Did Deadpool Save a City? The Social and Economic Impact of “Welcome to Wrexham”

Both sport and media have been ascribed the power to affect human behavior. With streaming platforms creating a worldwide audience for sport docuseries, these two forces might combine to create wide-ranging effects. How this plays out on a large scale, however, has not been studied extensively. We contribute to this growing area of inquiry by investigating the social and economic impact of “Welcome to Wrexham”, a popular sport docuseries chronicling the purchase of Welsh soccer club Wrexham A.F.C. by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Using causal impact modeling, we find a significant increase in employment and per capita GDP in the city, alongside mental health benefits. As such, our results establish the real-world implications of a “Netflix Effect” in the realm of sport, exemplifying how sport media cannot only grow the following of clubs and athletes, but also affect society.