While packed venues and tourism fueled record business across Arlington, some small restaurants near Dallas Stadium became ghost towns. They blame traffic.

ARLINGTON, Texas — As hundreds of thousands of soccer fans poured into Arlington for the FIFA World Cup, neaby bars and hotels enjoyed one of the busiest stretches in recent memory.

Restaurants at entertainment hubs like Texas Live! were packed, and barbecue restaurants like Terry Black’s Barbecue and Hurtado Barbecue served long lines of international visitors throughout the tournament.



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Just a short distance away, however, some small businesses near Dallas Stadium experienced the opposite.

At Zack’s Bistro off of I-30 along Copeland Road, owner Zack Sekouri and his daughter, Shereen Sekouri, expected the World Cup to bring their strongest month of sales. 

Instead, the family says business dropped by about 70%.

“This is everything. This is my dad’s dream,” Shereen Sekouri said.

While Zack Sekouri traveled to Morocco to visit family, Shereen remained in Arlington to run the restaurant. As business slowed, she took on a second job this month to help make ends meet.

“It’s been pretty bad, really,” Zack Sekouri said.

Despite initially welcoming the tournament, he said the outcome caught him by surprise.

“Honestly, for me it was a big surprise. It’s the opposite of what you thought would happen,” he said. “I bought extra food, hired extra people. I was so excited because I’m walking distance to the stadium, but it’s the opposite.”

The family says the problem was not a lack of visitors. Instead, they believe game day traffic, road closures and limited parking discouraged their regular customers from visiting.

Fans parked in spaces typically used by restaurant customers, while congestion around the stadium made reaching nearby businesses difficult.

“We didn’t lose our customers. We lost access to them,” Shereen Sekouri said.

She said business came to what felt like a complete halt during tournament days.

“It all stopped. Almost like a dead complete stop. It became a ghost town,” she said.

The owner of the neighboring Brother’s Pizza said the restaurant experienced similar challenges during the tournament, with a weekly sales decline of nearly $3,000.

Tuesday’s final match between Spain and France in Arlington brought an end to weeks of crowds that generated millions in tourism spending across the city of Arlington.

For Zack’s Bistro, the family hopes that also means the return of its regular customers.

“I’m positive we’re going to be full again,” Shereen Sekouri said.