The grant, which will fund one year of study and training, comes from the North Central Texas Council of Governments and Urban Areas Security Initiative. It will pay for dual tube night vision equipment and training to enhance a tactical response team’s capabilities, according to meeting documents.
Frisco’s Toyota Stadium will be a base camp for one of the 48 participating World Cup teams. Frisco Police Sergeant James Willis, who serves as the department’s public information officer, said the Urban Areas Security Initiative grant will fund a customized protective security detail training program for when that happens.
The program will include coordinating with FIFA security and training the department’s special operations team to prepare for when Frisco is hosting high-profile visitors and practices, Willis said.
Sorting out details
The Urban Area Security Initiative is a grant program funded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
It offers financial assistance to help high-density urban areas “prevent, respond to, and recover from threats or acts of terrorism,” according to the NCTCOG’s website. Frisco has received money from the Urban Area Security initiative before—it helped pay for a new armored rescue vehicle in 2023.
Other Texas cities have successfully received or applied for funding from the initiative either through NCTCOG or their own metroplex. One recent grant award went to Lewisville City Council for new security camera trailers.
There is no matching requirement for the grant funds but the police department will need to cover any potential maintenance costs if they come up, according to meeting documents.
Zooming out
FC Dallas President Dan Hunt said in an interview with Community Impact last year that the 2026 World Cup could be the “most financially successful World Cup of all time” as the event will include 104 Super Bowl-sized games.
Nine of those games will be held in Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, which are expected to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area.
