Arlington Mayor Jim Ross said the city is bringing new sporting events to the entertainment district, repairing and maintaining roads and expanding business offerings during his State of the City address Thursday.
Ross gave the address to hundreds of business leaders at the chamber of commerce’s annual awards lunch at Esports Stadium Arlington, also known as the Arlington Expo Center.
During the address, Ross reiterated that the IndyCar Grand Prix and the 2026 FIFA World Cup are expected to bring massive crowds, with the former anticipated to make a $2 billion impact across North Texas.
He also announced that Banana Ball is coming to Arlington next September.
The Savannah Bananas team’s barnstorming baseball exhibition based out of Georgia, with dances and stunts (like stepping up to the plate on stilts or acrobatic plays in the outfield) and good-natured taunting between the teams, regularly sells out stadiums when visiting.
But what took center stage at Thursday’s address was Arlington’s economic growth and the city’s work to balance the 2026 budget, which had a projected $26 million shortfall.
Ross said that since 2021, the year he first took office, Arlington has seen $1.1 billion in private capital investment in business in the city and has either attracted or retained 13 national, North American or world headquarters.
Those include companies like OverAir, an air taxi producer, and E-Space, a commercial space company that is setting up shop at the city’s airport including manufacturing facilities for satellites.
“Since 2021, we have created more than 27,000 jobs in our city. Folks, that is unbelievable,” Ross said. “And the average wage has increased twenty percent."
The theme, Arlington Works, was repeated several times as Ross talked about the economic growth, events in the entertainment district and road repairs — the city “improved over 27 lane miles of roadway” and filled more than 7,000 potholes, Ross shared.
In his discussion of roadwork, Ross noted that Arlington is landlocked and nearly built out but that neighboring cities are expected to grow in population by anywhere from 25% to 300% in the next three decades. That, he said, means that Arlington’s roads will have more traffic, even if its population growth ends up limited by space.
“It's critically important that with that growth, that we in Tarrant County ensure that we get the necessary monies to take care of our roadways and what's going on here,” Ross said.
He said that to that end, he and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker have both joined the Texas Department of Transportation Fort Worth District’s planning committee.
New technology is playing an increasingly important role in Arlington, too, Ross said.
Last year, Arlington police used advances in forensic genealogy to identify the man who killed Terri McAdams, a case that had been cold since the ‘80s. This year, the department was certified to fly drones over the city without having a line of sight, allowing police to get a drone to scenes before officers can arrive and feed real-time information to cops responding to 911 calls or other emergencies.
Also this year, the city installed AI systems in traffic lights in the entertainment district — technology the city said will help manage traffic flow during the World Cup and is expected to be implemented throughout the rest of the city incrementally.
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