Founded as a trading outpost in 1841, Dallas has grown into a major center of manufacturing, technology, finance and innovation.
The FIFA World Cup 2026™ poster for Dallas perhaps says it best by harkening back to the North Texas region’s cowboy heritage while also showing a modern metropolis.
A long-exposure image of the Dallas skyline and traffic at night (© Adobe)
The poster art shows a cowboy executing soccer’s audacious “bicycle kick” — an acrobatic shot performed in midair — against a backdrop of the Dallas skyline. The scene — cast in red, white and blue — references the colors of both the American and Texas flags.
(© Matt Cliff/FIFA)
Dallas/Fort Worth, with a population of 8 million and a sprawling land area, is the largest metropolitan area in Texas. What’s more, says tournament North Texas organizing committee’s Noelle LeVeaux, the region has an incredible “energy and attitude.”
Soccer fans who visit Dallas for the June 11 to July 19 tournament held in the United States, Canada and Mexico will find both a modern city and a North Texas region that still pays tribute to its cowboy heritage. Downtown Dallas is home to Pioneer Plaza with its 49 bronze steer statues.
The FIFA World Cup 2026™ will be Texas-sized: the largest number of national teams (48) will play in the tournament since its 1930 beginnings. Dallas will host nine of the tournament’s 104 matches, more than any other city.
The matches will be played in Dallas Stadium in nearby Arlington, Texas, an 80,000-seat facility with a roof that opens and closes. (This part of Texas gets hot in the summer, with daytime highs topping 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or 32 degrees Celsius).
Teams playing here include Argentina, Austria, Croatia, England, Japan, Jordan and the Netherlands, as well as a to-be-determined playoff winner.
A modern ‘metroplex’
A technology boom has brought more tech jobs to Dallas in recent years than any U.S. city other than New York, according to DMagazine. And in 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau says, the Dallas suburb of Princeton was America’s fastest-growing city.
This year, Dallas will reprise its 1994 role as a media hub. It will serve 3,000 to 5,000 media outlets, many international, and support broadcasting 104 games.
North Texas officials will use artificial intelligence to quickly identify the language needed to respond to 911 emergency calls during the tournament.
The FIFA Fan Festival™ will be held at Fair Park, home of the annual Texas State Fair, where a young Elvis Presley performed in 1956 and where locals celebrate the region’s ranching culture, which spans back to the 1700s, when cattle migration routes were established near the Trinity River.
A longhorn cattle drive in Fort Worth, Texas, in May 2024 (© 10 Cows Photos/Shutterstock.com)
Beyond soccer, fans can visit the Fort Worth Herd Cattle Drive, held daily, and watch cowboys guide all-American Texas Longhorn cattle through city streets. Visitors will have an array of attractions to add to their itineraries, from the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame to the stunning views from the observation deck of Reunion Tower.
[Editor’s note: Teams and locations for some matches are not set at the time of publication.]