Wrexham's US pre-season tour highlights post-takeover brand growth
Wrexham's upcoming fixtures against Premier League opponents in the United States illustrate the Welsh club's transformation into a global commercial entity since its 2021 Hollywood takeover.
Wrexham will face Manchester United in Finland this Saturday before travelling to the United States to play Leeds United, Liverpool and Sunderland. The fixtures, running from 26 July to 2 August, represent a significant commercial step for a north Wales club that only recently returned to English football's second tier.
The US tour is a direct result of the club's elevated global profile following its 2021 Hollywood takeover. Manager Phil Parkinson noted that arranging high-profile fixtures and travelling to America is now "part and parcel" of life at Wrexham.
For the club, the American leg of the tour serves as a mechanism to capitalize on a growing transatlantic fanbase. The recent friendly against Wisla Krakow drew 23,000 fans in Poland, demonstrating the commercial viability of taking the squad overseas. "I think for all the new lads who have come in, to see what it's like over there and how much people love Wrexham in the US... I think they'll be surprised when they get out there," Parkinson said.
This commercial strategy is closely tied to on-pitch performance. Wrexham finished seventh in the 2025-26 Championship season, their first at that level since 1982, narrowly missing the play-offs. A slow start yielded just 10 points from the first 10 games, a slump Parkinson attributes to the operational disruption of integrating 13 new signings last summer.
The club expects to make fewer transfers this window, aiming for a more stable environment. "I feel with us that we have improvement in the group because a lot of the lads came in late [last year] and it took us a while to get to know them individually and to work with them collectively," Parkinson said.
Having key players like Lewis O'Brien, Ben Sheaf, Josh Windass, Liberato Cacace, Nathan Broadhead and Kieffer Moore available for full pre-season training is expected to accelerate that cohesion. Parkinson emphasized that a settled squad is required to deliver the aggressive, attacking performances expected by supporters. "We want to make sure we are an aggressive, attacking team who [make] our supporters, home and away, come away from games and think 'well, what a performance that is'," he said.
