The big picture
The city’s World Cup involvement was discussed by Frisco City Council members during an annual two-day winter work session Jan. 30-31.
“They [FIFA officials] will not select basecamps until Q1 [January-March] 2026,” said Josh Dill, Visit Frisco's director of sports and events, at the work session.
Visit Frisco is the city’s official marketing and tourism organization. Including Frisco, there are five confirmed Dallas-Fort Worth area cities being considered for base camps and another two that could be added to the list later, Dill said.
International delegations have begun touring potential sites, Dill said. The city’s recent $182 million investment in Toyota Stadium renovations, where a team would practice if Frisco is picked, has meant the city is “in a position to not be left out of that conversation,” he said.
A list of potential base camps released by FIFA in November paired Toyota Stadium with a hotel in Plano. Some portions of Toyota Stadium will still be under construction in 2026.
“Obviously, as these base camps come and look at us, we have to let them know where we will be with construction going on,” Dill said.
Zooming out
Council members on Jan. 30-31 discussed making the 2026 World Cup one of the city’s top priorities for the coming year as well as focusing on Frisco’s public safety preparedness and community engagement during major sporting events.
“It’s go time,” Mayor Jeff Cheney said.
The games, which will run June-July 2026, are projected to bring thousands of spectators into the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“We've contracted over 27,000 hotel room nights in Frisco at four properties over that [2026 World Cup games] time frame,” Dill said.
The four hotel blocks do not include fan bookings or the rooms broadcast teams and referee groups will need, Dill said.
“There will be multiple groups that are booking hotel rooms and selling packages and things like that,” he said. “Just because we only have four hotels currently in the block doesn't mean that there's not going to be significant demand over those periods for people who maybe are not in a package and just come over to be a part of the action.”
Multiple projects around the city are expected to finish in 2026 ahead of the World Cup, such as the incoming Universal Kids Resort, which could serve as a broadcast center, Dill said.
The redevelopment in The Rail District will not be done in time for the first games in June, Dill said.
Frisco is also home to the National Soccer Hall of Fame, which could be another broadcast center opportunity, he said.
“I talked to [FC Dallas chief operating officer and chief financial officer] Jimmy Smith just last week...he's really lobbying to get us put on a bus route so that people can get up to the Soccer Hall of Fame,” Dill said.
What comes next
Mexico City will host the opening World Cup match June 11, 2026. The final match will be held July 19 in New Jersey.
At nine matches, the DFW area will host more matches than any other participating city:
- Group Stage
- June 14, 2026
- June 17, 2026
- June 22, 2026
- June 25, 2026
- June 27, 2026
- Round of 32
- June 30, 2026
- July 3, 2026
- Round of 16
- July 6, 2026
- Semifinal match
- July 14, 2026
