Ryan Reynolds wanted to buy Canadian ice hockey team the Ottawa Senators before he and fellow Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney invested in Formula 1.
The Hollywood stars, who became Welsh club Wrexham's new owners in February 2021, have joined forces once again as part of an investment group who've purchased a 24 per cent equity stake in F1 racing team Alpine for €200million (£171m). But it's emerged that Reynolds didn't just have his eyes on the race track, but the ice rink too.
Following the death of owner Eugene Melnyk last year, NHL side the Ottawa Senators have been up for sale. Keen to expand his sports portfolio after pumping cash into Wrexham and earning promotion back to the Football League, Reynolds hoped to become part of successful a consortium with real estate developers The Remington Group.
It's claimed that their bid totalled £786m, but Reynolds - who'd already met with the mayor of Ottawa and attended a Senators game - withdrew his funding at the last minute. That's because the Deadpool actor, 46, was denied a request for an extension as he looked to secure a new stadium.
Canadian businessman Michael Andlauer, who already owns stakes in two other hockey teams, now looks set to win the race to buy the Senators. Instead, Reynolds' focus will be on helping Wrexham get off to a strong start in League Two when the new EFL season begins in August, as well as funding Alpine's potential rise.
It isn't just Reynolds and McElhenney investing in the British-based French team, however. Fellow Hollywood A-list actor Michael B. Jordan, who also owns shares in Premier League club Bournemouth as part of a separate consortium, is confirmed to be backing Alpine through Reynolds' group, Maximum Efforts Investment.
The deal was announced on Monday, yet there's been a great deal of scepticism surrounding its legitimacy from F1 legend Eddie Jordan. "I don't believe it," Jordan remarked on GB News. "First of all, I won't use the word fake news, but I mean, there's absolutely no way from an accounting point of view - the financial model doesn't stack up. That's number one.
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"It's all very nice and very sexy to put these figures on things but they need to be supported and they need to be authorised. I noticed that there hasn't been any reaction from Alpine or indeed from Renault which is a major shareholder. And I find that in itself kind of strange to value something of that level at a gross value of £700m pounds. It's preposterous. It's ridiculous."
"The two people you mentioned [Reynolds and McElhenney], hugely big stars and a huge addition particularly for the American market, which is probably where Renault was trying to look forward to. They're not probably putting a lot of their own money into this. I would say that the real people behind it in the States who have taken this investment, they're using these two stars."
