Leaders of the city of Dallas met with the Dallas Sports Commission and Visit Dallas on Tuesday to discuss further preparations for hosting matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Arlington.
The teams will utilize parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, setting up their main camps at TCU, Dallas Baptist University, the University of Dallas, and Toyota Stadium in Frisco and using SMU and the Cotton Bowl as training facilities.
The area also remains a candidate to become the tournament’s official International Broadcast Centre, which could bring around 5,000 additional broadcasters to the area.
Transportation due to the high volume of people expected and the lack of a direct system to AT&T Stadium from parts of the metroplex, particularly Dallas, is still being ironed out between the Dallas Sports Commission and the applicable agencies.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the DFW area will host nine World Cup matches during the month-long tournament at AT&T Stadium, including a semifinal match. The venue had been considered for hosting the championship match, but that was awarded to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
All stadiums will be referred to by their location throughout the World Cup because of a FIFA sponsorship policy, with AT&T going by Dallas Stadium for the tournament’s duration.
According to Fox 4 DFW, Monica Paul, the executive director of the Dallas Sports Commission, says previous economic projections predicted a $400 million impact on the local area based on hosting four matches, and those projections have not yet been updated to reflect the impact of hosting nine matches.
The 1994 World Cup brought $300 million to the area.
The updates given at the meeting also included the addition of a “fan fest” hosted at Fair Park that will last multiple weeks and include concerts, entertainment, and other representations of the Dallas area.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup comes to the DFW area in June 2026 and lasts through July.