Dan Hunt, president of pro soccer team FC Dallas, has been working to bring the best clubs from across the globe to North Texas to play nine games as part of next year's FIFA World Cup. It's something of a family tradition.
Hunt's dad, the late Lamar Hunt, was chairman of the Dallas host committee the last time the city was the site of the World Cup, in 1994. This time around, Dan Hunt served as chairman of the 2026 Dallas bid committee and his brother Clark Hunt did the same in another host city, Kansas City, Missouri. The brothers lead the $6.5 billion Hunt Sports Group that owns the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, as well as FC Dallas among other sports interests.
Father, Lamar, "would be incredibly proud of the World Cup coming back to Dallas," Dan Hunt told CoStar News. "No one fought harder than my dad to keep soccer alive in the United States."
On Friday, the World Cup 2026 draw determines which teams play at each host city, areas that will get a boost from sports fans across the world flocking to hotels, stores, restaurants and other commercial property.
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, is set to be home to the most matches among the 16 North American host cities, and will be known as Dallas Stadium during the competition. Other nearby venues, including the FC Dallas home turf of Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, will host practices.
When Dallas hosted the World Cup in 1994, Dan Hunt was in high school and says he didn't appreciate his dad's role in helping bring the World Cup games to Dallas' Cotton Bowl stadium in Fair Park.
Dan Hunt said one of his dad's "biggest disappointments with the 1994 World Cup" was that Kansas City wasn't a host city, something that stung to Lamar Hunt, who founded the Chiefs. But that's different this time around, with Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium, home turf of the Chiefs, set to host six games. Clark Hunt is chairman and CEO of the Chiefs.
"We are so proud that the games will be played at Arrowhead Stadium, and we get to fulfill on that legacy," Dan Hunt said.
US pro soccer founding owner
Lamar Hunt, who died in 2006, was known as a visionary sports executive and a major supporter and founding owner of Major League Soccer. He also worked on a deal with the city of Frisco to build Toyota Stadium beginning in 2004, one of the first soccer-specific stadiums in the league with a capacity of more than 20,000 fans.
That early vision more than two decades ago has proven to be so successful that other teams followed with projects of their own in Frisco, located a little more than 25 miles north of Dallas' downtown. For example, Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones added his team to Frisco's roster with a headquarters and practice facility for the world's most valuable sports team in July 2016.
"This is everything my dad dreamed about and everything we have fought for ... It was a dream, but you had to fight for it and there were dark days," Dan Hunt said. The bidding process to host FIFA World Cup games typically starts a decade before the actual games are played.
"There were days when Major League Soccer looked like it was going out of business, but now, with the 2026 World Cup coming, we hope it lifts all soccer in this country," he said.
For FC Dallas and Toyota Stadium, Dan Hunt said that next iteration has already begun with a $200 million redevelopment of the soccer-specific stadium. The redevelopment will add thousands of seats, additional suites and more shade for fans.
FC Dallas is also working outside the pitch. The team has partnered with Dallas-based Cawley Partners on building 1.2 million square feet of office space next to Toyota Stadium in a multiphase project, with pre-leasing already underway, Dan Hunt told CoStar News.
Other portions of the new development include a roughly 250-room hotel, about 40,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space and eventually a residential tower.
Dan Hunt said, "We always knew this stadium would be an anchor for a larger development, it came a little later than we thought, but I think the timing couldn't have worked out better."