Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny, the Hollywood actors and co-owners of Wrexham AFC, have been in contact with Glamorgan about the prospect of buying a stake in Welsh Fire, the Cardiff-based team in the Hundred.
Reynolds and McElhenny, who took ownership of Wrexham in November 2020, have witnessed back-to-back promotions in 2022-23 and 2023-24, with the club now playing in the third tier of English football. The pair are believed to be considering further investment in Welsh sport.
The ECB formally started the process for securing private investment in the Hundred earlier this month. Raine, the American investment bank, has distributed prospectuses to interested parties and Vikram Banerjee, who is leading the process as the ECB’s director of business operations, said there has been a “phenomenal level of interest from a diverse mix of investors”.
Sophia Gardens, Glamorgan’s home ground, has the smallest capacity of any venue in the Hundred, and Welsh Fire are expected to be the cheapest franchise with an estimated valuation of around £30 million. Revenue from initial investments will be distributed across the counties but Glamorgan will be handed a 51% stake in Welsh Fire which they can control.
Glamorgan have spoken to a number of different interested parties over the past few months, with the owners of Pakistan Super League franchise Multan Sultans understood to be among them. But there has been particular intrigue around the prospect of Reynolds and McElhenny buying a stake which Dan Cherry, the club’s chief executive, believes is “an exciting proposition”.
Cherry told ESPNcricinfo: “It is a feasible option. Contact’s been made. There’s not been anything substantial come back yet, but we’re in the process and I know that they’ll certainly be included in any process that we’ve got going forward. All bids and offers that are going to come in are going to be interesting to us, and we’re going to have to evaluate what the best bid is for us.
“There’s obvious interest in what Ryan Reynolds and the guys have done at Wrexham, which has been fantastic for football in North Wales. That doesn’t necessarily mean to say that it’ll be the right option for us, but if they’re interested in talking to us, obviously it’s an exciting proposition.”
The majority of IPL franchises are expected to bid for stakes in Hundred teams, though the ECB are reluctant to replicate the SA20’s ownership model where every team is IPL-owned. Private equity firms CVC and RedBird Capital are also understood to have an interest in the sale process, though Ineos – who have invested heavily across sports, including latterly Manchester United – are unlikely to bid.
Glamorgan believe that the Fire’s relatively low valuation – the London-based franchises could be worth four times more – makes them an attractive investment, given the costs across the Hundred are relatively similar with a salary cap in place and that the majority of revenue will come from an even split of central broadcast money.
“We just see the great opportunity here to be part of a nation, not only being great value,” Cherry said. “You’d be representing Wales: Cardiff is a fast-growing city with major events happening here all the time at Principality Stadium, the Castle, and Cardiff City Stadium. It’s a great place to invest, and we believe we’ve got something different to all of the other venues.
“We are really proud of the fact that we are the only Welsh first-class county, and that we are hosting England matches here at Sophia Gardens is important to us. Ultimately, that is something which, when we talk to a potential partner or investor, will be something really important to us: maintaining our Welsh interest, heritage and history.”
Cherry said that Glamorgan are “very open-minded” and will not rush into a deal. As things stand, they intend to retain their 51% stake in Welsh Fire. “We want to make the right decision for the club and the game: we want to find the right partner, the right investor that’s going to improve what we do and support us along the journey – not take over.
“We are keen to build a partnership where people can add value to us as a club… whether it be on the cricket side, around players and coaches and sharing academies, or more on the commercial side. We’re looking for a true partner that can add value – not looking to lose control and sell our soul, as some people would have it.”
Glamorgan have had a mixed first year under Grant Bradburn as head coach, with their season resting on Sunday’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup final against Somerset. But Cherry, in his first full season as chief executive, believes the club’s financial position has improved to the point where they can continue to grow the sport in Wales and achieve more of their on-field aims.
“It’s pretty well documented that we probably haven’t achieved what we would’ve liked to on the field over the last 15-20 years,” he said. “We haven’t produced players to play for England and we spent all of that time in Division Two. The opportunity to be part of the group of people that can hopefully change that is really exciting.
“We’ve had to work through some of the challenges around our finances and the debt profile, but we’re in a much stronger position now financially to be able to now put all of our efforts into trying to improve the cricket side of things. That’s going to be a big focus for me in this role in the coming years.”
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98