Mayor Pro Team John Keating said Dallas being selected as an American host city would have major ramifications for Frisco and other cities in the region.
“I think it’s a viable, active thing right now,” Keating said of the World Cup 2026 pursuit. “This is one of those things that is going to extend to Arlington, to Frisco, to McKinney [and] Allen. Everybody wins from this.”
The World Cup pursuit was one of 10 priorities for 2020 identified by the Frisco City Council at the end of its two-day winter work session on Feb. 1.
The other priorities selected by the council were:
• Grand Park master plan;
• performing arts center;
• reinvestment plan for aging residential areas and the Stonebriar Centre;
• making Frisco a venture capital center;
• next steps for downtown;
• North Frisco master plan;
• traffic/infrastructure innovation and connectivity of trails;
• strategy for working with the state legislature; and
• the “next big thing.”
While the items are not in any order of importance, the council members agreed they wanted to end the list with a directive for Frisco staff to go after something significant. Among the items discussed were the Little League World Series, AT&T Byron Nelson golf tournament and the creation of a music festival in the vein of Austin City Limits.
“All of these really talk about quality of life and quantity of life,” Council Member Tim H. Nelson said of the big ideas pitched by the council. “The quality of life is the better jobs, the better entertainment, all those types of things. And the quantity of life is spending less time in the vehicle—having these things brought to local residents as opposed to them having to go to these experiences.”
While the priorities have not yet been formally approved by the council, city staff is expected to begin working on them immediately.
“We have work to do,” City Manager George Purefoy said at the end of the meeting.
