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The North Texas region continues to prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Nine games are scheduled from June 14 to July 14 at Dallas Stadium, which will be the temporary name of AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Mitch Whitten, the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau COO, spoke at the Fort Worth Chamber Economic Impact Forum Jan. 15 at the Kimbell Art Museum on the impact of FIFA holding games in the area.
The details
Whitten detailed the impact of the games will have throughout Dallas-Fort Worth. Numbers from the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee forecast 100,000 visitors per day, with an estimated economic impact in the region between $1.5 billion and $2.1 billion.
An economic impact study is underway, which is required by the Governor's Office for the City to request reimbursement for eligible expenses through the State Major Events Reimbursement Program, according to the city of Arlington's website.
Whitten said Dallas has more matches than any other region in the United States. Five of those dates are known with three different groups playing:
The Union of European Football Associations playoff will be determined in a game held on March 31. The four teams that are vying for the final spot include Ukraine, Sweden, Poland and Albania.
Whitten said Dallas has two Round of 32 games, held June 30 and July 3. A Round of 16 game follows July 6 and a semifinal game will be played July 14.
Zooming in
Texas Christian University has applied to be a base camp for a team in the region, Whitten said, but FIFA has yet to announce the final camp destinations since national teams have until March to decide where they will train during the event.
FIFA has listed 64 possible base camps, but there are only 48 teams that will qualify for the World Cup. As of Jan. 15, 42 teams have qualified and the last six will be decided in March.
Seven of the 64 training base camps on the FIFA site are in the North Texas region:
A closer look
During the same time frame of the World Cup, Fort Worth will be hosting the Texas FFA State Convention from July 6-10. Whitten said that it will bring 15,000 students from across the state to Fort Worth at the Fort Worth Convention Center and Cowtown Coliseum.
The latter, at the Fort Worth Stockyards, is a tourist attraction that draws more than 10 million visitors per year, according to its website.
