In 2021, Wrexham’s historic Kop stand stood empty, awaiting its £70m revival

NewsentertainmentenglishhollywoodIn 2021, Wrexham's historic Kop stand was sitting empty; In 2026, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney secured approval for a major £70 million stadium transformation ahead of 2027 In 2021, Wrexham's historic Kop stand was sitting empty; In 2026, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney secured approval for a major £70 million stadium transformation ahead of 2027 When Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham AFC in 2021, the club’s famous Kop stand stood empty and unused at that time.

It was a quiet, slightly sad reminder of tougher times at the Racecourse Ground. Five years on, that same piece of land is at the centre of a major rebuild.Local planners have now approved plans that will push the new Kop’s capacity up to 7,500 seats.

The wider project carries a £70 million price tag, according to BBC Sport.The decision, taken by Wrexham County Borough Council’s planning committee on 5 October 2026, according to HE Xpress, adds another 2,250 seats to the design already approved in March 2025.

Once finished, the stand will help lift the entire stadium’s capacity to just over 18,000. For a club that has climbed rapidly through the English leagues, the extra space feels like a natural next step.A bigger stand at Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s stadium reflects growing ambitions The extra seats will sit as a second tier inside the footprint that was already given the go-ahead.

The club has made clear it wants the Racecourse Ground, also known as STōK Cae Ras, to be ready for bigger occasions, including potential international matches and other major sporting events. The ground already carries special status as the oldest international football stadium still in regular use, so the redevelopment is about more than numbers.

It is also about restoring a piece of the club’s identity that had been left behind for years. Aiden Miller, Wrexham's chief strategy officer, is taking care of the whole project and is responsible for the long-term development of the Championship club, which only three years ago was playing non-league football.

"The speed at which we've got through the leagues has been incredible," Miller told BBC Sport Wales.The redevelopment of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s stadium that focuses on parking and transport Construction work started in December 2025, with McLaren Construction Midlands and North appointed by Wrexham AFC to deliver the project according to North West Place.

The target remains the 2026-27 season, with the new stand expected to be fully operational early in 2027. That timeline keeps the pressure on, but it also keeps the focus on delivering something lasting for supporters who have stuck with the club through leaner years.A larger crowd on matchdays brings practical questions.

In its planning papers, Wrexham AFC submitted an updated travel plan that leans heavily on public transport. The club says it will keep promoting bus and rail options, work more closely with local operators and Transport for Wales, and maintain the existing park-and-ride arrangements.

Free matchday parking at Eagles Meadow is also being highlighted as an extra choice for fans.Traffic and parking were among the issues the planning committee looked at carefully. A bigger stadium means more people arriving and leaving on the same days, so the club’s willingness to keep refining those arrangements helped the application move forward.A new chapter for the historic 'Racecourse' ground For Reynolds and McElhenney, the Kop project sits inside a much bigger story.

Since they took over, Wrexham has risen from the National League all the way to the Championship. The club’s profile has grown far beyond Wales, and the number of supporters turning up, both local and international, has risen with it.The new stand is meant to give home fans better facilities and more room while also making it easier to welcome the wider following the club has attracted.Once the work is complete, the Racecourse Ground should be better placed to host events beyond the regular league calendar.That flexibility matters for a club that has suddenly found itself with a global audience.

The old, unused Kop used to stand as a symbol of what the club had lost. The new structure is intended to show what it is building instead.Looking ahead of the redevelopment The approval for around more than 7000 seats does not mark the end of the story.

Construction is already under way, and the coming months will test whether the project can stay on schedule and within the broader ambitions that have defined the club since 2021.For many long-time supporters, the sight of work progressing on the Kop is itself a kind of progress.

What was once left empty is being brought back into the heart of matchdays. If everything goes to plan, early 2027 will see supporters walking into a stand that will feel both new and familiar, a modern addition on the same ground that has hosted football for generations.For a club that has already rewritten much of its recent history, the rebuilt Kop is the next visible chapter.Who is Ryan Reynolds?

Ryan Reynolds has this rare mix of sharp humour and genuine charm that makes him hard not to like. Best known for playing ‘Deadpool’, he turned a wise-cracking anti-hero into a box-office phenomenon while somehow still feeling like the guy next door.Off-screen, he’s just as busy, co-owning Wrexham AFC with Rob McElhenney and helping turn a small Welsh club into a global story.

Whether he’s cracking jokes in interviews or quietly backing causes he cares about, Reynolds comes across as someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously, and that might be the secret to why so many people root for him.More on Rob McElhenney Rob McElhenney is an American actor, writer, producer, and director, best known as the co-creator and star of the long-running FX comedy ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’, where he plays the scheming, self-deluded Dennis Reynolds.He co-founded the production company...