Wrexham Australia/New Zealand tour diary, part 3: CEO Williamson on merchandise sales, sunsets and bungee jumping

New York Times

3 days ago

Wrexham's tour Down Under has moved on to New Zealand after nine days in Australia, where Phil Parkinson's side beat Melbourne Victory 3-0 but then lost 2-1 against a youthful Sydney FC.
Saturday's match with Wellington Phoenix will complete a trio of fixtures against A-League opposition as the countdown continues to Wrexham's Championship campaign, which begins at Southampton on August 9.
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To keep fans across what's going on in Australia and New Zealand, The Athletic is publishing a diary of the tour with key members of the travelling party.
After manager Parkinson gave his thoughts in part one and then captain James McClean did the same in part two, today's final instalment comes from CEO Michael Williamson.
There's a definite 'pinch me' element to the tour, certainly with the support the club enjoys on the other side of the world. We played Sydney tonight in the Allianz Stadium, and the crowd was 40,242 — a record for a club football match at this venue.
On the back of the game in Melbourne attracting 37,000 fans through the turnstiles and almost 30,000 tickets having been sold for the final tour game in Wellington at a 35,000-capacity stadium, this is phenomenal support.
We're not playing Chelsea, unlike the two recent North America tours, or Manchester United, as we did in 2023.
I've honestly lost count of the number of people who have come up to me and said, 'Thank you for bringing Wrexham here.' So, so many. All I can say in reply is, 'No, it's me who should thank you for supporting us.'
The turnout — and not just at the matches, I'm talking the kit launches and other promotional events — shows how the storytelling element of Welcome to Wrexham resonates over here as much as anywhere.
As a show, it's as much about the people of Wrexham as it is the football club. People such as Wayne Jones, the landlord of The Turf. He's out here with us, and you can see the connection the fans have with Wayne. At the stadium, they all wanted to meet him and visit the pop-up version of his pub.
No one likes to lose, even in a friendly, as we did tonight against Sydney. But the sea of red in the stands really did make for a memorable sight. I liked the stadium. A proper English-style football stadium with seats close to the pitch.
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Melbourne's Marvel Stadium had fantastic facilities — the experience in and around the venue was great — but the sightlines were pretty long because it was built for another sport, Australian rules football. In contrast, Sydney was perfect for match-watching. The home team performing really well also created a bit of a buzz.
We bid 'farewell' to Sydney today, moving on to Wellington, our final tour destination. We're partnered with Tourism New Zealand on the final leg, and they've really gone out of their way to help promote Wrexham.
Before moving on, I'd like to thank everyone in Sydney for an amazing few days. We had a great time, including a truly memorable evening river cruise hosted by Sydney FC, where we took in all the famous sights, such as the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, to the backdrop of a truly stunning sunset. Even the locals said it was one of the most spectacular sunset evenings they had seen.
A post shared by Michael Williamson (@tenspromike)
On the retail side, Australia proved rewarding. This is the first year of our new global distribution deal, and my understanding is that every Macron/Wrexham product in Australia had sold out as we left Sydney. There was literally nothing left.
Driving from the hotel to the match last night, I could believe it — so many people were on the street wearing Wrexham kits that it felt like we were back in Wales, outside The Racecourse Ground. Amazing.
There are obviously two sides to selling out all the stock that was shipped to Australia (a separate consignment went to New Zealand). First, it underlines the incredible demand. Two, in future, it shows the orders need to be bigger. That's a great thing.
Before we flew out there, no one knew exactly how the Australia and New Zealand market would pan out. There were orders placed by Ultra Football, orders placed by the promoters and Macron.
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These orders were progressive but conservative, if that makes sense. No one wants to be stuck with a bunch of inventory. But the sales on the tour — and we've still got the New Zealand leg to come, remember — mean we can say to all parties next time around, 'You need to place larger orders'.
It's too early to talk exact sales figures but we've already outperformed the sales from the two previous tours to the United States and Canada. And, don't forget, we played some big Premier League teams in 2023 and 2024.
Our first full day in Wellington and what an incredible welcome we've had. The players are training at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation & Sport, and they've really gone out of their way to make us feel at home.
The training pitch, for instance, has been renamed The Racecourse for our visit, while the dressing room has pictures of The Turf, and every player has their squad number and photo on the lockers.
We were all treated to something special before training, with a haka being performed on the pitch. What an incredible sight. I'd love to see us implement that as a pre-match thing in the Championship. Can you imagine how intimidating Jimmy McClean would be for the opposition when performing the haka before kick-off?
I'm aware the impression I'm probably giving is that life on tour is a glamorous affair. But it's also a very busy one, especially when 12,000 miles from home as we are at the moment.
I've had many a night working until 2am since we got here. It might be phone calls to agents about players, or maybe the staff back in Wrexham. There are a million different things that need dealing with, especially emails.
I'll find myself getting to sleep at 2.30am and then, thanks to the time difference with the UK and also the U.S., waking up at 7am to see my inbox full once again.
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But that's the job. The football world doesn't stop just because we're on the other side of the world.
What I do like about being on tour is we're all in the same place. If we need, say, a quick 10-minute chat about a potential transfer, then Phil Parkinson is right here so we can sit down and go through things. There have been a few of those meetings with Phil and his staff in the early hours since we flew out.
We're 11 hours ahead of the UK so, once again, there's plenty to catch up on overnight from back in Wrexham. It's also good to hear what the two Bens — Foster and Tozer — have been up to.
The two former players are both out here as ambassadors for the club and doing a bunch of fun things with the tour promoters. Last I'd heard, they were high-speed boating down a rapids river, but now it seems there's a bungee jump planned.
On hearing this earlier, I was even happier the two Bens had joined the tour as, otherwise, it'd probably have been me and Shaun Harvey doing the bungee!