Stockyards to Sundance Square, SMU & TCU: Winners & losers from the World Cup
FIFA and event organizers promised DFW that this World Cup would deliver the equivalent of “nine Super Bowls,” and while that impossible vow was not met, the delivery was something different, and better.
This World Cup is now a Super Bowl-like shameless money machine, and one helluva lot of fun. We are in the final week of this once-every-four-years event, and the return of the World Cup to the United States exceeded all expectations; it will not be another 30 years before it comes back to America.
The semifinal between Spain and France on Tuesday in Arlington will be the final match at “Dallas Stadium,” which means the name of the venue, the real grass and the tinted windows will soon return to their original state.
American football will start here shortly, but it has been so much fun to concentrate on the other football this summer. The U.S. team did not win, but the tournament definitely had its winners and losers in DFW.
TEXAS WORLD CUP WINNERS
Fort Worth Stockyards
The city’s controversial redevelopment and expansion of this tourist area netted the biggest gain of any one spot in the area. Out-of-towners who wanted to see “Texas culture” flocked here to see the cattle drive, “real” cowboys, to see the rodeo and dance at Billy Bob’s.
Most locals can tell you that much of “cowboy culture” is an exaggeration, essentially a daily dose of western Halloween, but foreigners clearly loved it.
Texas Live!
The bar/restaurant spot located in the same plaza area as Globe Life Mall morphed into the epicenter of the World Cup matches played at AT&T Stadium. Texas Live! was a second stadium for people who didn’t have tickets to the actual matches, and a watch party spot for all others.
AT&T Stadium
This was the reason why DFW hosted the second-most matches in the tournament; it delivered what FIFA wanted. The real grass and tinted windows were perfect, and the plaza area on the west side of the stadium served as party central for fans inside security.
Klyde Warren Park and Sundance Square
The respective areas in downtown Dallas and Fort Worth became the popular spots for World Cup watch parties, especially matches involving Mexico.
Klyde Warren Park has undergone renovations and expansions over the years, and it really didn’t need a “boost” of activity, but it’s been nice to see this spot, as well as Fair Park near the Cotton Bowl, burst with World Cup fans.
Sundance Square, however, and downtown Fort Worth for that matter, both needed a bump. Not sure if the World Cup will spur a renaissance of activity in the once thriving downtown, but it has been wonderful to see people congregate in this spot to share in this global experience.
Buc-ee’s
We’re numb to a gas station that is the size of a Walmart, which serves food to patrons that can’t sit down inside the place. Outsiders were stunned by this American phenomenon, which was at times both refreshing, and kinda sad.
TEXAS WORLD CUP LOSERS
FC Dallas and Major League Soccer
Not sure who was in charge, but Major League Soccer has been invisible since the start of this tournament. MLS should have used this window of positive energy and publicity for the sport and flooded social media, and any other form of media, to sell its league, players and story. Instead — nothing.
The league has grown and expanded its footprint all over the U.S. and is stable, but it blew its chance at increased awareness over the past 90 days when the focus of the entire world was on soccer.
U.S. soccer fans are no more aware of who and what the MLS is today than they were on June 1.
TCU
This time one year ago TCU was sure it would be picked as a host training site for one of the 48 teams participating in this World Cup; as a result, it would receive positive exposure from foreign media, fan turnout and the team itself. For whatever reason, it didn’t happen and Fort Worth’s most prominent university was essentially shut out.
Sweden selected FC Dallas’ facilities in Frisco; Czechia picked Mansfield’s new stadium; SMU was the designated warmup site for teams that flew into town for matches.
There was no way SMU was not going to be picked to do something of note for this tournament; the late Lamar Hunt, whose contributions to the sport are the single biggest reason why it’s where it is today in America, has deep ties to SMU that his family maintains. The sight of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo practicing at SMU’s Washburne Soccer and Track Stadium in front of a large gathering of international press is one of those photo ops that AI can’t create.
All of the above local destinations enjoyed varying degrees of positive national, and international, exposure and affiliation with this World Cup. TCU received none. Even Texas A&M grabbed some World Cup attention when Kyle Field hosted Argentina and Honduras in a friendly on June 6.
Event officials estimated that the reason TCU was not picked was because it objected to one or two specifics mandated by visiting teams. One detail event organizers learned in dealing with FIFA, one “No” ends the conversation.
Interstate 30 and Interstate 35
Foreign travelers quickly discovered what locals know — that driving on our main arteries is a medieval torture device. These poor people learned the hard way that I-35 is now a three-lane drag strip, only the obstacles are 18-wheelers, and 70 mph is the floor not the ceiling.
And the only time of day when I-30 is “good” is between 2:30 and 3 a.m.
