Across those nine games, Dallas hosted more matches than any other World Cup venue, filling AT&T Stadium with roughly 70,204 fans each match (approximately 99.3% of its total soccer capacity) and turning group-stage and knockout dates alike into event days for Arlington\u2019s entertainment district and beyond. Had the U.S. advanced out of its quarterfinal, it would have played its semifinal there; instead, local organizers got Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Lamine Yamal and one of the tournament\u2019s marquee matchups.<\/p>\n
In the eyes of local officials, staging more matches than any other venue, moving hundreds of thousands of fans through public transportation, running a 34\u2011day fan festival at Fair Par<\/a>k<\/a> and hosting the International Broadcast Center<\/a> show North Texas is ready to bid for the 2031 Women\u2019s World Cup and make DFW a permanent stop on soccer\u2019s global map.<\/p>\n Organizers are still separating forecasts from reality when it comes to numbers. They say they still are months away from a full accounting of hotel, sales, rental car and alcohol tax collections across the region, along with wrapping in costs and revenue tied to venue move-outs that stretches into late August.<\/p>\n Still, Arlington Mayor Jim Ross said early returns are looking strong, with June hotel revenue topping $31 million, up from about $23.5 million in November 2024, when the city hosted three Cowboys home games and the Mike Tyson\u2013Jake Paul fight<\/a>. He said preliminary estimates put Arlington\u2019s World Cup economic impact around $160 million, roughly half of the city\u2019s typical annual impact from AT&T Stadium.<\/p>\n The next phase<\/p>\n Monica Paul, president of the organizing committee, said the World Cup was another chance to show off North Texas\u2019 competitive advantage. The next phase runs through the North Texas Sports Foundation, which is intended to turn the region\u2019s World Cup infrastructure and experience into mini-pitches, programs and entrepreneurship opportunities that outlast 2026. <\/p>\n Paul also pointed to local Gainbridge Super League women\u2019s team Dallas Trinity FC<\/a> as a key piece of \u201cintentionally growing the game on the women\u2019s side\u201d if the region wants to be credible in a 2031 Women\u2019s World Cup bid.<\/p>\n On the club side, FC Dallas President and co-owner Dan Hunt<\/a> said the tournament has already produced a halo effect.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re already starting to see from a ticket sales and sponsorship standpoint at FC Dallas. It\u2019s just really added awareness, having three guys in the tournament too, especially with [FC Dallas striker Petar] Musa scoring, and that\u2019s an awareness thing for the club,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cIf you have a strong national team program, it trickles down. I think this will be the next step forward. It will catapult MLS, USL and the NWSL. I hope that this creates thousands of more jobs and provides opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n Stadium situation<\/p>\n Fred Ortiz, global director of sports and entertainment for HKS Architects, said the World Cup has largely validated how AT&T Stadium was originally conceived<\/a>, with no major operational misses surfacing as the tournament went on.<\/p>\n He said the venue is performing much as it did on the drawing board, \u201cflexing and morphing\u201d from Cowboys games to a FIFA setup without major friction.<\/p>\n Even with 17 years of hindsight, he said there is little he would change about the venue beyond continuing to layer in new technology and amenities as fan expectations evolve.<\/p>\n For the Cowboys, Chad Estis, EVP\/business operations for the team and EVP\/chief revenue officer for Legends, said international fans arrived much earlier and stayed longer than typical NFL crowds, which helped push general concession sales higher than a typical Cowboys game. He said the stadium\u2019s $350 million refresh<\/a> covered every suite, the entire center-hung board and roughly 3,000 televisions. The cost was separate from that of the temporary World Cup grass pitch.<\/p>\n Despite the World Cup\u2019s different crowd, natural-grass setup<\/a> and occasional need for curtains, he said the experience has not prompted the Cowboys to rethink how they operate AT&T Stadium for NFL games, saying he has confidence in their model that \u201calready operates incredibly well\u201d for its core business.<\/p>\n![\"Spain's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TL7IIO7PM5C5HHDIRKDFWOMHUM.jpg\")
Spain’s Aymeric Laporte celebrates after his team eliminated France from the World Cup with a 2-0 win to advance to Sunday’s title match. Imagn Images <\/p>\n