Fans from all over converge on Billy Bob’s for FIFA World Cup draw party
Melissa Scott fell in love with the FIFA World Cup while watching South Korea play Germany at the Cotton Bowl in 1994, and that love carried her through a two-hour drive to Billy Bob’s on Friday for the draw watch party for next year’s event.
The world’s biggest sporting event is returning to North Texas for the first time since 1994.
Scott, who grew up playing soccer, including at Richardson High School, was one of hundreds of people in attendance at the world’s largest honky-tonk for the draw, joining fans from South America, Mexico and many from Dallas-Fort Worth.
“I’m a lifetime soccer fan and player, and the last FIFA World Cup that came was in ‘94, I went to that one, and so when we heard that they were coming here again, I was like, ‘I’m gonna come,’” Scott said. “I went to the Germany-Korea game, and it was at the Cotton Bowl. So, I mean, it was the first time I’d ever been to a World Cup game, so I was super excited. ... The experience was unlike anything else.”
While Scott is hoping to attend her second World Cup, Jonathan Garcia is hoping to attend his first. The Mexico native talked about his family’s traditions surrounding the global soccer competition.
“Depending on the team that’s playing, my dad, he’s a big, obviously a Mexico fan, but he’s a big England fan, Germany fan, so France, anytime they play, we get together at my brother’s house, and we watch the games,” Garcia said. “We have a little cookout, you know? We make an event of it. Everybody wears their jerseys.”
Garcia wants to attend the World Cup and hopes he’ll be able to go to Dallas Stadium, normally named AT&T Stadium, but knows he’ll need some luck.
“We’re hoping to make it to the AT&T Stadium when it does come here, maybe to another country, maybe Mexico, maybe Canada. So that’s in the works,” he said. “We’ll see how that goes. Obviously, the lottery is very difficult to get in.”
Scott savors her first World Cup experience and explained what it means for the event to come back to Texas.
“I didn’t know if it would ever come back to this area again, and so I’m like, well ... I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to see another World Cup again in my lifetime,” she said. “So when I heard it was coming here again, I was like I’ve got to go, because who knows when it’ll come back again? I wonder if I’ll be here.”
Michelle Hamilton was in Brazil when the country won the 2002 World Cup over Germany.
“We had the final game going on in this big screen with, like, hundreds of people watching the game,” she said. “Everybody’s cheering. That last section of the game they knocked over the projector. People are on the ground crying. Brazil gets their final shot off. And then people are passing around this giant trophy, tears, weeping on the ground. It was amazing.”
Hamilton hopes to be selected as a volunteer for FIFA so she can get some front row access and help be a part of the World Cup.
After the draw, Shaunessy Renker, a Dallas-Fort Worth resident and daughter of two German immigrants, talked about how excited she was to know who her favorite team was playing and said she hopes to try and attend a game. Germany was drawn into Group E and wouldn’t play at AT&T Stadium until the knockout round.
“I’m a huge fan of Die Mannschaft, the German national team, so, yeah, obviously I had to tune in [to the draw event],” Renker said. “[Attending a game], that would be a dream of mine. I have bills to pay right now, but that would be the ultimate dream.”
Renker said her favorite World Cup memory was Germany’s 7-1 beatdown of Brazil in the 2014 semifinals, which she remembers being at band camp for.
“We absolutely obliterated them, and I was at some violin camp and saw the outcome of the game, and we were all freaking out. I called my family,” Renker said. “We’re obviously celebrating that for decades to come.”
The World Cup will commence in June, but fans and teams will have to wait until Saturday to find out exactly which teams will be coming to Dallas-Fort Worth.
This story was originally published December 5, 2025 at 4:24 PM.
