Three matches. Three cities. Nine days. Nashville: Sunderland vs Liverpool — the Battle of the Bands where the Beatles meet Elvis, settled under Tennessee skies. New York: Sunderland vs Leeds — rivals under the lights in the city that never sleeps, which, given the history between these two sets of fans, feels entirely appropriate. Philadelphia: Sunderland vs Wrexham — two Netflix Superstars with documentaries, devoted followings, and absolutely no intention of being polite to each other, in the city where Rocky Balboa ran the steps and nobody told him he couldn’t.
The Sunderland USA Tour 2026 is the kind of pre-season fixture list that, a few years ago, would have been unthinkable. This is a club that spent eight years in the Championship and League One while the documentaries filmed and the embarrassments mounted. Now they’re preparing for their second consecutive Premier League season with a transatlantic fixture list that most top-half Premier League clubs would be happy with — and doing it in Nashville, New York, and Philadelphia, which is frankly not a sentence many Sunderland fans thought they’d be reading in the 2020s. If this club taught you anything during the Sunderland ‘Til I Die years, it’s to not take the good times for granted. So. Three cities. Nashville on 25 July. New York on 30 July. Philadelphia on 2 August. Here’s how to do all three — and enjoy every minute of it.
The Fixtures at a Glance
| Date | Opponent | City | Venue | Kick-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday 25 July | Liverpool FC | Nashville, TN | GEODIS Park | TBD (likely 7–8pm local) |
| Thursday 30 July | Leeds United | New York | Sports Illustrated Stadium | TBD (likely 7–8pm local) |
| Sunday 2 August | Wrexham AFC | Philadelphia | Subaru Park | TBD (likely 7–8pm local) |
Kick-off times haven’t been confirmed at time of writing — evening starts are expected across all three fixtures given the summer heat. Check the official club pages as the tour approaches.
Why This Trip Is Different from Every Other Pre-Season Tour
Most pre-season tours are three forgettable matches in a stadium that’s half-empty and smells of corporate hospitality. TEG Sport’s Summer Soccer Series 2026 is not that.
Liverpool. Leeds United. Wrexham. The opponents alone tell you something. Liverpool are European royalty, the club that gave the world The Beatles and then somehow topped it — you know what a Liverpool pre-season match means for the atmosphere at a 30,000-seat American stadium. And Nashville, a city that takes its music wars very seriously, seems like exactly the right place to settle a North East vs Merseyside score. Leeds are the Premier League’s other great fallen-and-risen story, their own documentary, their own devoted following — and the chance to beat them again under the lights in New York feels like exactly the kind of fixture this tour was built for. And Wrexham. Good grief. Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, the FX series that turned a Welsh fifth-division club into a global brand — Wrexham arrive in America with more casual name recognition among 25–35-year-old Americans than almost any English club not named Manchester United or Liverpool. Every Sunderland vs Wrexham fixture in Philadelphia will have American neutrals who discovered football through Welcome to Wrexham and are now genuinely conflicted about which underdog to cheer for. (They’ll cheer for Wrexham. That’s fine. We’ll be there either way.)
It’s also worth noting that the back-to-back New York schedule on 29 and 30 July offers something completely unprecedented for an English pre-season. Liverpool vs Wrexham at Yankee Stadium on the Wednesday. Leeds vs Sunderland at Sports Illustrated Stadium on the Thursday. Two different stadiums. Two different fixtures. Consecutive evenings. If you can get tickets to both — and at the time of writing, Wrexham/Liverpool at Yankee Stadium has 400-level seats available — that’s a 48-hour football weekend in New York that nobody in the history of pre-season tours has had before. Honestly. Think about that for a moment.
The Route: How to Build the Trip
The logical entry and exit points are Nashville in, Philadelphia out. British Airways operates a direct service from Heathrow to Nashville (BNA) — the BA223, roughly 9 hours 35 minutes. Economy return fares are available from around £500–650 if you book well in advance; realistically, summer 2026 transatlantic travel is not cheap, and budgeting £700–900 return is sensible. Flying into Nashville and out of Philadelphia avoids any doubling back and follows the natural geography of the tour.
Budget option — fly into New York first: If BA fares to Nashville feel steep, there’s a cheaper routing worth considering. Fly London to New York on a budget transatlantic carrier, spend a few days in the city, then catch a short domestic hop to Nashville for the first match. Icelandair operates from Heathrow and Gatwick to JFK via Reykjavik — round-trip fares from around £324–422 in summer, with the option of a free Reykjavik stopover on the way out if you fancy a bonus country. Norse Atlantic flies Gatwick direct to JFK with base fares from around $310 (£245) — the catch is that economy base fares include no bags, no seat selection, and no food, so add those in and the real cost sits closer to £320–380 all-in. Norwegian pulled out of transatlantic flying a few years ago and isn’t an option. Either way, flying into New York rather than Nashville adds a couple of days in NYC at the start, which for a trip of this scale is not exactly a hardship. Just factor in a domestic Nashville flight from JFK or EWR — from around $62 (£49) booked in advance.
Nashville to New York: Don’t take the train. The Amtrak from Nashville requires connections, takes the better part of two days, and costs more than flying. A direct flight from Nashville International (BNA) to JFK, LaGuardia, or Newark runs about 2 hours 25 minutes and costs from around $62 (£49) booked in advance, though realistic summer pricing is $100–130 (£79–103). Delta, American, and United all operate nonstop services. Book as early as possible — this is peak summer travel season in both directions.
New York to Philadelphia: This one you do take the train. The Amtrak Northeast Regional from Penn Station to 30th Street Station takes between 1 hour 19 minutes and 1 hour 32 minutes, costs from $12 (£9), and runs 45 times a day. It’s genuinely one of the easiest rail journeys in America. The Acela is faster and more expensive; the Regional is perfectly comfortable. An Uber would take the same time in July traffic and cost fifteen times as much.
If you want to drive Nashville to New York: The road trip option is real. It’s 884 miles via I-81 North — about 13 to 14 hours of actual driving — and with 5 days between the Nashville and New York fixtures, you have time to spread it across two days. Knoxville is 2.5 hours from Nashville; Roanoke, Virginia makes a logical overnight stop at the halfway point; Washington DC is a detour worth considering if the timing works. Two or three people sharing a hire car — from around $42/day (£33) for a standard vehicle — makes it cost-competitive with flying, and you get the American highway experience into the bargain. Just don’t underestimate how large this country is.
Getting to Each Stadium
GEODIS Park, Nashville (25 July — Liverpool)
Nashville SC’s ground holds 30,109 and sits about 2 miles south of downtown — a proper stadium in a proper setting, and the kind of venue you’d be proud to watch Sunderland in. WeGo public buses (Routes 52 and 77) run fare-free service on match days. Rideshare drops off at Fair Park, 2300 Bransford Avenue. If you’re staying downtown or in The Gulch, you’re within walking distance or a short Uber. Tickets start from around $220 (£174) on the secondary market — more expensive than the other two fixtures, because Liverpool. Buy direct through Sunderland AFC or Liverpool FC to avoid the reseller premium.
Sports Illustrated Stadium, New York (30 July — Leeds United)
The stadium sits in the New York area, about 40 minutes from Midtown Manhattan — which matters for transport planning but not much else. You’ll be staying in Manhattan, eating in Manhattan, and coming back to Manhattan afterwards. That’s not a problem; it’s the plan. On match day, take the PATH train — the journey from World Trade Center or 33rd Street takes about 30 minutes and costs $3.00 (£2.40). It’s cheaper than a single Metro ticket at home and considerably more useful than most things Southern Rail offers, for what it’s worth. Secondary market tickets from around $97–114 (£77–90). Buy direct through Leeds United or Sunderland AFC first.
Subaru Park, Philadelphia (2 August — Wrexham)
Subaru Park sits south of Philadelphia city centre — well-served by SEPTA Regional Rail. The Wilmington/Newark line from Suburban Station or 30th Street Station gets you there in about 30–37 minutes. A free shuttle connects the station to the stadium on match days. It’s a tidy, well-organised ground and the last night of a three-city trip — which means you can afford to relax and enjoy the occasion rather than logistics-checking anything else. Secondary market tickets from around $61–99 (£48–78) — the most affordable of the three fixtures, which feels right for a finale. Buy direct through Wrexham AFC or Sunderland AFC first.
Between the Matches: What to Do With Yourself
A note before we get into it: all three cities in late July are hot. Nashville runs to around 32°C with humidity that makes the air feel like a warm flannel. New York in summer is a masterclass in “chaotic and brilliant and absolutely sweat-soaked” — and when it’s 35°C in midday Manhattan, the museums, galleries, and air-conditioned theatres stop being optional. Philadelphia in August is not far behind. Plan accordingly: morning activity, midday retreat, evening on your feet. This is not a trip for people who need cold weather to function.
In Nashville (arriving ~23–24 July; match 25 July; departing ~26–27 July)
Nashville earns a proper visit, not just a stopover. Lower Broadway is the obvious starting point — the strip of honky-tonks (Tootsies, Robert’s Western World, The Stage) running live music 16 hours a day, 365 days a year. It’s wonderfully, unapologetically itself. You will not be the only tourist there. You will not care.
Beyond the strip: the Country Music Hall of Fame is genuinely good — the history of American popular music runs through Nashville in ways that a British audience consistently underestimates. The Johnny Cash Museum is compact but affecting. Hattie B’s Hot Chicken on 19th Avenue South is the essential food stop — six heat levels, and ordering “Damn Hot” is approximately the Nashville equivalent of ordering extra-hot at Nando’s, which is to say: possibly a poor decision, definitely a story. Tennessee whiskey distillery tours run on Fridays and Saturdays; Nelson’s Green Brier in Nashville itself is worth an hour and tells a better story than the Jack Daniel’s tour in Lynchburg, which requires a 90-minute drive for the privilege of not being allowed to buy a drink on-site because the distillery is in a dry county. The irony has not been lost on visitors for the past 150 years.
In New York (arriving ~26–27 July; match 30 July; departing ~31 July or 1 Aug)
The NYC guide on this blog covers the city in full. The short version for Sunderland fans: stay in Manhattan, eat downtown, and in the middle of the day when it’s 35°C and your trainers are melting, get yourself into a museum or a theatre or literally anywhere with air conditioning, because New York in July takes no prisoners. The heat is not an inconvenience. It is an event.
The good news: the city repays the effort. New York in summer is genuinely brilliant — loud, chaotic, expensive, and worth every penny of it. The 29/30 July back-to-back is the priority if you can manage it — Wrexham vs Liverpool at Yankee Stadium one evening, then PATH train for Leeds vs Sunderland the next. Two stadiums, two nights, one city. NYC Restaurant Week runs from 21 July to 17 August — prix-fixe menus at several hundred restaurants across all five boroughs, at prices that make New York feel briefly manageable. Tickets to the Wrexham/Liverpool Yankee Stadium fixture on 29 July start from $290 (£229) in the 400 level.
In Philadelphia (arriving ~31 July or 1 Aug; match 2 Aug; departing ~3–4 Aug)
The Philadelphia guide on this blog has the full destination rundown. The short version: run the Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art — 72 steps, arms up, phone out, you’ve come this far and Rocky did it in worse trainers. Eat at Reading Terminal Market (DiNic’s roast pork sandwich, not the cheesesteak — the locals will thank you, or at least not openly mock you). Visit Independence Hall for the history that shaped this country. Philadelphia is a proper city that tourists consistently underestimate, and you’ll leave it wishing you had an extra day. The Wrexham match is on a Sunday, which means you have Saturday in the city before an evening kick-off on match day. That’s a very manageable end to the trip — and a very good story to bring home.
What This Trip Actually Costs
A rough per-person budget for the full 10-day tour, assuming advance booking, mid-range accommodation, and all three matches:
Transatlantic flights (LHR to Nashville, Philadelphia to LHR): £700–900. Internal flight Nashville to NYC: £79–103. Train NYC to Philadelphia: £9–16. Three match tickets (floor prices, secondary market): ~£342 (Nashville ~£174 + New York ~£90 + Philadelphia ~£78). Nine nights accommodation — 3 in Nashville, 4 in NYC, 2 in Philadelphia, mid-range: £1,350–2,250. Food and drink at roughly £55/day: £550. Local transport, PATH, SEPTA, the odd Uber: ~£120.
Total: roughly £3,150–4,280 per person.
That’s a proper holiday budget, and the honest answer is: yes, it’s expensive. US summer travel is expensive. NYC is expensive. Transatlantic flights in peak July are expensive. But the alternative is watching the pre-season on iFollow from your sofa, and you’ve already read this far, so let’s assume that’s not the plan.
Budget-conscious version — hostels or shared rooms, cheaper internal flight, cheaper match tickets (the Philadelphia fixture especially), eating street food and market food rather than restaurants — gets you to around £2,200–2,700. Still not cheap. Still absolutely worth it.
Plan Your Trip
Three cities means three times the planning, but the experiences across each are genuinely different. Whether you’re staying for one match or all three, guided tours help make the most of limited time between fixtures.
For Nashville, explore music history tours, whiskey distillery experiences, and day trips to the surrounding Tennessee countryside via our Viator Nashville shop. For New York City, from Yankee Stadium tours to Brooklyn food walks and Statue of Liberty crossings, browse our Viator New York shop. And for Philadelphia — Rocky history tours, Constitution Centre experiences, and city food trails — our Viator Philadelphia shop has options across all budgets.
If you book through our links, we earn a small commission — every penny goes towards keeping the blog running and, let’s be honest, towards watching Sunderland in America. Which feels like a reasonable use of a few quid.
Explore Nashville
Explore New York City
Explore Philadelphia
One Final Thought
Nashville. New York. Philadelphia. A music battle, a Bronx-energy grudge match, and a Netflix underdog derby at the end of it — and Sunderland are the thread running through all three.
The itinerary above will take some planning and a reasonable amount of money. But you’ll be in a 30,000-seat stadium in Tennessee watching Sunderland play Liverpool in the American summer — an evening that simply didn’t exist as a possibility five years ago. You’ll take the PATH train into New York and find a few thousand red-and-white shirts already there. You’ll run the Rocky Steps in Philadelphia, arms up, phone out, wondering how a club that spent years making documentaries about its own descent is now doing pre-season at Subaru Park.
The story didn’t have to go this way. It went this way anyway. Book it.
Haway the lads. 🔴⚪
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