Fans of the Mexican and Colombian men’s national soccer teams formed a sea of yellow, orange, green, red and black Saturday, flowing through the streets of downtown and the Arlington Entertainment District into AT&T Stadium.
They were there for a friendly match between the two nations, part of the MexTour series of friendly matches across the U.S.
Ahead of the match, fans of both countries gathered in the stadium’s parking lots, cooking up tacos, tortas, burgers and hot dogs, filling the air with the tempting aroma of freshly grilled meats while they listened and danced to Spanish music.
Come the start of the match, AT&T Stadium was near its seating capacity of 80,000 (the stadium can fit around 105,000 fans including standing room tickets), offering a small taste of what city, regional and FIFA organizers expect next summer for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
With the World Cup kicking off on June 11, 2026, organizers expect millions of visitors to converge on North Texas. They’ll bring with them demand for public transit unlike anything the area has experienced in recent memory.
They won’t just be going to the nine matches hosted in Arlington — the most of any host city — but for fan festivals there and across the region. Base camps, the places teams will call home during the tournament, will also draw visitors to cities spread out across Dallas-Fort Worth.
Proud to host
Tens of thousands of Mexico and Colombia soccer fans filled AT&T Stadium Saturday to catch the game.
Angel Estrada was tailgating for the Mexico team with his family outside the fan fest in one of the parking lots.
Sporting his black and green Mexico jersey, he said he's proud that the region is hosting nine matches and, with that, people and cultures from all over the world during the tournament. It’s an event people across the globe wait (and, in many cases, save up for) during the four-year gap between World Cups.
While local and regional leaders have an idea of what to expect from fan turnout, how those global visitors will get around the Metroplex isn’t as clear.
Getting to the game
Driving to AT&T Stadium Saturday took a KERA reporter about 20 minutes longer than normal, with stop-and-go traffic on Interstate 30 backed up as far west as the Eastchase Parkway exit and continuing to the Center Street exit, where highway signs encouraged stadium traffic to exit.
KERA also took public transit from east Dallas to the match. Another reporter took the lengthy journey riding a Dallas Area Rapid Transit bus with a transfer at Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station in downtown Dallas to a Trinity Railway Express train to Centreport/DFW station in east Fort Worth.
From there, the reporter took an Arlington Via car all the way to AT&T stadium. The overall trip took about two hours.
For Estrada, the Mexico fan, it doesn't matter to him how long it takes to get to a game so long as people are having a good time.
With local leaders in Arlington and with the North Central Texas Council of Governments trying to figure out the best and most efficient ways to move people around the region, fans like Estrada know they’ll be going to games no matter how long it takes to get there.
“I don't care — if people come to enjoy and have a friendly time,” Estrada said in Spanish. “Honestly, I do not care if it takes me two hours to get to the match, well, I can't help it.”
Colombia fan and Arlington resident John Byron drove his pickup to the match to tailgate with his family.
He said that he’s optimistic about traveling during the games, even while he expects big crowds.
“There's going to be a bit of traffic,” Byron said in Spanish. “Of course, there will be going out, but after that, it'll be easier.”
He added that Arlington is well positioned for all the traffic coming into the city, with I-30 to the north, Interstate 20 to the south and State Highway 360 to the east of the stadium.
The experience taking DART, Trinity Rail Express and Arlington’s subsidized on-demand transit isn’t exactly what organizers are hoping for come next June.
The details are still in the works but elected leaders and transit officials from across North Texas are preparing for the influx of international visitors.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments learned more about those preparations during an Oct. 9 meeting.
“The good thing about our stadium in this area is we have a lot of parking,” said Natalie Bettger, senior program manager for NCTCOG. “The challenge we have is having transit to the stadium.”
The plans include a “reversible managed lane” on Interstate 30 from both downtowns in Dallas and Fort Worth. Drivers will be able to access the lane before and after matches on gamedays.
Bettger said planners are also coordinating with rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft for fans to use their services to get dropped off at Lot H, near the stadium.
As for transit, Bettger said fans will be able to take the Trinity Railway Express to Centreport/DFW Station in far east Fort Worth, where ticketholders can board a shuttle directly to the stadium.
“What is really unique about this situation though, and exciting, is in the past we developed a plan for one big game,” Bettger said. “But we have nine opportunities to make it better … because we can improve as we proceed through to the final match that we get to have, which is a semifinal.”
Regional transportation director Michael Morris has said each game will be like a Super Bowl in terms of attendance and along with the games, Dallas will be hosting thousands of journalists at the International Broadcast Center and thousands more fans at Fan Fest at Fair Park.
“We're laser focused on the stadium, whatever Dallas needs at the convention center and whatever Dallas needs at Fair Park,” Morris said.
Morris said at this point, regional planners are “crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s” for an updated plan to submit to the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee.
AI, rideshare and bus drop-offs
Planners in Arlington aren’t taking as active a role in planning how to get visitors into the city.
Alicia Winkelblech, the city’s director of transportation, said Arlington’s focus is on what visitors will find when they reach the entertainment district.
“The North Central Texas Council of Governments is taking the lead on coordinating regionally as, they do for these big events,” she said. “They're the one organizing and coordinating with the transit agencies to bring in people on the trains, people on the busses, get people home.”
With the logistics of getting to the stadium being handled by NCTCOG, Arlington is instead focusing on making sure the experience is smooth once fans actually reach the stadium.
Daniel Burnham, the city’s assistant director of public works, said that mission manifests itself in multiple ways.
With buses coming from three directions for matches, festivals and other events, he said it’s the city’s job to find a parking lot near the stadium to designate for drop-off.
The entertainment district will also have more pedestrians than usual.
“We've been upgrading sidewalks throughout the entertainment district to make sure that people who are parking in the various areas around the area have a way to walk,” Burnham said. They’re also making sure to create “places that FIFA will be able to put up their signage and say, 'This is where you go,’ wayfinding type stuff, making that accessible.”
AI will play a role in traffic management, too.
Arlington has been working to install NoTraffic across the city, allowing it to utilize the AI software to manage how long drivers and pedestrians wait at traffic signals to, hopefully, limit how long people wait at red lights.
Two major transit modes won’t play a role in moving World Cup visitors around.
Flying taxis, which Arlington Mayor Jim Ross hoped would be ready in time for the tournament, won’t be taking spectators to the stadium through the skies.
The city hopes to have them in the skies above the entertainment district, they just won’t be able to board passengers because the vehicles won’t be certified in time.
“We are still going to have at our municipal airport, we're going to have a location for air taxis to land, take off, and charge,” Winkelblech told KERA News. “But it's going be more of a demonstration type thing, if you think kind of world's fair.”
The city’s take on public transit also won’t play a role.
Via, also known as Arlington On-Demand, is a rideshare service subsidized by the city. Arlington doesn’t have any of its own buses, trains or light rails.
Winkelblech said Via meets the average needs of people looking for public transportation, it’s not a good fit for the World Cup.
“Our on-demand vehicles will be doing a little bit more of their regular day-to-day, moving people to and from jobs,” she said. “If we've got people that work in the entertainment district, we still want to be able to get them to their jobs, but specifically moving large masses of people, that's not where microtransit excels because they get stuck in the traffic with everyone else.”
Jennifer Wichmann, Arlington’s deputy city manager, said the city doesn’t yet know how many people are estimated to drive to AT&T Stadium in personal or rented cars, but that the current expectation is that more visitors will utilize public transit and rideshare like Uber and Lyft than driving themselves.
Got a tip? Email James Hartley at jhartley@kera.org. You can follow James on X @ByJamesHartley.
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org.
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