Wrexham owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in shock talks over £20million deal to invest in new sport
WREXHAM’S movie star owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are in talks with the ECB about making a shock move into cricket.
SunSport has learned that the Hollywood pair are considering buying into Hundred franchise Welsh Fire.
GettyRyan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are considering buying another Welsh team[/caption]
The ECB are selling a 49 per cent share of the eight Hundred teams to private investors, and are targeting the owners of US sports franchises and Indian Premier League sides.
Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are understood to have had meetings with ECB representatives and been invited to attend matches at this summer‘s competition, which kicked off with Oval Invincibles playing Birmingham Phoenix this evening.
The Welsh Fire would one of be cheapest of the eight teams to buy, with sources involved in the talks valuing half the franchise at around £20m.
Reynolds and McElhenney have transformed Wrexham since buying the non-league club three years ago, winning two successive promotions and gaining a worldwide fanbase on the back of the smash-hit documentary Welcome to Wrexham.
The actors are huge sports fans with investments in other franchises, including Mexican Premier League side Club Necaxa and Formula One team Alpine F1.
US bank Raine Group are handling the sale after flogging Chelsea to Todd Boehly two years ago and bringing in Sir Jim Ratcliffe‘s £1.25billion investment into Manchester United.
Reynolds has had a busy summer which included gatecrashing a live Euro 2024 broadcast alongside Hugh Jackman.
In a bizarre moment, Spanish viewers were treated to a guest appearance from the actors who are currently on a Press Tour to promote their new film ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ which premieres later this month.
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The pair burst onto the Spanish broadcaster RTVE set in Berlin cheering “Ole, Ole, Ole”.
And when asked to introduce themselves Reynolds said he was fellow actor “Ryan Gosling” while Jackman joked he was the late Playboy founder “Hugh Hefner”.
