Copyright FOX 4 News
The FIFA World Cup is now 7 months away and the City of Dallas is working to get prepared. The Dallas Public Safety Committee heard about the city's plans to maintain safety and security on Monday afternoon. While the nine matches for the largest sporting event in the world will be held in Arlington at AT&T Stadium, the City of Dallas is gearing up to host the International Broadcast Center, FIFA Fan Festival at Fair Park, and multiple base camps and training sites. Hosting the Global Hub What we know: The World Cup will stretch 39 days from June 11 to July 19, and even though the City of Dallas won't host any games, it will see plenty of action. 35,000 people a day are expected to visit Fair Park for the Fan Festival on those days, and the International Broadcast Center at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center will be the global hub for 2,000 journalists covering the 2026 FIFA World Cup. SMU and The Cotton Bowl will serve as training sites. There will also be a fan zone at Klyde Warren Park. The city is considering sharing resources with other cities. Major Safety Concerns Detailed Among the topics of concern is having enough medical resources for people who are not used to the extreme summer heat and could, as a result, experience medical emergencies. What they're saying: Storms and crowd control were also discussed on Monday. "We have to plan for the normal things; extreme summer heat, medical surge. We've had some of the biggest storms in my time here in June. Basically, the scale is unlike anything we've hosted in North Texas," said deputy director of emergency management, Travis Houston. Officials Address Gaps "One thing I haven't seen and am a little troubled by is the lack of permanent ballads in our entertainment districts where we are going to have even higher numbers of crowds and pedestrians," said Jesse Moreno, chairman of the Dallas Public Safety Committee. "We are looking at that. It is a concern in the entertainment districts how we protect people. I can guarantee you we will have a robust plan to protect pedestrian safety," said Mark Villarreal of the Dallas Police Department. Timeline and Logistics Local perspective: Setup for the International Broadcast Center will begin on January 14. The exclusive use of the convention center for FIFA will last until August 24. FOX 4 will learn more about which countries will play games in North Texas at the draw less than a month away on December 5th. Then in the Spring, we will learn which teams will stay and practice in the area. There will be base camps at FC Dallas stadium in Frisco, the University of North Texas in Denton, Mansfield multipurpose stadium, and TCU in Fort Worth.
