Dallas City Council approved an agreement with a mystery international sports organization for a potential future participation in a "major international sporting event initiative" on Wednesday.
The item is similar to one the city made ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which allowed staff to market Dallas for the event. The city later served as a host city for several FIFA matches.
Dallas City Council members were not able to comment on the specifics of the item as of Wednesday.
City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said staff will work over the next few months to get more clarity and information from the organization.
"We had some hiccup when we came with our, as council might recall, the Dallas Wings announcement," Tolbert said. "We were told to hold that tight and we did some conversations and then a couple of days later, it was on the front page of the newspaper. So we have been asked to hold tight and that's what we want to be able to do so we can continue to compete effectively."
One possible future "major international sporting event" could be the 2028 Summer Olympic Torchy Relay.
The 2028 Summer Olympics will be hosted in Los Angeles — however, the torch relay is expected to travel to one host city in all fifty states before arriving at the host city for the opening ceremony. It would be the first time the torch has traveled to all fifty states.
So far, Minneapolis has been selected to be a host city for the torch relay.
Texas is home to five of the top 20 major cities in the United States which could be contenders for the relay, including Dallas. While there are Team USA athletes from the Dallas area, the Houston area is also home to seven-time gold medalist Simone Biles.
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