Dan Hunt learned as a teenager what a mega event in Dallas looked like.
“I was lucky enough to be a ball boy in the ‘94 World Cup,” the FC Dallas president and co-owner said Monday at the 2025 the Global Sports Business Summit presented by SMU and the Dallas Sports Commission. “They took two kids from every Dallas Classic League team and had them as the ball kids at the Cotton Bowl.”
Hunt told his story as part of a panel entitled “FIFA World Cup 26™, the Olympics, & the Future of Mega Sports Events.” Since his stint corralling Adidas Questra soccer balls, he and the rest of North Texas have seen more “mega” events scheduled into the area. They have included women’s and men’s NCAA Final Fours; NBA, NHL, and MLB All-Star Games; the NHL Winter Classic; games in the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup; the PBR World Finals; the WTA Finals; the only neutral-site World Series; College Football Playoff contests, and a Super Bowl.
The latter spectacle happened at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, a facility built some 17 years ago with huge happenings in mind. It continues to attract them.
“Your stadium is only significant if you have the best events in the world in the stadium,” said Chad Estis, the executive vice president and chief revenue officer for the facility’s regular tenant, the Dallas Cowboys.
The 100,000-seat stadium was the lynchpin for landing the next iteration of the event in which Hunt participated in 1994.
“This truly is the biggest, and part of it is because it lasts for an extended period of time. It’s so worldwide,” said Estis of the men’s FIFA World Cup. The soccer extravaganza will hold nine of its games in Arlington, the most of any municipality across the host countries of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Fair Park in Dallas will also host the event’s international broadcast center. Hunt noted, “At the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 they broadcast to 187 countries,” so we can expect a lot of outlets in a position to check out North Texas.
The area’s track record recently prompted one publication, the Sports Business Journal, to name the area as the best in sports business in the United States (which effectively means the world, as the U.S. has long led the way in cultivating that industry). That, along with the state’s climate and often-robust economic outlook, helped attract a permanent facility to Frisco that also happens to be able to host more tentpole events: The PGA of America.
“Prior to moving, we announced that we were bringing over 20 member, amateur, and spectator championships (to North Texas). It started in 2023 with the KitchenAid Senior PGA. Then this year, we’re about five weeks out from the KPMG Women’s PGA (Championship),” said panelist and Championship Director Jason Mengel. “And then the 2027 PGA Championship is coming here.”
The PGA of America headquarters might even host a Ryder Cup as soon as 2041. Mengel mentioned that his organization implements golf-related charitable initiatives dedicated to “building the pipeline for the future of the game.” Mega events can sometimes have an effect on their sports’ big pictures, too.
I know from working on the Raising Her Game soccer docuseries (now streaming on Victory+) how the 1994 World Cup helped boost the popularity of soccer in the U.S. The 2026 version could make an impact in that way, too.
“When something this significant comes into a market, what happens is you expose the experience to a lot of new people that that haven’t had that experience before,” said Estis. “More than anything, the World Cup in the U.S. next summer is going to create a lot more people interested in the game from a participation standpoint. From a youth standpoint, kids are going to dream about someday playing in the World Cup.”
Hunt hopes part of the legacy will include places for those soccer-curious youngsters to play.
“We want as many community fields that can be built as possible. We are still way underserved, I think,” he said. We control or operate over 50 fields, and we could use another 100 fields. We could fill every single one of those fields in the Metroplex. That’s just how big the game is.”
He also cited another important competition in his sport the area will hope to get a piece of.
“The Women’s World Cup, obviously, in 2031 will be a big one.”
In the course of my documentary work, I found some interviewees who felt the 1999 Women’s World Cup, won by the U.S. on home soil, had even more of an impact on the game overall in the States than the 1994 men’s version. Hunt noted, “the success of the (women’s) national team, it really was a shot in the arm in men’s soccer, too.”
Certainly, each of those World Cups made significant contributions to the sport, and the 2026 and 2031 versions will follow their leads. That seems to also be the way all the big one-off sporting events work, too. They build off each other. The North Texas area, which recently ascended to become its country’s fourth-largest television market, has become one that must be considered for all future such competitions.
And speaking of competition, the sports-minded panel’s competitive streak showed through when the topic of 2031’s final match in the U.S. arose.
“Part of me wants this 2026 to be so successful for FIFA to say, ‘There’s no doubt. Yes, we made a mistake in not putting the (2026 men’s) final here, but we’re going to go ahead and award that Women’s World Cup final (to North Texas),’” said moderator and Dallas Sports Commission head Monica Paul. The group used terms like “angry,” “bitter,” and even “pissed-off” to describe their feelings at seeing the 2026 decider awarded to East Rutherford, New Jersey. The momentum they’ve been collectively building in North Texas gives them ample reason to think they’ll be able to make 2031 a different story.
