ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Arlington\u2019s role as a centerpiece of the FIFA World Cup has city leaders looking beyond the tournament and toward future international opportunities.<\/p>\n
Dallas and Houston hosted a combined 16 World Cup matches during the tournament, with Arlington emerging as one of the event\u2019s busiest destinations. Dallas Stadium, the temporary FIFA name for AT&T Stadium under the organization\u2019s commercial licensing rules, hosted nine matches, which was the most of any venue in North America.<\/p>\n
Arlington Mayor Jim Ross said the tournament has brought unprecedented international attention to the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world to Arlington has been something really special,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n
The tournament featured several memorable moments at Dallas Stadium, including Lionel Messi breaking the all-time World Cup scoring record, Cristiano Ronaldo playing what is expected to be his final World Cup match and appearances by emerging stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fans from around the world also gathered throughout Arlington, including at Texas Live!, creating an unforgettable international atmosphere during the summer.<\/p>\n
Ross said the event also provided opportunities to meet global leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad the pleasure of meeting the princess of Japan, the king of Jordan, King Abdulla,\u201d said Ross.<\/p>\n
Teams and supporters from 15 nations visited North Texas during the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a standard above all others, and we\u2019re proud to have the stadium here in Arlington, proud to host more games than anybody else,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n
Ross said the relationships formed during the World Cup could lead to future economic partnerships beyond sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our aerospace companies here in Arlington, so that we can, hopefully, develop a long-lasting business relationship with these two different entities out of Jordan and the United States,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n
As the tournament comes to a close, city officials are already looking toward another major international event. Ross said Arlington hopes to play a role in the 2031 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re already starting that process,\u201d said Ross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Arlington\u2019s role as a centerpiece of the FIFA World Cup has city leaders looking beyond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,132,1570,102,138,19797,223,82,27,1569,835,3692,29003],"class_list":["post-373557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-austin","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-michael-lozano","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373557","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=373557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}