What was billed as \u201c104 Super Bowls\u201d<\/a> is now being forecast as 104 Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowls.<\/p>\n As the mayor of the city that will host a World Cup-high nine matches at AT&T Stadium,<\/a> Arlington\u2019s Jim Ross<\/a> is aware of what is being said and written all over the world. Very little of it is good. A full hotel is not Ross\u2019 primary concern, or biggest priority, when Arlington hosts the World Cup.<\/p>\n \u201cI am more concerned about having a safe World Cup;<\/a> I am more concerned about making sure that people get into and out of the stadium without any incidents,\u201d Ross told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday evening in Fort Worth. \u201cThere are going to be a lot of people there. We want to make sure that people who are coming from all over the world to North Texas are protected.\u201d<\/p>\n Now more than ever when it comes to international sporting events, security is the biggest issue, and cost.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is our primary focus is security,\u201d he said. \u201cThe return on the investment is secondary to keeping people safe.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not the first time a giant global sporting event that normally attracts millions feels off; the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, did not generate the attendance, or the revenue, as anticipated. Fears of terrorist attacks<\/a> were so high that it left arenas half full, and forced organizers to encourage fans who had tickets in the upper levels to sit in the lower levels to create a better visual for TV.<\/p>\n The 2026 World Cup does not feel like the 2004 Summer Olympics,<\/a> but concerns leading into the event are justified.<\/p>\n Why hotels and attendance for 2026 World Cup may be down<\/p>\n A report from the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA)<\/a> this month said that hoteliers in the host American cities for World Cup matches are reporting that bookings are well short of forecasted figures.<\/p>\n The report said, \u201c65 to 70 percent of respondents across markets say visa barriers and broader geopolitical concerns are significantly suppressing international demand.\u201d And, \u201conly a limited subset of markets \u2014 those with strong baseline leisure demand or confirmed team base camps \u2014 are seeing meaningful incremental uplift, representing roughly 25-30 percent of respondents overall.\u201d<\/p>\n The report was from a survey of from hoteliers in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.<\/p>\n \u201cI really honestly am not worried about this,\u201d Ross said. \u201cI talk to people who track this stuff on a regular basis, and they know this stuff works out. I think we will have a resurgence of stuff in the last couple of weeks; our hotels in Arlington are full. They are sold out.<\/p>\n \u201cThere may be other cities that are experiencing this, but we are fine. I think there is a sense of quiet before the storm kind of thing, and people are a little worried in that, \u2018Did we get too far over our skis?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Attempts to find hotel rooms in downtown Fort Worth around the weekend of the first World Cup match at AT&T Stadium between Japan and the Netherlands on June 14 were successful. As of May 21, customers can use the popular travel website Kayak<\/a> to find hotel space in Arlington at multiple hotels the weekend of June 12-15.<\/p>\n Arlington\u2019s ROI on the World Cup<\/p>\n What could be quelling the interest in this World Cup,<\/a> other than travel and or security concerns, are costs that would choke a Saudi oil sheik. The price of a ticket, parking and ground transportation to attend a World Cup match is Super Bowl-ish.<\/p>\n There are reports of the price of a ticket to a World Cup match dropping<\/a> on the secondary market, but they\u2019re still high and well over face value. The cheapest ticket for the Japan-Netherlands match listed on StubHub<\/a> is $747, which is reduced by almost $200.<\/p>\n FIFA places a priority on \u201cowning\u201d as much of this event as possible, including the AT&T Stadium parking lots, to charge premium prices. The organization goes so far as to prevent sports bars from using \u201cFIFA\u201d on an advertising, unless the establishment has paid the price.<\/p>\n Local businesses and business owners are now concerned that the concessions and sacrifices necessary to secure this World Cup from FIFA won\u2019t be worth it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are seeing an ROI now,\u201d Ross said. \u201cWe are seeing heads in beds. We are going to see the ROI. From [Arlington\u2019s] perspective, the ROI is everyone else\u2019s cash registers are ringing. I own restaurants in Arlington, and I personally see it; these restaurants are being sold out by groups coming in from Japan, or other countries.<\/p>\n \u201cI am seeing this personally, and I am comfortable we are going to see a great return on this.\u201d<\/p>\n The World Cup final match is scheduled for July 19, and by then we will know if this event is indeed a series of Super Bowls, or a bunch of over-priced Scooter\u2019s Coffee Frisco Bowls.<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 1:05 PM.<\/p>\n Mac Engel<\/a><\/p>\n Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n Mac Engel is an award-winning columnist who has covered sports since the dawn of man; Cowboys, TCU, Stars, Rangers, Mavericks, etc. Olympics. Movies. Concerts. Books. He combines dry wit with 1st-person reporting to complement an annoying personality.
\n ![\"Profile](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MacEngel-Profile.jpg\")
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH The start of the 2026 World Cup is less than one month away, and if you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-303663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}