Q&A: Rob McElhenney compares Wrexham and Philly fans, discusses getting advice from Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman

Rob McElhenney is one of Philadelphia’s most famous and most passionate sports fans.

But in the last three years, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star and St. Joseph’s Prep grad has moved past just being a fan, purchasing Welsh soccer club Wrexham A.F.C. with fellow actor Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool). The two also started a hit, Emmy-winning TV show on FX, Welcome to Wrexham, chronicling their journey as they try to bring the world’s third-oldest professional soccer club out of the basement of English soccer. In doing so, they not only expanded Wrexham’s fan base worldwide, but also led the club to a promotion in 2023 and battled for another in 2024 (Season 3 spoilers here).

Season 3, which premieres on Thursday, tracks Wrexham’s promotion into League Two, the fourth-highest tier of English soccer, and its season-long quest for promotion into League One, a level Wrexham hasn’t reached since 2005. McElhenney also brought the club to Philadelphia for a friendly against the Union’s reserves in July.

Ahead of the new season, The Inquirer spoke to McElhenney about everything from his experience owning the club — and whether he’d like to own a local team — to how Wrexham and its fans compare Philly.

» READ MORE: ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ Season 3 premieres Thursday. Here’s what to expect from the new season.

Rob McElhenney: It was a dream come true. A huge part of the endeavor was, we were looking for the right town. I wanted to find a place where I could identify with the people, and Wrexham is a town that just reminded me so much of the city of Philadelphia. The people are just people I grew up with. They feel like my family members, they feel like my friends — the people I went to high school with — and that was really important. To bring those two worlds together was a great honor.

Although it did set up for a tricky situation where I wasn’t sure who to root for, the team that I owned or the team from my home city. Luckily in a friendly, it doesn’t really matter. The stakes aren’t so high. It’s just supposed to be about fun, so enough goals were scored, enough alcohol was drank, enough tickets were sold that I think everybody had a good time.

McElhenney: Incredibly similar. My experience is different insofar as I have to have a lot more responsibility and a modicum of decorum that I don’t necessarily have as a Philadelphia sports fan — which is my right, I believe — and I have a text chain with a group of my friends that I went to high school with that’s all about Philly sports. It’s basically just us both celebrating the triumphs and lamenting the failures in very profane ways, as we do as supporters, right?

So I actually afford the same amount of respect to the supporters of Wrexham because I know what that feels like. As a supporter, as a fan, it is your, I think, right to be able to complain, to be able to voice your frustrations with the way things are being run, or about that last play call or who’s getting paid what. I just think that’s a part of the fun and a part of the process.

But as the chairman [of Wrexham], I have to be a lot more respectful. That text chain that I have with the board of Wrexham is very, very different. There’s not a lot of complaining going on, there’s not a lot of lamenting going on, it’s more about solving problems. When things are going well, we celebrate the triumphs, and when things are going poorly, we just very rationally look at the situation, and recognize that we’re dealing with people’s livelihoods. These are human beings, not just athletes, or characters in a show, or people I’m watching on television, but human beings, and in many cases, very young human beings who are just doing their best. As a chairman, I think it’s really important for us to always keep that in mind.

» READ MORE: Kaitlin Olson secretly outbid husband Rob McElhenney for Kylie Kelce’s signed Princess Diana Eagles jacket

McElhenney: It’s actually been the opposite. I’ve reached out quite a bit. Jeffrey Lurie has been a really great adviser to me. In times of uncertainty, I will reach out to him because I just feel like he’s one of the classiest and most successful owners in all professional sports. I just love the way that he runs that organization, and so any times I have questions about how I should handle something, I’ll reach out to him and he’s just so generous with his time.

Howie Roseman, who I believe is one of the greatest general managers in all of sports, has also been a great adviser of ours. There’s not a direct one-to-one between American football and global football, in terms of how the sport is played, but in terms of the way the business is run, and the way that the culture is created, I think I’ve learned a lot from the two of them very specifically.

McElhenney: Not only have I thought about it, I’ve tried desperately. It’s very difficult because those teams are very expensive, and also because ultimately, they are family-run businesses. I don’t know if there would be any meaningful way for me to become a part of one of those groups where it wouldn’t change my experience already.

But believe me — and maybe this is a message out to the Lurie family — Jeffrey, if you are considering selling, please have your first phone call be my way. And also, Mr. [John] Middleton, if the Phillies are available at some point, and you’re looking for, I don’t know, $3 billion, I mean, look elsewhere first, but then come to me if you’re looking for significantly less, for sure.

» READ MORE: Dawn Staley hopes WNBA expansion leads to a franchise in Philly: ‘We’re ready’

McElhenney: I would actually say that they remind me a lot of the ‘93 Phillies, because I just remember that team — I was in high school, maybe a sophomore in high school — and I remember that team really outperforming. They were the underdogs. They were not predicted to win that year, and they wound up with one of the best seasons in baseball. They didn’t ultimately win the World Series, but they came really close. I just remember them being grinders.

There were guys out there who gave everything that they could and they outperformed their own abilities, and I see that a lot with our current squad, who have now jumped up a league and are expected to perform at the highest of levels. No matter what happens, they leave everything that they have out on that pitch every week.

Season 3 will be televised Thursdays at 10 p.m. on FX and stream the next day on Hulu, with the first two episodes premiering on May 2.