City leaders and longtime residents say Arlington is entering a defining moment as global attention grows.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The roar from Arlington’s inaugural Java House Grand Prix may have faded, but the city’s already eyeing its next big moment.
With the FIFA World Cup less than three months away, Arlington is stepping into a global spotlight unlike any it has seen before.
“It has gone from a little sleepy bedroom community, a suburb to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to be in the center of the world stage,” Arlington Mayor Jim Ross said.
For Ross, who has lived in Arlington for more than 40 years, the moment is personal. He has seen the city from several vantage points over the years.
“When I first came to Arlington, I was a police officer,” he said. “Went to law school, became a lawyer in my mid-30s. Now, I have a law firm and I own a couple of restaurants.”
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Ross said the city’s recent momentum is not accidental.
“We’ve worked really, really hard at nurturing these relationships and getting people interested in Arlington,” Ross said.
The city has long built a reputation as a destination for major events, from Super Bowls and sold-out concerts, to championship celebrations. But the successful launch of the Grand Prix, coupled with the countdown to the World Cup, has elevated the stakes and intensified the attention.
“We are the center of the world right now,” Ross said. “We have more games being played here in Arlington than any other city in North America. We just had the most successful IndyCar inaugural weekend that any place has ever had.”
Ross said his focus now is not simply on hosting, but on how Arlington is experienced by visitors from around the world.
“I want them to walk away and say, we felt welcomed. We felt loved. We felt respected,” Ross told WFAA.
That sense of welcome is something longtime resident Chris Powell believes the city already knows how to offer.
Powell grew up in Arlington, moved away for about a decade and then returned to North Texas. Now, as the owner of comic book stores in the Mid-Cities, he also serves as a kind of informal keeper of old Arlington, holding onto boxes of photographs that document earlier versions of the city.
“I get on Facebook, and all the time I’ll post a picture of one of our old stores or when I was in junior high or high school, and have people come back to me and be like, ‘My gosh, I remember that place,’” Powell said.
For Powell, Arlington’s transformation is obvious.
“You know, it’s bananas,” Powell said.
Even so, Powell said the city has managed to hold onto part of what made it familiar in the first place.
“We’re a giant city now, but we still have a down-home feel in a lot of places,” Powell said.
That contrast – rapid growth paired with a hometown feel – may define Arlington’s next chapter as the World Cup approaches.
The Grand Prix offered one glimpse of the city’s expanding profile. The World Cup will bring an even broader audience.