Wrexham are set to be handed £17million by the Welsh government to renovate the Racecourse Ground after securing promotion back to the Football League.
The Dragons, who were purchased by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney back in 2020 for just £2m, ended their 15-year exile from the EFL by clinching the National League title last month after a record-breaking campaign.
Already, Wrexham have been linked with a host of high-profile names since winning promotion due to the financial clout of their adored owners. And now, Reynolds and McElhenney are set to land a bumper pot of cash via public funding which will enable them to increase the capacity of their stadium.
The Times have outlined that Wrexham are set to receive around £17m to refresh the Racecourse Ground, which has been the club's home for over a century. The stadium's current capacity is 10,500, with the report claiming that the generous cash injection from the Welsh government will enable the club to bump that figure up to around 16,000.
The money will be issued with a view to enabling the Racecourse Ground to host matches for the Wales national team in the future. October's friendly clash against Gibraltar will be the first international fixture to be played at the stadium in 15 years.
Wrexham's plans to renovate the Racecourse Ground is the latest boost for the club, who will play in League Two for the first time since 2008 next term.
However, it does appear as though McElhenney's attempts to lure Gareth Bale out of retirement to play for the Dragons next year have failed to bear fruit.
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Bale, 33, called time on his illustrious playing career in January just weeks after Wales were eliminated from the World Cup back. The former Real Madrid winger had previously tried to cool talk of an unlikely move to Wrexham after some mischievous social media antics from McElhenney, who exchanged messages with Bale after promotion was confirmed.
But Bale's long-term representative, Jonathan Barnett, has now officially dashed Wrexham's hopes of completing a deal after weeks of speculation. He told The Sun: "I can say there will be no move to Wrexham. Gareth doesn’t want to play football anymore."
It had been hoped that Bale would follow former Manchester United and Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster in coming out of retirement to play for Wrexham, who have garnered a new global fanbase since being acquired by Reynolds and McElhenney.
It remains to be seen if Foster, 40, will commit to staying on for another season after agreeing a short-team deal until the end of the 2022/23 campaign back in March.
