible. Before Welcome to Wrexham was looping prospective fans in via a real-life underdog story, Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso helped lay the groundwork for more American soccer fervor than when David Beckham joined the L.A. Galaxy in 2007.
Not only was Ted Lasso a major reason people signed up for Apple TV+ in the first place, it introduced countless audience members to the highs and lows of the English Premier League, and very deliberately compared and contrasted the differences between the American sports complex and the more historical, globally-adopted English football pyramid. The idea of promotion and relegation (where if you place last, you’re relegated to the lower-tier league for the next season, and vice-versa) isn’t just great “high stakes” fodder for a sports dramedy or a docuseries — it’s a real-life consequence for these teams that can culminate in some of the greatest storylines in the history of the game.
Those watching Ted Lasso may have found their interests piqued by a “real-life” Ted Lasso moment in the Premier League last season, in which American coach Jesse Marsch took the helm of the recently-promoted Leeds United and instantly signed some of the US’ brightest prospects. Some were probably more enthused by the 2022 World Cup than ever, especially considering Ted Lasso’s insistence on reflecting the diverse cultures and nationalities that these club teams boast.
And, very likely, many fans who loved Ted Lasso began tuning in to Welcome to Wrexham with the hopes that they could watch an underdog story like the fictional A.F.C. Richmond’s unfold in real-time. In fact, Welcome to Wrexham’s early marketing ventures capitalized heavily on the connection between the two. For Wrexham and Ted Lasso, it seems like audience-wise, the stars were aligned; while Wrexham has much steeper streaming competition on Hulu, Ted Lasso — to this day — is still one of AppleTV+’s highest-performing series in their five-year history.
Ted Lasso (Apple TV)
Both shows were also dedicated to showing not just the high-octane physicality of the beautiful game, but the social and cultural ties that become inseparable from a team’s identity. Even though Ted Lasso is purely fictional, both shows use soccer as a way of examining — and, very much in Ted Lasso’s case, dismantling — the worst aspects of toxic masculinity. In doing so, they demonstrate football as a sport that belongs to the people, and the ties that bind them are echoed through our histories, struggles, hardships, and transformations. In short, they show what soccer can be at its best — the world’s game.
But the world’s game has gotten a little bit more American as of late, and there’s a significant reason that goes well beyond the infectious nature of sports-centered entertainment — that reason’s name is Lionel Messi. Look, I’m against calling people the “GOAT,” because I think that’s a stupid acronym. But Messi’s impact on football is undeniable, and it is a miracle the one of the greatest athletes in the game has decided to end his career here, in the United States, where so many people have turned a blind eye to his very sport.
Since he arrived at Inter Miami last summer, Apple TV’s $2.5 billion purchase of broadcasting rights for the MLS for 10 years is looking like a winning bet already — and that’s considering Messi gets a cut from new subscribers directly added to his exorbitant salary. Apple hasn’t published the exact number of new subscribers post-Messi, but Senior VP Eddy Cue told USA Today that here had been “a significant number of subscribers from South American and Europe” in addition to a surge in domestic viewers.
The sports streaming ecosystem is fractured and frustrating (that’s another conversation for another time), and it was always going to be a gamble for Apple TV to stake its claim in a sport that traditionally ranks lower in viewership than ice hockey. But Messi’s arrival — and the subsequently-named “Messi Effect” — has led to a massive influx of eyes on MLS, not just from Americans, but around the world. Though the MLS Season Pass is a separate subscription from Apple TV+, the pipeline from Ted Lasso to watching some of the greatest athletes in the world play stateside is intact, and it’s undeniably led to more interest in the global soccer ecosystem than in years prior.
All of this renewed energy is taking place at a crucial time. The United States, along with Mexico and Canada, are next in line to host the 2026 World Cup, which could serve as the culmination of soccer’s burgeoning cultural prominence in this country. Even sooner, the United States will compete this summer in the Copa America tournament, which usually is restricted to just South American teams, not to mention the concurrent European Championship being held in Germany. With the U.S. Men’s National Team historically and culturally serving as underdogs, there could be massive soccer revolution in the United States on the horizon.
It’s an exciting thing to think about if you’re an American watching the third season of Welcome to Wrexham. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are the moneybags, sure, but they also want to have their part in forging an underdog story — to achieve what millions would say is virtually impossible. Soccer in the United States has a long way to go, but if you think about it, the time has never been more ripe for a journey like Wrexham or Ted Lasso — everyone loves an underdog story, and ours is ready to be on the front page.
Welcome to Wrexham Season 3 premieres on May 2nd on FX.
Wrexham, Ted Lasso, and Messi: Is Soccer About to Explode in America?
Paolo Ragusa
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