Arlington mayor addresses consistently grim and dire FIFA World Cup reports
The start of the 2026 World Cup is less than one month away, and if you read/watch the news about the global sporting event, a fan could buy the Mona Lisa for the price of one ticket to a match, while every hotel near a game hangs a sign that reads, “Rooms available. All of them. Free HBO.”
What was billed as “104 Super Bowls” is now being forecast as 104 Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowls.
As the mayor of the city that will host a World Cup-high nine matches at AT&T Stadium, Arlington’s Jim Ross is aware of what is being said and written all over the world. Very little of it is good. A full hotel is not Ross’ primary concern, or biggest priority, when Arlington hosts the World Cup.
“I am more concerned about having a safe World Cup; I am more concerned about making sure that people get into and out of the stadium without any incidents,” Ross told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday evening in Fort Worth. “There are going to be a lot of people there. We want to make sure that people who are coming from all over the world to North Texas are protected.”
Now more than ever when it comes to international sporting events, security is the biggest issue, and cost.
“That is our primary focus is security,” he said. “The return on the investment is secondary to keeping people safe.”
This is not the first time a giant global sporting event that normally attracts millions feels off; the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, did not generate the attendance, or the revenue, as anticipated. Fears of terrorist attacks were so high that it left arenas half full, and forced organizers to encourage fans who had tickets in the upper levels to sit in the lower levels to create a better visual for TV.
The 2026 World Cup does not feel like the 2004 Summer Olympics, but concerns leading into the event are justified.
Why hotels and attendance for 2026 World Cup may be down
A report from the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) this month said that hoteliers in the host American cities for World Cup matches are reporting that bookings are well short of forecasted figures.
The report said, “65 to 70 percent of respondents across markets say visa barriers and broader geopolitical concerns are significantly suppressing international demand.” And, “only a limited subset of markets — those with strong baseline leisure demand or confirmed team base camps — are seeing meaningful incremental uplift, representing roughly 25-30 percent of respondents overall.”
The report was from a survey of from hoteliers in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.
“I really honestly am not worried about this,” Ross said. “I talk to people who track this stuff on a regular basis, and they know this stuff works out. I think we will have a resurgence of stuff in the last couple of weeks; our hotels in Arlington are full. They are sold out.
“There may be other cities that are experiencing this, but we are fine. I think there is a sense of quiet before the storm kind of thing, and people are a little worried in that, ‘Did we get too far over our skis?’”
Attempts to find hotel rooms in downtown Fort Worth around the weekend of the first World Cup match at AT&T Stadium between Japan and the Netherlands on June 14 were successful. As of May 21, customers can use the popular travel website Kayak to find hotel space in Arlington at multiple hotels the weekend of June 12-15.
Arlington’s ROI on the World Cup
What could be quelling the interest in this World Cup, other than travel and or security concerns, are costs that would choke a Saudi oil sheik. The price of a ticket, parking and ground transportation to attend a World Cup match is Super Bowl-ish.
There are reports of the price of a ticket to a World Cup match dropping on the secondary market, but they’re still high and well over face value. The cheapest ticket for the Japan-Netherlands match listed on StubHub is $747, which is reduced by almost $200.
FIFA places a priority on “owning” as much of this event as possible, including the AT&T Stadium parking lots, to charge premium prices. The organization goes so far as to prevent sports bars from using “FIFA” on an advertising, unless the establishment has paid the price.
Local businesses and business owners are now concerned that the concessions and sacrifices necessary to secure this World Cup from FIFA won’t be worth it.
“We are seeing an ROI now,” Ross said. “We are seeing heads in beds. We are going to see the ROI. From [Arlington’s] perspective, the ROI is everyone else’s cash registers are ringing. I own restaurants in Arlington, and I personally see it; these restaurants are being sold out by groups coming in from Japan, or other countries.
“I am seeing this personally, and I am comfortable we are going to see a great return on this.”
The World Cup final match is scheduled for July 19, and by then we will know if this event is indeed a series of Super Bowls, or a bunch of over-priced Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowls.
