In Texas — specifically, North Texas — one doesn’t need to look far to watch the world’s best football, baseball or basketball players at the high school, college and professional level.
So, in turn, it may be no surprise that the region’s youth athletes can often develop into budding stars in their own right. Among a bevy of other factors, exposure to a sport’s highest level of play can drive interest and participation.
Hosting the world’s premier soccer event may have a similar impact on the region.
Dallas is one of 16 United States cities vying to host a 2026 World Cup match. FIFA plans to announce the 16 bid winners — spread across the U.S, Canada and Mexico — on Thursday. Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle and New York/New Jersey are the other stateside cities with a bid, while Canada (Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver) and Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterey) each have three.
“You don’t become better as a player, or as a team, unless you’re watching [the best],” said Bob Weir, a retired high school soccer coach whose Plano boys team won four UIL state titles in the 1990′s. His team won the 1995 Class 5A championship nine months after Dallas served as a host city for the 1994 World Cup.
“When you see the world class players and teams come to this country, that’s what they get.”
FIFA officials who toured the Dallas area in November on a site visit noted not just the region’s infrastructure — from AT&T Stadium to Toyota Stadium and the Cotton Bowl — but that the region’s soccer culture stands out.
“I think what’s important is also the people and the passion for our game,” FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani said on a tour of AT&T Stadium. “We know the passion it has for the other football, which is very obvious, but it’s also the passion for our football. Not only through FC Dallas and its academy, but also the grassroots football in the area.”
According to North Texas Soccer association president Janet Campbell, the organization currently has approximately 125,000 registered members — one of the largest grassroot soccer associations in the country.
She said that membership spikes each World Cup year, whether it’s the men or women playing, and regardless of which country the games are played in.
But if the World Cup were played in the United States and North Texas?
“I would expect, if we end up with the World Cup right here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, it’ll be a lot more exciting,” Campbell said. “It’ll be a lot more encouragement for children to get involved.
“I can’t think of anything more exciting than having the World Cup right here in Dallas-Fort Worth.”
FC Dallas owner Dan Hunt (also the Dallas 2026 host city chairman) partly credits the region’s soccer passion to previous World Cups — one across the pond and one in Texas.
“We are truly the best test case in America for what World Cups can do,” Hunt told The Dallas Morning News in November. Hunt said his father, Lamar, attended the 1966 World Cup in England and thought Dallas was ready for professional soccer. “The [1966] final brings the Dallas Tornado and professional soccer. A lot of those players stayed behind and started club systems and camps, which built one of the richest youth systems in America.”
After Dallas hosted six games — and the international broadcast center — in the 1994 World Cup, the region landed a MLS team (the Dallas Burn, which became FC Dallas) two years later.
“This is a soccer passionate community, with a very rich and unique history,” Hunt said.
Hunt, and the rest of the bid commission, hope to host a semifinal or final match in 2026, as well as the international broadcast center again. The financial jolt is well-documented, with the Dallas Sports Commission estimating a $400 million economic impact, plus 3,000 jobs created. A semifinal or final match would bring in even more money, DSC believes.
But the World Cup’s impact is larger than just the financials. Weir saw that in 1994, and the same could happen in 2026.
“I think it stimulated the younger kids to continue with the program and see what the future was down the road,” Weir said. “It gave them some light to see something like that.”
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