FRISCO — By the time DJ “G” cued up Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” last Friday night, the 24-hour party next to Toyota Stadium was already in full throttle: Dozens of fans feasted on 100 pizzas that FC Dallas supplied; two brave souls planned their evening near tents where they would, presumably, finally sleep.
This was the 21st year FC Dallas fans staged an around-the-clock tailgate. It had all the trappings of peak fandom: kids kicking soccer balls under moonlight, adults banging drums and painting a 30-by-30-foot tifo banner — a soccer fever dream lit by fire pit and streetlights. But this year, revelers primed for a season unlike any other, as soccer stakeholders expect the coming World Cup to super-charge the franchise and Major League Soccer.
Standing beside his eight-person tent, Charlie Ostrovich, an 11-year FC Dallas season-ticket holder who met his wife, Gina, through the team’s supporters’ club, the Dallas Beer Guardians, called the atmosphere “amazing.” The 1994 World Cup “kick-started soccer in the U.S.,” he said, “and once they finish renovating [Toyota Stadium], it will be poppin’ here.”
Thirty-two years after the last men’s World Cup on U.S. soil gave birth to MLS, FC Dallas and the league are heavily invested in using the largest World Cup in history — 48 teams — as a springboard to spread the type of passion that crescendoed in this nondescript Frisco parking lot. While the NFL has lapped all U.S sports in popularity, MLS believes it can close the gap on long-established leagues such as the NBA, NHL and MLB.
Business Briefing
The challenge: How does a league fully capitalize on what it views as the greatest growth opportunity in its three-decade history?
Dan Hunt, President of FC Dallas, arrived at the tailgate a few hours before the team’s match against Toronto FC, making the rounds like the Pied Piper. He politely declined a fan’s offer of a potent shot before making this declaration to The Dallas Morning News: One day, MLS will rival Major League Baseball in popularity, and by 2029 it will be a top-five soccer league globally.
“The potential is limitless,” said Hunt, whose planning to take advantage of a World Cup bounce started when the bid was made in 2017. “This excitement and euphoria around the World Cup is like nothing we’ve ever seen before … This is the year of soccer.”
MLS told The News it made an “eight-figure” investment in World Cup-related campaigns. It believes it has wind at its back: team valuations, two-year attendance numbers and sponsorship dollars are up; viewership is expected to grow with the elimination of Apple TV’s additional paywall; and next year’s change to the season’s calendar is expected to attract more European talent. Seth Bacon, MLS’s Executive Vice President of Media, said the league is poised for “exponential growth” from this “generational” moment.
“We are looking at this as a huge injection of rocket fuel into this league,” Bacon told The News. “It’s going to be a transformational moment for the sport and the league, and we’re looking at how we create that next generation of what the league is going to look like, who our fans are going to be, how people interact with the sport.”
On the heels of the World Cup, he added, “the narrative isn’t going to be, ‘Hey, it’s the same old MLS.’”
Alan Rothenberg was chairman of the 1994 World Cup Organizing Committee and also launched MLS. He echoed Hunt’s sentiment that MLS will ultimately rival MLB in popularity in large part because of the soccer league’s young, diverse fan base.
“The question really is: How fast can MLS catch up?,” Rothenberg told The News. “I can’t give you a date, but I think it’s inevitable.”
West Virginia-based Kyle Sheldon is the founder and CEO of Name & Number, a soccer-specific marketing and creative agency whose client roster includes MLS, U.S. Soccer, Chelsea FC, Seattle Sounders FC and New York City FC. He said the “growth potential for soccer, and by extension MLS, may be the highest of any sport in America.”
“There will be a bump,” Sheldon, who has worked for D.C. United, Chicago Fire and the Seattle Sounders FC, told The News. “It’s a question of whether that bump is sustainable … MLS clubs, and the sport as a whole, are still kind of scratching the surface of what’s possible in the U.S., and the World Cup will be a massive accelerator for that.”
All 13 World Cup host cities in the U.S. and Canada are home to MLS clubs, and Arlington’s AT&T Stadium is hosting more matches (nine) than any other location. MLS stakeholders call this year a perfect soccer storm.
“The table is set,” John Kristick, who was the Executive Director of the United Bid Committee — leading the efforts to bring the World Cup to North America — told The News. “They’ve spent the last 35 years trying to get everything ready. It’s served up. They’ve got great ownership. They’ve got great soccer-specific stadiums. They’ve got brand awareness. They’ve got strong leaders across the clubs. Let’s eat.”
FC Dallas President Dan Hunt (left) laughs along with Ciro Martinez as he joined members of the El Matador and Dallas Beer Guardians support groups during their annual 24-hour tailgate party outside Toyota Stadium in Frisco, February 21, 2026. Shortly before the game, the large group marched to the stadium for the season opening game.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
World Cup will create ‘the spark’
Michael Peticolas remembers walking into the Cotton Bowl on June 21, 1994, to watch the Bulgaria-Nigeria World Cup match, sitting with Nigerian fans and hearing their chants. What stayed with him wasn’t the final score, but rather what the game “felt” like — his first realization that soccer is the world’s game.
Last weekend, Peticolas stood beside the tailgating tent bearing the name of his brewery, Peticolas Brewing Company, one of the 24-hour tailgate’s sponsors. He’s attended FC Dallas matches since its first season at the Cotton Bowl and is such a big fan he once pitched the franchise on a FC Dallas beer.
“The World Cup is going to create the spark,” said Peticolas, who has purchased tickets for every World Cup since 2006. “But FC Dallas has to provide the firewood so, after it is over, they convert a once-in-a-lifetime event into a lasting relationship.”
The United States’ appetite for the World Cup is much different than what existed in 1994, Hunt said, when the game was “a novelty” and fans were still grasping the sport.
In order to secure the World Cup rights in 1994, FIFA mandated that the U.S. start a professional league. It was a big ask: Since Hunt’s late father, sports visionary Lamar Hunt, formed the American Football League in 1959, no new sports league had been successfully sustained. The AFL’s success and subsequent merger with the NFL created the modern NFL.
Rothenberg, whose recent book, “The Big Bounce,” details the growth of soccer in the U.S. from the ’94 World Cup, called Lamar Hunt an “essential keystone,” saying they couldn’t have created the league without him. And there were hurdles: In December 1993, when they announced the name of the league, MLB wrote Rothenberg demanding they “cease and desist” because MLS infringed on their name. Rothenberg told MLB: “Sue me. I’d love the headline ‘Major League Baseball Fears Major League Soccer.’”
These days, Rothenberg said, initial investors who put up $5 million each now have an asset package valued in excess of $1 billion. MLS said more than half of the 30 MLS teams are profitable.
To that point, five MLS teams now have valuations exceeding $1 billion, with Lionel Messi-led Inter Miami topping all teams at $1.45 billion, according to Sportico. The 30 teams, which have a combined valuation of $23 billion, have an average valuation of $767 million, an increase of 39% since Sportico’s first MLS valuation report in 2021. FC Dallas ranks 27th at $555 million.
Tel Aviv-based David Lasday, a strategic advisor who connects clubs, athletes and capital to emerging sports innovation, said the World Cup will lift the entire MLS ecosystem, but the valuation impact won’t be evenly distributed. Clubs in global gateway markets such as Los Angeles, Miami and New York will likely see the most immediate growth. Those markets, he said, attract international capital, sponsors and media attention that tends to compound around massive events.
“The bigger long-term story is structural,” Lasday told The News. “If the World Cup drives sustained media rights growth, deeper local sponsorship markets and stronger academy pipelines, mid-market clubs could see meaningful multiple expansion as well.”
FC Dallas soccer supporter Steven Goold of Carrolton paints a huge tifo depicting new head coach Eric Quill during their annual 24-hour tailgate party outside Toyota Stadium in Frisco, February 20, 2026. A few fans braved the cold and stayed the night in tents, while others stayed at nearby hotel before the season opener.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Hunt said last season marked franchise highs in sponsorship and ticketing revenue. He said they’re on pace to surpass those figures this year, even though stadium capacity has been reduced because of a $200-million renovation project. In 2025, he said, the franchise saw a 10% increase in sponsorship dollars year over year.
Hunt declined to say whether the franchise is profitable, but said, “My brother [Clark] and I have never taken a single dollar out of FC Dallas. We have reinvested 100% of every revenue dollar back into players, facilities or staff.”
“We’re still very much in that growth-mode life cycle,” said Hunt, who is also the co-chair of the North Texas World Cup Organizing Committee. “We could not have picked a better time to really try to make a big leap in our revenue and coming on the heels of World Cup 2026 and also we’ll be developing the real estate around the stadium so we hope that that will also be a huge economic boost.”
Sheldon has told several clubs if they are not budgeting a minimum of $1 million specific to World Cup activations, “you’re missing the mark.”
“It’s not a question of should they be doing anything; it’s they should be doing everything,” Sheldon said. “It should be touching every single area of their business. Pull every lever they have.”
Sarah Kate Noftsinger, Atlanta United’s senior vice president and chief business officer, told The News the World Cup will be a “springboard” for the 10-year trajectory of the sport, and “how you put that in a jar and contain it is the million-dollar question for all of us.”
In January, MLS hired creative agency Ogilvy to lead its World Cup marketing strategy. The project is led by Ogilvy executive creative director Wes Phelan, whose previous career projects include the 2024 Super Bowl commercials for BMW and Mountain Dew.
The goal: accentuate how soccer “feels.” The initial campaign for the season is centered around the “MLS Is Back” creative, anchored by the spot “The Call,” featuring Magic Johnson, Son Heung-min, and MLS stars.
Efforts include coordinated club and league campaigns. The second phase of the campaign will focus on the MLS restart in July and a “Return to MLS” moment leading up to the World Cup final. MLS and premium experience company On Location are also working jointly to promote and sell World Cup hospitality packages.
“Without the Dan Hunts of the world — and go down the list of sports business leaders who are heavily invested in NFL [Robert Kraft, Arthur Blank, etc.] who also have an interest in soccer — this World Cup would likely not be here [otherwise] because they’ve all given the keys to the stadiums, and they found ways to work within FIFA’s guidelines so the stadiums can showcase the games,” said Kristick, now co-head of Consulting for Playfly Sports.
“That was major commitment from them and also it really gives this World Cup the chance to further accelerate the sport.”
MLS is in ‘pole position’
Tasked with the all-important duty of handling beverages during the 24-hour tailgate was Bailey Brown, the former president of the Dallas Beer Guardians, who is the current president of the Independent Supporters Council of North America, which advocates for 155 fan groups.
During a 2012 trip to Germany, she went to soccer watch parties and fell in love with the sport, which ultimately led her to FC Dallas games. Looking at the impact of this year’s World Cup, her focus will be on how the 30 MLS clubs work toward taking advantage of this moment.
As one barometer, teams are already benefiting from an increased appetite from brands to step into the MLS orbit. Team-specific sponsorship revenue reached $716 million last year, up 8% year over year.
Bob Lynch is the founder and CEO of SponsorUnited, which provides data on sponsorship and media partnerships. The company, which enables brands and rights holders to evaluate deals through data on more than 403,000 brands and 2.2 million deals, shared a trove of figures with The News to paint a picture of the sponsorship market in DFW and, more broadly, MLS.
From a sponsorship perspective, Lynch said, FC Dallas is toward the lower quartile among MLS teams. But from a growth perspective, the team has a “huge upside … If you look at their revenue generated on a per attendee basis, they generate more than $100 in sponsorship dollars per attendee.”
For the 2024 season, the most recent data SponsorUnited has on record, the average sponsorship deal for FC Dallas ranged from $180,000 to $240,000. That included 62 brand partners, which ranked 14th in MLS. [Hunt said sponsorship revenue increased 10% in 2025.]
For a snapshot of the DFW sports market, it has a mid-tier average deal size of $484,000. Brands such as AT&T, Blockchain.com and Globe Life are each committing more than 50% of their total sponsorship allocations to Dallas sports teams.
Nationally, there are new brands in the soccer market: Walmart’s first significant investment in soccer is a partnership with MLS. They’ve launched a campaign called Walmart Saturday Showdown. Financial technology company Chime last week announced a multi-year partnership with MLS.
“You’re going to have a whole new group of companies who are going to wake up to the sport this summer,” Sheldon said. “MLS is in pole position to capitalize on those sponsorship dollars because of their footprint in local markets, and obviously a growing national footprint.”
Andy Loughnane, President of Austin FC, which is entering its sixth season, told The News “corporate migration happening to Dallas, Houston and Austin should expand sponsorship opportunities for all the teams in Texas.”
Toyota has at least 14 partnerships with MLS teams, Lynch said. The automaker has been with half of those for more than seven years. Last fall, FC Dallas’ extension of its naming rights deal with Toyota Stadium was significant. David Christ, group vice president and general manager of the Toyota Division, said it’s a step for the franchise into a “new era.”
“We have so many new sponsors that are coming this way and either committed or showing interest,” Hunt said, “and especially with the new inventory that we have going into the building.”
FC Dallas ‘spared no expense’
Standing near pizza boxes stacked like a Jenga tower, Trent Meier took inventory of the growth of FC Dallas. A diehard supporter for two decades, he remembers FC Dallas playing in a stadium that was a third full, how Main Street in Frisco barely resembled the restaurant-laden terrain seen today.
Three new MLS stadiums — NYC FC, Chicago Fire and Inter Miami — will open over the next three years. Hunt expects FC Dallas’ $200 million renovation to reshape the fan experience at 21-year-old Toyota Stadium in 2028.
Hunt is intent on making it the nicest small soccer-specific stadium — with 22,500 seats — in MLS and potentially in the world. The project will include the installation of a 6,000-square-foot video board, the largest for a soccer-specific stadium in MLS. There will be three new stadium clubs, luxury suites, a new press box, a 59% increase in concession points-of-sale, a projected 26% increase in restroom facilities, and an upgraded field drainage system.
MLS’ Bacon said, “It’s clear, they spared no expense.”
On the east side of Toyota Stadium, FC Dallas is building a new, larger seating bowl with approximately 3,400 to 4,000 new seats, a protective canopy, and premium club spaces in Frisco, February 21, 2026. FC Dallas was facing Toronto FC in the season opener. The east side is expected to be finished mid-summer 2026 so the west side can be rebuilt as well.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
MLS said more than 24 million fans attended matches the last two seasons, the two best seasons the league has ever had in attendance. And this past opening weekend saw 387,271 fans attend MLS matches, the highest all-time attendance for any MLS match weekend as it begins its 31st season.
The 75,673 fans who watched Miami FC-LAFC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum marked the second-largest standalone crowd in MLS history. In Frisco, FC Dallas achieved its 35th consecutive sell-out in Saturday’s match, as 11,004 fans watched a victory over Toronto in a stadium that remains at reduced capacity during renovations.
The longest active streak of MLS sellouts belongs to Austin FC, which has sold out all 88 regular-season and playoff games in its five-year history at 20,500-seat Q2 Stadium heading into this season. Langhnane, the team president, said the appetite for soccer in Austin is strong, prompting the team to have a two-pronged approach to capitalize on World Cup enthusiasm.
Austin FC plans to host a large World Cup watch party so thousands can attend. The club will also have a 40-day event at a local bar.
“The ability to generate and elevate fan affinity around a World Cup, it’s not just an exercise in wishful thinking; there’s a lot of historical data to suggest that new fans are, in fact, going to be introduced to our sport because it’s a World Cup year,” Langhnane said.
“Austin’s already a soccer city, and the World Cup can help us scale that growth funnel. It’s all of our jobs. Whether you’re in Dallas, you’re in Houston or you’re in Austin, our job is to grow the awareness and the excitement into, let’s call it, MLS curiosity.”
FC Dallas supporters sing, chant and beat drums after spending nearly 24 hours before the season opener partying in the parking lot outside Toyota Stadium in Frisco, February 21, 2026. It’s been an annual tradition for El Matador and Dallas Beer Guardian supporter clubs to ring in a new season before marching to the stadium for the game.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
‘That’s my team, that’s my sport’
An FC Dallas scarf draped around his neck, 19-year-old Sean Colley stood in front of a large television at the 24-hour tailgate, recounting how he fell in love with the team. Three years ago, he stumbled upon FC Dallas on the league’s new media partner, Apple TV.
“Watching Dallas score a goal,” he said, “it clicked in my brain: ‘That’s my team; this is my sport; that is who I am.’”
The Apple TV deal is key to MLS’s growth strategy. In 2022, the league signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with the streaming giant. Viewership numbers have been opaque. But league commissioner Don Garber last year said MLS Season Pass averaged 120,000 unique viewers per match.
An additional paywall existed with MLS Season Pass, which no longer exists. All matches are now available to Apple TV subscribers.
“They don’t ever disclose how many subscribers they have,” Hunt said of Apple TV. “But I know it’s gigantic. So it’s easily accessible to people. I think our viewership numbers will be crazy.”
In November, it was reported that the parties are ending the deal after the 2028-2029 season, three and a half years earlier than originally planned.
Asked directly why MLS and Apple TV decided to end the deal early, MLS’s Bacon danced around the question like Messi eluding a defender, telling The News: “From a timing standpoint, having clarity and having the ability to manage the market from a media perspective is something that’s important to us. We played the long game from the start in our media process and our media strategy.
“We’re first mover in the digital space, and so having that clarity is beneficial to us, and it’s something that we did strategically, in partnership with Apple, but it’s something that’s going to benefit the league long term.”
Soccer executives said it’s advantageous financially for MLS — which also has a rights deal with FOX — to take its games to the open market on the heels of the World Cup, as well as the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which figures to provide another soccer bounce.
Rothenberg said MLS will be well-positioned to significantly increase the rights fees they’ve been receiving, which he believes will enable the league to have more money to keep some of the young American players from going to Europe and bring in some established players from Europe.
Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi (10) celebrates his first half goal agianst FC Dallas midfielder Facundo Quignon (5) in a Leagues Cup Round of 16 match at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, August 6, 2023.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
More than ‘Messi, Messi, Messi’
Dennis McGowan, vice president of the Dallas Beer Guardians, was in his element at the 24-hour tailgate, which he helped organize.
Taking a wide-lens assessment of FC Dallas, he said the team has traditionally been a developmental club, seasoning players such as Ricardo Pepi, Bryan Reynolds and Tanner Tessman and then selling them. “It was built from inception to be a developmental franchise that buys and sells players, and the league is evolving beyond that,” McGowan said, “so they have to find ways to be able to balance that with winning.”
FC Dallas has made several playoff appearances in recent years. Its accomplishments include winning the so-called domestic double in 2016 with the Supporters’ Shield for the league’s best regular-season record and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. And in 2010, it was the MLS Cup runner-up.
League-wise, Messi has sucked up a lot of the oxygen nationwide, attracting casual fans because of his global following. He has 18 brand endorsements and 629 million social media followers, according to SponsorUnited.
But there are other luminaries: Vancouver Whitecaps FC’s Thomas Müller (14 endorsements, 43 million followers), LAFC’s Son Heung-min (13 endorsements, 20 million followers). Minnesota United FC signing James Rodriguez was a coup. FC Dallas forwards Petar Musa (Croatia) and Louicius Don Deedson (Haiti) could both compete in the World Cup.
In MLS’s efforts to ride the Messi wave, McGowan said, they need to strike a balance.
“Everything around this league is Messi, Messi, Messi, Messi, Messi,” McGowan said. “Come see Messi on Apple TV. Come see Messi and friends. We’ve got Son, come see Son versus Messi. We’re going to rent out a big stadium where we have 90,000 people to come in and see Messi. What happens when Messi goes away? What happens when the World Cup ends?”
The move next year to the traditional European calendar — July to May with a winter break — will benefit the league. Hunt said it may take two years, but to expect 60 to 100 new players that MLS teams take on loan or buy. It couldn’t happen before because the seasons didn’t line up.
Whether MLS can be a top-five soccer league globally by 2029 is a complex question, said Bob Heere, a University of North Texas professor of sports management and director of UNT Sports Innovation Space. A complicating factor: MLS is the only soccer league in the world that has implemented competitive balance measures, he said. This means their bottom-ranked teams are often stronger than bottom-ranked teams in other leagues, but their top teams are weaker than top teams in competitions that might overall not be as strong. For instance, top teams in MLS are still significantly weaker than top teams in the Portuguese, Netherlands and Turkish competitions, he added.
“Yes, MLS has the potential to be a top-five league in the world by 2029, but in all likelihood, it would be a distant fifth, far behind the top-four leagues in England, Germany, Spain and Italy,” Heere said. “To put this in an American context: Because of the World Cup, MLS has the opportunity to become the Mountain West Conference within the collegiate landscape.”
Another barrier MLS looks to crack is entry into the mainstream sports conversation. Whereas a generation ago that meant leading ESPN’s SportsCenter, now it’s through social media platforms, said Drew Epperley of BigDSoccer.com. He said it’s critical MLS becomes the talk of podcasts and fodder for media personalities like ESPN’s Pat McAfee.
“You want those bigger entities that a lot of younger audiences skew to talking about it,” Epperley told The News. “You want them leading with it more in the next few years, and if they are not leading with it, then this World Cup was a total bust.”
Young FC Dallas supporter Mateo Larramendi, 4, of Denton kicks a soccer ball around the parking lot as FC Dallas soccer supporters kicked off their annual 24-hour tailgate party outside Toyota Stadium in Frisco, February 20, 2026.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Atlanta United’s Noftsinger also said it’s about capturing youth, but in another respect — playing the game. Then, she said, you need to develop talent to create a more exciting professional product, which then puts more money back into the youth game.
“I really think that this is like a full circle opportunity here,” she said.
The combination of homegrown talent and global stars, she said, could potentially propel MLS into a top-three U.S. sports league and top-five global soccer league.
Hunt echoed those sentiments, noting the team’s long success with its academy. He also recalled what his dad, Lamar Hunt, said before he died in 2006: “I put you in the right place with the stadium.”
When the younger Hunt looks in all directions, he said he sees potential for growth. To the north, population growth extending to the Oklahoma border; to the east he sees Fort Worth and Dallas essentially merging; to the south he sees new $87 million Mansfield Stadium.
If MLS fully capitalizes on its World Cup bounce, Hunt said, that vision looks like sold-out stadiums, heightened viewership and more kids playing the game.
“For this league to continue to be successful,” he said, “we got to develop domestic stars.”
FC Dallas soccer supporters Charlie Ostrovsch of Carrolton (top) and Stephan Hunter of Fort Worth erect a tent during the annual 24-hour tailgate party outside Toyota Stadium (in background) in Frisco, February 20, 2026. A few fans stayed the cold night in tents, while others stayed at nearby hotel before the season opener.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
‘Table is set’ for MLS
When a Chevrolet Brightspot 400 electric van pulled up to the 24-hour tailgate last Friday night, a bearded man stuck his head out of the driver’s side window and said, “Is this the drunk-fest?”
Overall, this was a family-friendly affair. And an hour before the match started came chants and smoke and flag waving. A 3-year-old girl banged a drum as the traditional procession for several dozen fans began under the darkening sky toward the stadium.
Inside Toyota Stadium, the large soccer tifo banner appeared, rolled out and held up by fans after the national anthem, a nod of encouragement for the team’s coach, Eric Quill.
As Kristick, who led the efforts to bring the World Cup to North America, said, the “table is set” for MLS. Valuations and sponsorship revenues are up, viewership is poised to grow, and more eyes are on soccer with the World Cup taking hold. The onus is on FC Dallas and MLS to capitalize.
A huge painted tifo depicting new FC Dallas head coach Eric Quill is unfurled and handed down the Beer Garden section full of supporters. Some members of the El Matador and Dallas Beer Guardian support clubs spent the previous 24 hours partying in the parking lot before marching to the Toyota Stadium for the season opener in Frisco, February 21, 2026.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
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