By Tom Sykes
Americans have always been richer than anyone else on the planet, but with the dollar strong against the British pound, the Trump trade boosting stock markets and asset values, increasing numbers of super-wealthy Americans are once again setting their sights on acquiring trophy trinkets in the old country.
Ellen de Generes may be making the news this month, but Ryan Reynolds was arguably the first of this new wave to spot the possibilities of a little transatlantic arbitrage when he acquired the third oldest soccer club in the world, Wrexham United, for just over $3 million (roughly the cost of a “spacious and light-filled” two-bed on the Upper East Side).
Reynolds and his partner in the venture, Rob McElheney, have invested heavily in the club. Financial filings suggest they have spent a further $12m of their own money since they acquired it in 2020.
Happily for them, the club has been successful, getting promoted through the soccer leagues, and is now valued at around $13m. Ownership has also provided the duo with the raw material for their hit Hulu show Welcome to Wrexham.
There have been other benefits, including hero status in the city of Wrexham, the ultimate toy to show off to their pals like Will Ferrell, and a blossoming friendship with King Charles and Prince William, who just happens to be a very old school friend of the club’s CEO and show producer Humphrey Ker, who went to Ludgrove and then Eton with the prince.
Humphrey said of William when he visited the club in a recent episode: “I have known him since I was 7, or something like that. We literally shared a bedroom from 7 until 10.”
Inspired, some think, by the success of Reynolds and McElheney, more American sports stars are showing an interest in picking up once mighty British sporting assets for peanuts.
NFL star Tom Brady became a major shareholder in Birmingham City Football Club in August 2023. The club is currently third in the same league as Wrexham (who are second).
The American actor and producer Michael B. Jordan acquired a significant stake in AFC Bournemouth, a Premier League football club, in December 2022, part of a consortium led by American businessman Bill Foley, who also owns the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. Jordan has reportedly designed a new kit for the club.
On a less corporate level, Americans are also snapping up prime real estate, especially in London (where their new home from home is the posh diner-style American restaurant The Park) and the Cotswolds. This sprawling area about two hours from London stretches over several British counties, but wealthy Americans (like Ellen) are primarily interested in the area described by realtor Harry Gladwin at The Buying Solution as the “golden triangle” marked out by a trio of elite private members clubs: Soho Farmhouse, Estelle Manor and Bamford (the private club offshoot of fancy grocery store and farm shop Daylesford Organic.)
Gladwin says: “The average price per square foot in Manhattan is around $1,378, the Hamptons $940, and in the Cotswolds it’s more like $658—it’s simple math.”
When it comes to acquiring trophy trinkets in the form of bricks and mortar, Gladwin says wealthy Americans are “willing to take on renovation projects that others won’t,” adding, “Becoming custodians of heritage homes and breathing fresh life into them is something that’s often important to them.”
More of these properties are expected to come on the market at bargain basement prices after a badly-received tax raid on farmers by the new U.K. prime minister, Keir Starmer. Starmer has had, to put it mildly, a bad first few months in office, with critics accusing his administration of disastrous fiscal incompetence, which has devalued the pound.
One man’s crisis is another’s opportunity, of course, and the stream of visitors from across the pond is only intensifying. A bar staffer at one of the region’s many picturesque pubs, riffing off the old joke about GIs in the war being “Oversexed, overpaid and over here,” told The Daily Beast: “They’re still overpaid and, thank god, they are back over here. As for the sex, well, yes, there are bragging rights if you bonk an American.”
Lucy Russell, founder of lucie, a popular beauty and wellness booking app that has a thriving business delivering luxury services to the rural elite, told The Daily Beast: “The Cotswolds are a great playground for Americans who want a taste of all the best that England has to offer. The luxury is all on tap.
“We look after quite a lot of Americans who have homes in the Cotswolds; we supply them with bespoke services such as massage and other wellness and beauty treatments.
“You do notice that Americans just have a very different spending power to Brits. The top hair and beauty experts charge about £700 ($880) per hour. For all except the very wealthiest British people, that’s not what they want to spend their money on, but there are plenty of Americans in the Cotswolds who see that as quite reasonable.”
