Will AT&T Stadium host 2026 World Cup matches? What to know about FIFA’s announcement
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FIFA World Cup 2026
Will AT&T Stadium be selected as a venue for the tournament? Here’s what we know.
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AT&T Stadium in Arlington is not new to hosting big events.
Super Bowl XLV was played here in 2011. The inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship game in 2015 was played in Arlington. And the stadium is home to the Dallas Cowboys.
At 4 p.m. Thursday, Arlington will find out if World Cup matches are coming to town in 2026. It is one of the world’s largest sporting spectacles and is put on by the Federation International Football Association. Arlington is one of 17 U.S. cities with venues vying for the honor.
The quadrennial event has traditionally been hosted by one country until 2002 when it was jointly held in Japan and South Korea. The 2026 edition will be the 23rd playing of the world’s premiere soccer tournament and will be hosted jointly — for the first time — by three nations. Hosting duties will be split between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
The World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world. For context: More than 3.5 billion people tuned in to the 2018 World Cup in Russia — a little over a billion watched France knock off Croatia in the final, according to fifa.com. By comparison, roughly 112 million people watched this year’s Super Bowl on television and on streaming devices, according to nfl.com.
The other U.S. cities in contention are: Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC/Baltimore.
The joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup was unveiled in 2017. Qatar is hosting the tournament later this year.
Only three cities are listed each for Canada and Mexico, compared to the 17 for the U.S. Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver have more or less been selected to host matches in Canada. Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey are most likely the three sites in Mexico.
If AT&T Stadium gets the nod, it would not be the first time World Cup matches were played in the Dallas area. The Cotton Bowl was one of nine venues the last time the U.S. hosted the event in 1994. The first World Cup match in Dallas featured a contentious 2-2 draw between Spain and South Korea — with the ascendant Asians finding the back of the net twice in the final four minutes.
That summer more than 3.5 million fans swarmed U.S. stadiums to watch the world’s best sides duke it out, according to statista.com.
FIFA officials visited potential World Cup cities in 2021, stopping by AT&T Stadium in October and meeting with Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, Arlington Mayor Jim Ross and Stephen Jones, Dallas Cowboys executive vice president.
At the time, Jones said FIFA hadn’t offered any feedback on potential venue issues, but said they would be proud to host matches at the Arlington facility.
One of the biggest hang-ups with AT&T Stadium will likely be it’s turf field since traditionally, FIFA World Cup games are played on natural grass fields. The stadium will have to adapt to the conditions if they are chosen as a venue.
The 2026 World Cup will feature an expanded field of 48 teams, 16 more than the 32 sides that qualified for the tournament in Qatar later this year. It will also have twice as many venues (16) as the Qatar edition (8).
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.