Editor’s note: This article is part of The Changemakers series, focusing on the behind-the-scenes executives and people fueling the future growth of their sports.

PHILADELPHIA — From the eastern boundary of Merion Golf Club, water flows southeast along the property, cutting inward across the 12th hole, framing the famed 11th green, where Bobby Jones clinched the 1930 Grand Slam. Veins of tributaries shoot from the stream, slicing through the course. One sidles up to the fifth fairway, what some consider the best par 4 in the world. Everything about Merion is immaculate. Generations of wealth in this city have assured so. Shaping, reshaping. Renovating, restoring. Installing a multi-million dollar underground turf conditioning system.

The water moves on from Merion, meandering alongside estates with houses set far off the street. It flows out of Haverford toward Ardmore, along roadsides and lawns, into Penn Wynne, and cuts through Powder Mill Park in Wynnewood.

Then comes Township Line Road, the stretch of Route 1 that divides Philadelphia from its western suburbs. The water ripples underneath an overpass, entering the city, and flows past a shuttered driving range. A little further, it zigs and zags through the remains of a municipal golf course, past the site of an old clubhouse, one that burned down in 2016. Connected to the same creek as Merion, built by the same architect who designed Merion, once praised in the same breath as Merion, Cobbs Creek Golf Club is now a ghost. Overgrown and unrecognizable. Nature has reclaimed what history created and time neglected.

Two sides of the street, two versions of the same game, four miles apart.

Anywhere else, Cobbs, as it’s known, might’ve been left for dead years ago. The last time it was operational, dying trees, severe erosion and holes in various stages of disrepair made it not only unplayable, but borderline unsafe. Without a clubhouse, the course operated out of two double-wide trailers. It closed in October 2020.

But there had always been these rumors. Anyone familiar with municipal golf in a major city knows the kind. Chatter of some magnificent renovation, the kind that might bring Cobbs back to its original glory and give the public a place as nice as the private clubs. The buzz began what seems like forever ago, back in the early aughts. Word that a nonprofit group was working to save Cobbs. We talked about it while sitting around the old plastic tables in what was the clubhouse. And in the parking lot, where the old-timers sat around in folding chairs with cards in their hands and coolers in their trunks. And around the first tee box, where foursomes stacked up, being told which holes had temporary greens due to flooding, before being sent out five minutes apart for a five-hour round.

Everyone wondered the same thing. What if?

For all its issues, Cobbs Creek carried an unmistakable mystique, even in the end. You didn’t need to squint to see the quality of the design. The land is shaped by features money can’t buy — elevation, natural water flow, vistas, a rail system rolling past. The original 18 holes opened in 1916, immediately establishing Cobbs among the country’s premier public golf courses. A century later, that old layout is referred to only as “the bones.” They’re down there, somewhere.

When the course closed, the non-profit Cobbs Creek Foundation, comprised of local corporate executives and golf architecture enthusiasts, took over the facility in a private/public partnership. At first, the scope was confined to restoring the course and providing an educational program for young people in the surrounding neighborhood. Price tag: Roughly $20 million. Proposed opening date: June 2023.

Two years later, in 2022, that plan was no longer tenable. Work to lower the creek’s floodplain came with endless other hurdles. Between necessary approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, along with countless other state and federal organizations, the project grew exponentially. The Cobbs Creek Foundation signed a 70-year lease for $1 to take over the property and mapped a new plan. This one required rebuilding over 3 miles of creek and tributaries, creating dozens of acres of wetlands, fully renovating Cobbs’ original 18 holes, creating a new nine-hole course, a driving range and a short course, and building a youth education center. Price tag: Roughly $65 million. Proposed opening date: Sometime in 2024.

As it goes in Philadelphia, skepticism built and controversy grew. The clearing of several hundred trees drew outrage from environmental organizations and neighborhood groups. Improper campaign contributions from the foundation to a local councilman drew blowback. Multiple stages of project planning were stunted by denied permits, delaying steps until approved.

There was every reason to see Cobbs’ return as a pipe dream.

Except now, along Lansdowne Avenue, stands the framework of what will be a 30,000-square-foot building. It will be the country’s second TGR Learning Lab, an education center operated by Tiger Woods’ TGR Foundation, where over 4,500 local youth will receive year-round Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and college readiness programs. In front of the building, bulldozers are kicking up dirt, building a nine-hole, par-3 short course. Both are expected to open spring 2025. Nearby, land is being prepped for a two-story driving range that will include a restaurant, pro shop, area for community events and a museum. That’s also where a junior putting green will be installed, courtesy of a $250,000 grant from Jordan Spieth’s family foundation.

Seeing this in person is mind-bending to anyone who came up playing Cobbs. Knowing what’s coming next is even more so. The course renovation and wetland installation is scheduled to begin next summer. An additional new 9-hole course will follow.

New price tag: $150 million, of which $100 million has been raised. Final completion date: 2027.

In the end, if this works, Cobbs Creek will operate as a financially self-sustaining nonprofit that funnels educational opportunities into the community, offers local residents affordable play, and will perhaps bring a PGA Tour event to the city. It all makes one wonder, if a game so long-tied to barriers can be co-opted by those who want it to be something different, and if land that’s tied to one story can suddenly tell another — if that kind of change is possible, then what isn’t? And where else can public golf be reimagined?

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In the early 1990s, as Cobbs slipped into an escalated decline, about to be passed around by various management companies for the next three decades, Merion weighed a heavy decision. The club was set to host the 1994 Women’s U.S. Open but was rattled by a new USGA policy stating all clubs chosen to host national championships must feature inclusive membership policies. Merion hired a consulting firm to survey its all-White membership, asking if the club should consider integration. The membership couldn’t commit to having minority members by tournament time and Merion withdrew as host of the national championship.

Shocking, yes. Surprising, no. Aronimink Golf Club, another elite private club in the Philadelphia suburbs, withdrew from hosting the 1993 PGA Championship because of an all-White, all-male membership. Pine Valley, the top-ranked golf course in the U.S., about 20 miles outside Philly, did not open its door to women until 2021.

Policies aside, these courses, along with plenty other elite clubs dotting the tri-state area, are products of a merry band of early-20th-century golf course architects known as “The Philadelphia School.” They worked with and occasionally for each other. A.W. Tillinghast, George Crump, George Thomas and Hugh Wilson, along with Boston transplant William Flynn, all helped shape much of the Golden Era of course design in the United States.

But today almost all their courses come with high hedges. Places you can’t see into. Places the membership doesn’t necessarily want to see out of.

Cobbs is the exception. In 1914, when the Golf Association of Philadelphia pegged Wilson to lay out the city’s much-needed public course, the 35-year-old was fresh off designing 36 holes at Merion, including the acclaimed east course. His work was a product of both natural genius and thorough study. Wilson, a product of Philadelphia high society and a Princeton education, began his design career traveling across Great Britain to research the game’s greatest layouts — St. Andrews, Prestwick, Muirfield, North Berwick, Hoylake. On and on. According to family lore, he was originally ticketed to return to the U.S. in the spring of 1912 aboard the Titanic but missed departure.

Wilson’s design of Cobbs Creek was both classic and imaginative. He tabbed Flynn, who later created the likes of Shinnecock Hills, Cherry Hills and Lancaster Country Club, to personally build every green and every bunker. From Day 1, the course was heralded as a triumph of public golf. It was open to juniors, first-timers, working-class players, women and minorities.

When some wonder why Cobbs is worth saving, the answer is not only its design, but its place in the history of a sport so steeped in exclusion.

In 1940, Charlie Sifford, then a 17-year-old caddie in Charlotte and 21 years away from being the first Black man to gain membership to join the PGA Tour, jumped town after an encounter with a drunken White store owner who levied threats and racial slurs at him. In his 1992 biography, “Just Let Me Play,” Sifford recounted smashing a Coke bottle across the man’s face and knowing he’d never get a fair trial in Jim Crow South. He instead hopped a train to Philadelphia, where he heard the jobs were available and the golf was good.

Sifford moved in with an uncle in North Philadelphia, not far from what’s now Temple University, and landed a job as a shipping clerk at the Nabisco plant. One weekend, with a fresh paycheck, Sifford spent a long night playing poker, emerging early on a Sunday morning to find a rising sun. Outside, he saw a man catching a street car with a golf bag slung on his shoulder. From “Just Let Me Play”:

“Say, where you going with them clubs,” I called out to him.
“I’m going to Cobbs Creek,” he called back over his shoulder.
“Where’s that?”
“It’s all the way out to the end of the Market Street trolley.”

Sifford joined the man and made his way to Cobbs. He later wrote: “The course was intended for everyone to use, and I was both surprised and delighted to see both black and whites playing side by side there. I’d never seen anything like that in North Carolina.”

At the time, Cobbs was already well-established as a haven for Black golfers. Howard Wheeler and others called the course home well before Sifford. The United Golf Association (UGA), founded in the mid-1920s to provide minority golfers with an opportunity to compete on an organized tour, hosted its national championship at Cobbs in 1936, 1947 and 1956. Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis played at Cobbs. So did trailblazers Lee Elder and Ted Rhodes. In 1961, the Philadelphia NAACP hosted a tournament at Cobbs Creek to raise funds for the Freedom Riders jailed in Mississippi that summer.

Cobbs meant so much to so many, and served so many different needs to so many different backgrounds, but, like any municipal course, was vulnerable. Heavy play exceeded reasonable usage. Conditions slipped. For years, it was also used as a cross-country course. Those hills punished generations of runners.

Around 1952, in the throes of the Cold War, the U.S. Army scouted multiple sites around Philadelphia to install anti-aircraft batteries. The location chosen? The 13th green of Cobbs Creek. Massive silos were dug and the course was rerouted around the installations. Six years later, the Army filled in the silos and left a vacant expanse behind. Cobbs’ routing was never returned to Wilson’s original design.

In time, a driving range and batting cage facility was built atop the old anti-aircraft installation. The City Line Sports Center, controlled by the same various management companies as Philly’s public golf courses, would end up, in time, just as run-down as Cobbs.

By the turn of the century, Cobbs was little more than a portrait of neglect. Floodwaters washed away greens in the spring. The sun baked out fairways and tee boxes in the summer. The Karakung Course, a second 18 built on the property in 1927 by Abner “Ab” Smith, was somehow worse. A string of superintendents did with it what they could, but no effort could overcome a staggering deficit of resources. The property deteriorated. Vandalism went ignored. Occasional abandoned cars were dumped here and there.

In time, what once was faded from view.

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A few weeks ago, on a Monday morning in Philadelphia, Enrique Hervada and Don Dissinger sat in a far booth inside the Llanerch Diner on Township Line Road. The two are current proxies for reams and reams of people who’ve taken on the Sisyphean group effort to complete Cobbs Creek’s reclamation.

Hervada, COO of the Cobbs Creek Foundation, is one of seven full-time staff members. He’s among those trying to raise the final $50 million of what’s ballooned to a price tag three times that number. At least $30 million will be spent fortifying the creek and creating wetlands to prevent flooding both on the course and in the surrounding neighborhoods.

“It might kill us by the time we’re done,” Hervada said over breakfast. “It’s just — it’s a massive project cost-wise and permitting-wise.”

Hearing this, Dissinger put his fork down. “You have no idea,” he said. The 70-year-old quasi-retired architect and engineer was overseeing the construction of two high-rises in Miami when the foundation called him in December 2022. Having helped in the restoration of Merion Golf Club in 2014, Dissinger was an ad hoc member of the Cobbs restoration committee. But the foundation needed more.

A former partner at the design firm EwingCole, Dissinger built Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. His career has been one of municipal red tape, zoning laws, and state and federal licenses. But with a property covering 350 acres, and touching three counties (Philadelphia, Montgomery and Delaware), he’s never seen anything quite like the project at Cobbs Creek.

“The number of permits I have on this exceeds the number of permits I had between those stadiums — combined,” Dissinger said.

This all began years ago, around 2007, with a few hobbyists digging into archives, retracing Cobbs’ history and comparing notes online. These early archivists, notably Dr. Joseph Bausch, a chemistry professor at Villanova University, and Mike Cirba, an Information Management Executive, planted the seeds of what became the Friends of Cobbs Creek. Two idealistic outsiders (Bausch from Indiana, Cirba from Northeast Pennsylvania), they became, as Cirba puts it, “obsessed with what it was and what it could be.” The two began compiling information into a book. Today it is up to 400 pages long, in its 12th volume, and is the source material for everything written about Cobbs Creek, including much of this article.

In those early days, Bausch and Cirba thought it was obvious what needed to happen. Then they met Philadelphians.

“And there was always a sense that this can’t happen here. It was a pervasive negativity,” Cirba says. “I think we came into it with a certain level of naiveté, but that was probably a good thing.”

Bausch and Cirba held the earliest meetings with City of Philadelphia officials about saving and renovating the course. They were told, great idea, but where’s the money?

A board was formed. Interest grew from powerful, connected local businesspeople, including Cobbs Creek Foundation founding CEO Chris Lange and president Jeff Shanahan, along with Chris Maguire and the Maguire Foundation. The group grew larger and ideas got bigger.

Cobbs and the TGR Foundation came together. Since 2006, Woods’ charitable arm has operated a year-round learning lab in Anaheim, Calif., offering over 30 classes and workshops for 5th-12th grade students. According to TGR, 98 percent of its scholars graduated from high school and enrolled in college, 91 percent of whom were first-generation college students. Woods, himself, was familiar with Cobbs Creek even before the partnership. Charlie Sifford, he has said, was like a grandfather to him. Woods named his only son after Sifford.

Somehow, now, the thought of restoring 18 holes feels almost peripheral. The foundation hopes to serve 4,500 local students a year. The property is now referred to in two parts — as a course and as a campus.

Sitting in his office at Villanova all these years later, Bausch can only shake his head. “I always thought that this was going to be an incredible project,” he says, “but it has far exceeded anything I could ever imagine.”

There is, though, the matter of that golf course.

Appropriately, two locals are handling what comes next. Hanse Design — the renowned golf architecture firm of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner — is based in Malvern, about 15 miles from Cobbs.

Wagner grew up nearby, playing Cobbs as a high school golfer at Cardinal O’Hara. Hanse is a transplant, but knows the territory. Before his firm handled high-profile restorations like Merion, Aronimink, Oakmont and Winged Foots, Hanse developed a soft spot for the West Philly course. A little-known architect at the time, he rebuilt Cobbs’ third and fourth greens in the early 2000s after extensive flood damage. He did it for free.

That pro bono work will now continue in 2025 through 2026. Hanse and Wagner will not only rebuild Cobbs Creek Golf Club to Hugh Wilson’s original design, but will also lay out the new nine-hole course on the old Karakung land.

The scale of the project is immense.

On my recent visit, I stood near the old 12th tee box, scanning an area that once included the 11th green, the 13th green and crowded and long views of tree-lined fairways. If I didn’t personally know what had been there, I wouldn’t believe it. Anyone imagining a “restoration” is misguided. The original Cobbs Creek is gone, reclaimed by the land.

“You can’t put it back,” Wagner said. “It’s impossible to put it back to what it once was because so much has changed in the environment. Mother Nature came in and moved things around.”

But you can return the intention and objective of what the golf course was meant to be. At last, that’s happening. Something bigger than anyone in Philly ever imagined. Something just as nice as all those private courses, except open for all.

Today, this ground is in Philadelphia. But if a successful model is created at Cobbs Creek, combining golf and STEM education under a non-profit, self-supporting model, other cities might have to sit up and take notice. Chicago. Detroit. St. Louis. Los Angeles. Houston. Maybe they’ll see the municipal course that time has forgotten and see something different. Maybe times can change.

The Changemakers series is part of a partnership with Acura.

The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Courtesy Cobbs Creek Foundation, Brendan Quinn / The Athletic)

You always want a viewership story to sell if you are a professional sports league and the WNBA has a great metrics story to sell in 2024. Last week ESPN announced that its WNBA regular season was its most-watched ever for games across ESPN Networks airwaves (including ABC). Games averaged 1.2 million viewers, a massive jump over last year’s games (440,000 viewers). These are unheard of percentage increases in sports television.

Something even more impressive? The WNBA had 22 regular-season games that averaged more than 1 million viewers — the first time since 2008 that a WNBA game topped one million viewers. If you want to add in the WNBA All-Star Game and the WNBA Draft, it makes 24 programming events during the 2024 calendar year that topped 1 million viewers (Caitlin Clark was part of all but three of these windows, per Sports Media Watch).

On that note: The WNBA All-Star Game averaged 3.44 million viewers on ABC, crushing the previous audience record set in 2003. The WNBA Draft, featuring Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, averaged a record 2.446 million viewers, which is a 307 percent increase in viewership over last year.

What else? There were seven games on ION this season that topped more than 1 million viewers including last Friday’s game between Indiana and Las Vegas, which averaged 1.2 million viewers. Finally, Sports Media Watch reported that the Sept. 11 game between the Fever and Aces drew the largest WNBA audience ever on NBA TV at 678,000 viewers. The previous high was also set in 2024 with a Fever-Wings game on Labor Day weekend that drew 652,000.

Just an insane viewership number for this league. The new deal also means better programming windows for the WNBA on ABC. pic.twitter.com/l44E9mGzqm

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) September 11, 2024

The Athletic often asks ace women’s basketball writers Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman to debate a WNBA issue but we’re going to change it up a touch here by adding a third voice (me) as we embark on the most anticipated postseason in the league’s history, at least based on viewership interest. The postseason starts Sunday with four nationally televised games.

Richard Deitsch: So Ben and Sabreena, some kind of season, eh? I wanted your input on some media-centric storylines as it relates to the WNBA season. Let’s start with Caitlin Clark because she has been a transcendent viewership draw. That doesn’t take away from the brilliance and interest in other players, but Clark has been the game-changer, and the data overwhelmingly shows that. If I am an ESPN/ABC programming executive, I am treating the Fever like the Dallas Cowboys. I am putting them in my highest profile window and hoping at a minimum I get three games out of them against the Sun. I’d do a live pregame and postgame show onsite prior to Game 1. I’d also load up all my social media firepower on that opening round series. That’s not to disregard any other series, but you want to take advantage of what might be a short stay from Indiana. How would you promote the Fever if you are ESPN?

Sabreena Merchant: It doesn’t seem as though the Fever need any additional promotion, considering how they have drawn regardless of network, time slot and lead-in, but giving them all the bells and whistles seems to be the right play. I expect ESPN to send the No. 1 crew of Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo to wherever Indiana starts the postseason, even if that means neglecting the two-time defending champions in Las Vegas, though it helps that the Fever have a reasonable shot of a first-round upset. Speaking of the Cowboys, however, Game 1 of the WNBA postseason is going up against the NFL, which presents an obstacle that Clark hasn’t yet had to face in her pro career. Will the draw of Clark competing in her first playoff game eat into football, or are we due for a ratings letdown?

Ben Pickman: If you’re ESPN/ABC, you’re certainly hoping to avoid that letdown. But even if Indiana’s postseason opener doesn’t match, say, the first Sky-Fever game of the season, it wouldn’t be shocking, based on precedent, for Indiana’s opener to average seven-figure viewership.

Game 1 of last year’s WNBA Finals aired on a Sunday and was the most-viewed Game 1 ever on an ESPN network. Still, it averaged only just over 700,000 viewers. Game 3, which also tipped on a Sunday, averaged 889,000 viewers on ESPN. Fever games have blown those numbers away all season long, so even going up against an NFL slate, they seem likely to pick off viewers.

The league hasn’t announced its full playoff schedule, but Game 2 of the Fever series likely will be Tuesday or Wednesday (a non-NFL night), meaning another record could be set. To your original question, Richard, I think what you mapped out —  a live pregame and postgame show onsite — and lots of social media content seems like reasonable choices.

Deitsch: Indeed, Clark likely has found the one entity that can slow her down as a television draw — the NFL. Another topic: One thing I’ve liked this year has been the increase in national pregame coverage. ESPN’s WNBA Countdown is a prime example of that. The show averaged 503,000 viewers during the regular season, a massive increase over last year. I think the WNBA should really push ESPN to have a daily studio show presence somewhere within the ESPN family of networks during the 2025 WNBA season. If I made you media czar of the league for 2025, what would you try to implement for the major media partners?

17,000

First in women’s sports history, and we couldn’t have done it without you. We can’t wait to tip off the season and create an incredible home court advantage at Chase Center. Let’s keep making history together! pic.twitter.com/YXgUMZfF2Q

— Golden State Valkyries (@wnbagoldenstate) September 13, 2024

Merchant: I couldn’t agree more about an ESPN studio show because there is absolutely an appetite for WNBA conversations that aren’t being had by media personalities who wade into women’s basketball once a month. NBA TV has tried one before, and there have been WNBA segments on NBA Today, but the league needs a dedicated show on a channel that most people have access to. The other main thing I would try to address as media czar is some level of consistency in WNBA programming. The NFL exists on several different platforms, but fans know that Monday is ESPN, Thursday is Amazon, and Sunday night is NBC. The WNBA needs that type of rotation with its bigger partners. Amazon and ION already have their own nights, but it would benefit the league to have CBS Saturdays and ESPN Sundays, for example, so that people know where to turn.

Pickman: In addition to achieving more network consistency, fans often complain about the lack of staggered start times over the course of a day, so that’s something that should be top of mind. Airing more preseason games (even if it’s just streaming them on WNBA League Pass) should also be a priority. There is demand among viewers to see top rookies in action for the first time and avoid having to watch on streamed cellphone footage.

One other new wrinkle will be the addition of the 13th team, the Golden State Valkyries. I’m curious to see how adding just one more team alters things. No longer can the entire league play on one day. On the NBA side, the Golden State Warriors have been a ratings draw in recent years. The Valkyries share ownership and are obviously in the same market. They might lack the star power of other franchises in the WNBA in Year 1, but there is clear interest as last week they surpassed 17,000 season-ticket deposits, becoming the first professional women’s sports team to pass that mark. How much will major partners lean into broadcasting a new franchise?

Deitsch: You make a great point, Ben. I’m curious about the new WNBA franchises, including Golden State, Toronto and Portland. They could end up with a transcendent viewership draw (think Paige Bueckers or JuJu Watkins). Okay, let’s finish up with this. Give me the best viewership WNBA Finals for the sport, and because it’s obvious that the Fever being in the Finals would generate the highest viewership, give me one involving the Fever and give me one without the Fever.

Pickman: Fever-Liberty has to be the finals option that has the highest viewership potential, with Aces-Fever being the second option. If you’re looking for a realistic (meaning without a Phoenix Mercury Diana Taurasi swan song) matchup sans Fever, it’s Liberty–Lynx.

Merchant: The series I would expect to draw the most eyes would have to be in the semifinals unless the standings shake up in a major way, and that’s Aces-Liberty. I’m eager to see how that number compares to the 2023 matchup so we can learn how much of the viewership rise is the Clark effect. As for potential finals matchups, Fever-Aces has to be the biggest draw, right? Clark versus the two-time defending champions, the upstart versus the establishment with Dawn Staley forced to decide between rooting for Aliyah Boston or A’ja Wilson? If the Fever aren’t involved, the Aces still have to be it. The Aces going for a three-peat will be great theater.

(Photo: Ron Hoskins / NBAE via Getty Images)

The phrase ‘Monday Night Football’ may be no stranger to heavyweight clashes but an all-time NFL great taking on Deadpool has to be a first.

This is Tom Brady tackling Ryan Reynolds, League One’s big spenders going head-to-head with Hollywood FC — or simply, Birmingham City versus Wrexham.

No matter how we dress up a fixture recently described on X by Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney as “an absolute banger”, Monday night’s showdown is a big deal on and off the pitch. Two clubs who are the very embodiment of globalised football will meet in a sellout clash that is being broadcast live on both sides of the Atlantic.

“A really, really high-profile match,” says CBS Sports executive vice president Dan Weinberg before Birmingham host Wrexham, which will be shown on two channels as part of the network’s four-year deal with the English Football League (EFL).

“We’ve carried every Wrexham game this season and we’ll continue to lean into them as much as we can. They are impossible to ignore in this country with the celebrity influence they have and the visibility of Ryan and Rob. We are enthused by the growth of their profile in the market.

“These two clubs have owners that resonate very well in this country.”

Not so long ago, few would have batted an eyelid in the United Kingdom over this particular Anglo-Welsh contest, never mind in the United States. The two clubs have very little shared history, other than the £1million City paid for Bryan Hughes in 1997 that remains Wrexham’s record transfer fee.

Now, though, the power of celebrity — plus back-to-back promotions for Wrexham and last May’s shock relegation for Birmingham — means this League One fixture carries plenty of intrigue.

Deadpool star Reynolds and McElhenney, through the success of the Emmy-award-winning Welcome to Wrexham documentary, have turned a previously provincial club into a global sensation with two successful pre-season tours of North America under their belts.

Birmingham are no less fascinating thanks to the 2023 takeover by Knighthead, the U.S. investment firm fronted by co-owner Tom Wagner and supported by minority investor Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion.

Relegation at the end of their first season was certainly not part of the script but it has done nothing to dim the group’s huge ambitions, which include building a new stadium after buying a 60-acre plot of land around a mile from St Andrew’s.

City clearly don’t intend on hanging around for long in the third tier, judging from the £20million ($26m) they splashed on transfers this summer. Around half of that is understood to have gone on wrestling striker Jay Stansfield from Fulham’s grasp, with Birmingham paying between £12m and £15m before add-ons.

To put that figure into context, the previous record paid by a club in this division before the recent window was the £4million Sunderland paid for Wigan Athletic striker Will Grigg.

Wrexham co-owner McElhenney will no doubt recall that particular signing due to it featuring heavily in series two of Sunderland ‘Til I Die, the Netflix show that first gave the comedy actor the idea of buying a football club.

His team have been no slouches with recruitment, either. The £2million spent during the summer window was an unprecedented outlay for Wrexham, made possible by last season’s annual revenue smashing through the £20million barrier. Blue-chip sponsors, such as United Airlines, contributed heavily to that club-record figure.

Both camps have been entering into the spirit during the build-up to Monday’s eagerly-anticipated encounter, with Wrexham enlisting the help of Eli Manning, a long-time NFL rival of Brady.

In response to Manning donning the Welsh club’s team shirt, Brady took to X and Instagram — where his combined following stands at 18 million — with a cheeky video featuring one of his prized Super Bowl trophies that ends with an appeal to McElhenney to “educate the Wrexham fans just a little bit on the history of the NFL?”

See you Monday! @BCFC @Wrexham_AFC @RMcElhenney @VancityReynolds https://t.co/Ny87RekOPR pic.twitter.com/YyvkWmL5JK

— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) September 14, 2024

AJ Swoboda, managing director of sports intelligence firm Twenty First Group, believes Wrexham are a prime example of how to tap into the U.S. market over the longer term.

“High-profile figures like Tom Brady or Ryan Reynolds will always help bring clubs into the spotlight,” he says. “Especially in crowded or foreign markets like the U.S.

“But, while celebrity owners generate a short-term buzz, long-term fan engagement requires sustained sporting success and smart marketing — largely digital — strategies.

“The Welcome to Wrexham docuseries has been key to growing Wrexham’s global fanbase but the club’s owners have then backed up these efforts through material sporting performance improvements.”

He cites how an analysis of Google Trends data over the last year shows Wrexham had 22 times the interest in the U.S. compared to Birmingham and 1.4 times that of Premier League neighbours Aston Villa, even though the latter have qualified for the Champions League.

“Tom Brady’s appeal and status should continue creating interest for Birmingham City in new markets,” adds Swoboda. “But, as with Wrexham, this attention needs to be converted into deeper fan engagement. Celebrity minority ownership is not as unique as it used to be.”

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As Wrexham co-owner McElhenney made clear when tagging Brady on X, Monday night’s clash under the St Andrew’s floodlights has all the ingredients to be a cracker — but, perhaps their biggest battle lies ahead.

In a recent report titled Connecting and Winning U.S. Fandoms: A Guidebook For European Clubs, fan data specialists CLV Group suggest that 36million U.S.-based soccer fans — or 44 per cent — are still undecided on which team to support. The group’s CEO Neil Joyce estimates a potential $1.1billion is up for grabs.

The big Premier League clubs or members of the European elite, such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, are expected to hoover up a sizeable chunk of this bounty, but Joyce also believes clubs with high-profile celebrity owners, such as Wrexham and Birmingham, can earn a piece of the action.

“Wrexham’s story is phenomenal,” he says. “It has the underdog element, a club on the brink of extinction that starts to work its way back up. Americans love that kind of storytelling.

“Then, there’s the measurability of it all. United Airlines, one of the biggest airlines in the world, is on the jerseys. That kind of link makes a huge difference. I was on a flight with United earlier in the summer and they were handing out the (free amenity) bag with the Wrexham (pyjamas).

“It isn’t about just the match. It is the personalities around it. Look at how Taylor Swift has brought new fandom to the NFL (her partner Travis Kelce plays for the Kansas City Chiefs) in the same way Ryan Reynolds has brought Deadpool fans to Wrexham.

“Given the new EFL rights deal (with CBS), there will be a lot more exposure to Wrexham for sports fans in the U.S. They can tap into that. Same for Birmingham, with arguably the NFL’s greatest of all time.

“Look at Tom Brady’s adjacent sports investments. He has the (NFL team) Las Vegas Raiders, he has a WNBA team (Las Vegas Aces). Again, I’d be tapping into those fanbases and bringing them on the journey with Birmingham as well.”

As Joyce points out, central to making any potential inroads into the U.S. sports market is CBS Sports becoming the new home of the EFL. With 250-plus matches being shown live across the network per season for at least the next four years, the potential exposure is huge.

CBS does not reveal publicly viewing figures for individual matches but executive vice president Weinberg says he has been “really, really happy with the viewership in the first month”.

He believes a key factor in America’s increasing EFL curiosity is the promotion and relegation setup that sees clubs potentially move up and down the pyramid, such as how Birmingham dropped into League One last May and are now determined to bounce straight back up.

“The U.S. market has wrapped their arms around that,” says Weinberg, who is at pains to stress that showcasing all 72 EFL teams is important to the network. “It’s compelling and dramatic.”

Recent years have seen a flurry of U.S. investors getting involved in the EFL. By last Christmas, 22 of the 72 teams were either wholly owned by or had minority investors from across the Atlantic. Fourteen of those had accepted new investment since Wrexham’s takeover in 2021.

“What Wrexham have done brilliantly is globalisation and diversification,” says Laurie Pinto, a specialist in football financing and club acquisitions. “That’s easier said than done. (Wrexham director) Shaun Harvey and others should get a lot of credit for that.

“There’s lots of people who think they can do the same. That’s the challenge: trying to make a global push with partners outside the UK to diversify the income stream.”

Asked if he felt future years will bring even more investment from North America, Pinto replies: “Yes, there is a lot more interest. Most of these American owners think global and they put money in.

“U.S. sport is expensive — if you want to buy a basketball, NFL or baseball team, we are talking in the billions.”

With the U.S. hosting the 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico, sports media analyst Larry Johnson believes the new four-year TV deal means EFL clubs are in a prime position to benefit.

“Viewership data from the last couple of World Cups shows a rise in popularity (in the U.S.) for sports in Europe,” he says. “They did quite a bit for La Liga and the Premier League, even a bit for the Bundesliga.

“All the arrows point towards the next World Cup pushing up the numbers on the Premier League and EFL. Wrexham have an opportunity here, especially if they get promoted this year, to really do something special.

“Wrexham are already drawing numbers. They had a friendly with Chelsea (in July 2023) on ESPN, one of the largest cable networks. It pulled 300,000 viewers. That’s comparable with a Major League Soccer game on the same network.”

As is perhaps inevitable in an age when regular-season games in the NFL and Major League Baseball are played in London, there has been talk of the Premier League or EFL possibly doing similar by switching one-off fixtures to the States.

Such a move would be hugely controversial. When the Daily Mail suggested this summer that Birmingham and Wrexham were in talks over a possible switch, Canada-born Reynolds was very quick to vehemently deny the story.

Nevertheless, such talk remains, with CLV Group’s Joyce believing it could help a European competition steal a march in attracting fans.

He says: “The monetary gain and attempts to capture the market would be a lot easier if European clubs played competitive games in the U.S. There is more than $1billion on the table.”

Such talk about growing audiences and realising potential is, of course, for the boardoom. On the pitch, all that will matter come Monday evening are the three points.

Dan Scarr joined Wrexham in the summer from Plymouth Argyle, where he won the League One title in 2023. He is a lifelong Birmingham fan who spent three years on the playing staff at St Andrew’s after arriving late in the professional game at 22.

“What’s been going on there is crazy,” the defender tells The Athletic. “Good for the city and, being a Birmingham City fan, it is great for them. The atmosphere will be electric and it’s a sellout. There’s also the bragging rights between the owners, both being American and stuff like that.

“But we want to stop that (title-winning) parade. Everything else doesn’t matter.”

(Top photos: Getty Images)