As 2022 World Cup comes to a close, attention turns to Dallas, North America and 2026

North America is on the clock.

Sunday’s final between France and Argentina will mark the conclusion of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. With that will come a shift in focus toward the 2026 World Cup in North America — where Dallas will be one of 16 host cities spread across the United States, Mexico and Canada — and a preparation process that’ll happen on a more-expedited schedule than usual.

“The issue is it’s not four years, it’s three and a half,” Dallas 2026 bid committee chairman Dan Hunt said. Because of Qatar’s hot climate, the 2022 World Cup was postponed from the summer to November. “This is coming to Dallas in three and a half years, and we’ve got a lot of things we need to get ready for. Every time I watch a game, I say, ‘it’s not four years, it’s three-and-a-half years.’ It’s normally four years, but it’s three-and-a-half years coming at us so fast.”

Hunt, the president of FC Dallas, said that FIFA will now take time off from its 2026 preparation and conduct an audit of the 2022 tournament before it reengages with Dallas and its 15 other host cities. Even though Dallas is a host city, games will be played at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium.

The Dallas World Cup conglomerate, Hunt said, had been in constant communication with FIFA through November, though the start of the tournament in Qatar slowed up the process.

“It’ll be fast and furious by the time we get to March again,” Hunt said.

Whether FIFA’s audit has any major ramifications on Dallas’ preparation remains to be seen. The two tournaments are stark in contrast. Qatar’s bid required brand new stadiums to be built. The venues were compact in geography, with the tournament exclusively hosted in one country. In 2026, North America will largely work with existing facilities spread across an entire continent.

But there will also be an additional 16 teams in the 2026 tournament, adding more games and a still untested format. There has also been speculation about a change to the proposed three-team group format.

Dallas-Fort Worth is ripe with arenas, including AT&T Stadium, which gained approval from NFL owners to undergo a $295 million renovation. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones did not cite the 2026 World Cup as a driving force behind the project, though he stressed last year that he views the stadium as “a theatre stage” that can be converted to any shape.

Early projections for 2026 ticket sales, Hunt said, are anywhere from 5.5 to 5.8 million — nearly double the 3.1 million sold in Qatar.

The differences and unique aspects from one World Cup to another are what make the tournament great, Hunt said. He believes this much about North America’s opportunity in 2026.

“It’ll be on a grand scale,” Hunt said. “I just know this’ll be on a scale that FIFA may not have seen before.”

How does North Texas fit into that grand scale? Hunt laid out the ideal scenario: Dallas lands the World Cup final match, the international broadcast center, the FIFA headquarters, the referee headquarters and serves as a host location for a number of visiting teams.

Dallas hosted the international broadcast center at the 1994 World Cup at Fair Park. Dallas’ bid committee plans to meet with a number of international soccer federations to pitch North Texas as a possible location for teams to use as a headquarters. Frisco’s Toyota Stadium, Fair Park and MoneyGram Soccer Park are expected venues for visiting national teams. According to Hunt, Fort Worth has interest in hosting a visiting national team, too, though that may require added infrastructure. Fort Worth would need a soccer facility in close proximity to a hotel.

The bid committee has pitched downtown Dallas as a home for the FIFA headquarters.

“If you have the headquarters here, it gives you the most likely shot of having the finals or the semifinals,” Hunt said. “It will be something that will be known for generations that FIFA picked Dallas as its office headquarters. The amount of business that will happen, the amount of federations that will come to Dallas, the amount of important meetings that will shape soccer over the next decade will occur in Dallas between January of 2023 and the World Cup.

“Outside of Zurich, this’ll be the epicenter of where decisions are made on soccer for the next decade.”

Hunt expects FIFA to designate which venues will host which matches by quarter three or four of 2023, but said its decision on its headquarters should happen sooner than that. FIFA will continue to visit Dallas and the rest of its host cities, and has frequently requested more information on the region.

Even after multiple FIFA site visits in 2021, Dallas is still constantly pitching its region, Hunt said. With FIFA’s eyes more set on 2026 with the conclusion of the tournament in Qatar, those pitches will continue — albeit on a shorter timeframe than usual.

“It’s the greatest commercial our community could ever have,” Hunt said.

On Twitter: @McFarland_Shawn

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