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HANA hosts SPECIAL info meeting on Arlington's FIFA Summer
World Cup Soccer is Coming to Arlington in June
Starting on June 14 this summer, Arlington's AT&T Stadium will host nine soccer matches for the FIFA World Cup. The last local game, a semi-final match, will be on July 14. During this time, hundreds of thousands of soccer fans are expected to descend on our city. Teams already scheduled to compete are coming from Japan, the Netherlands, England, Croatia, Argentina, Austria, and Jordan.
Years of Planning for Arlington's Soccer Summer
On May 11, during a special meeting at Grace Lutheran Church on Park Row, HANA invited deputy city manager Jennifer Wichmann to present the city's plans for all of the logistics involved in processing such a huge, repetitive influx of visitors over these nine matches. Here's a summary of what we learned:
1. For several years, the city manager's office has been asking peers in former host cities around the world what worked for them and what didn't. It quickly became apparent that although we have no comprehensive local transit system - our largest tourism drawback - we do have one of the world's best event venues. Whether you agreed to its public financing or not, AT&T Stadium is internationally recognized as being among the best ever built, we've been using it successfully for years, and city engineers already know how to process up to 100,000 people per event through it.
2. City planners don't really expect much of an impact from fans outside of an activity district roughly bounded by our existing Entertainment District. Jennifer seriously doubted any of us south of the railroad tracks would notice much of a change to our daily routines - except if we wanted to try going north on Collins on match days.
3. The city has cancelled all vacations for police, fire, and EMT employees during the FIFA period. Full, normal staffing for first responders is expected to be maintained for the entire city during this time, with additional first responder staffing from various other agencies, including other Metroplex cities, the state, and the federal government. The Secret Service, FBI, ICE, and other agencies are already active during almost every event held in our Entertainment District, and our city coordinates well with all of those agencies.
4. Homeowners across the city are worried about folks outside of Arlington's established short-term-rental zone (basically, the Entertainment District) listing their houses as AirBnB's. The city already has a robust and legally-tested policy on STRs and regularly trolls STR listing sites looking for scofflaws, which it will continue to do. Jennifer did warn that the city's tolerance for rogue STRs is pretty thin right now because they want World Cup fans to have an exceptionally good experience. Usually, non-compliant STRs receive a grace period to get into compliance, but basically starting now, that grace period has been suspended. So, a word to the wise...
5. Cities across the Metroplex are concerned about international visitors accustomed to walking everywhere getting lost/dehydrated on foot in our Texas summer heat. Arlington, for example, is organizing patrols to literally go out and look for pedestrians who thought they could easily hike across miles of scorching pavement without enough water.
6. On match days, a temporary "bus bridge" will run from Centerport near DFW Airport to the Entertainment District. Although Arlington likes to promote itself as "Fun Central" even Jennifer admits the bulk of visiting fans will likely be concentrating on downtown districts in Dallas and Fort Worth. There will be digital advertising for Arlington's downtown, however, and Randy Ford of Gilligan's is planning on his usual event shuttle service.
7. No street closures are planned except the ones that already occur during events in the Entertainment District. All of the parking lots around AT&T Stadium are going to be closed to parking; however, businesses around the stadium are allowed to procure event parking permits, and some may close on match days so their parking lots can generate revenue (check with your favorite restaurant/retailer if they're near the stadium).
8. Many of us have heard about the boisterous parades fans from some countries like to hold on match days. Fans from the Netherlands are even shipping a double-decker bus here for their parade. However, none of those parades will be held outside of the Entertainment District.
9. Texas Rangers baseball games are going to happen as scheduled during this time, and Major League Baseball worked with FIFA so that games and matches happen on different days.
10. All of the information Jennifer covered is provided on the city's website here: https://www.arlingtontx.gov/.../Special.../World-Cup-2026
UTA's Growth Prompts big changes for campus in hana
A Proposed Campus Hotel, New Creekway, and More
UTA Vice President John Hall presented the university's current master plan at HANA's first General Meeting of 2026 on February 19. Despite a decline in international students, the university continues experiencing significant expansion through undergraduate admissions. Starting this summer, remodeling will begin on parts of the Student Center. Some older, smaller buildings will be replaced by taller buildings that allow more green space and significant efficiencies. Parking structures will incrementally replace surface lots, more parkland will be created, and even a hotel is planned in conjunction with the university's new hospitality program. For those of us concerned about the historic first home for Arlington High School, the university has already entertained at least one proposal for the hotel project that would preserve as much of the building as possible (much of it is non-compliant with current codes and ADA standards). Women's flag football is also coming... so to accommodate that, most of the aging football stadium on Davis Drive is coming down. Further minimizing potential conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians, a proposed new waterway parallel to Mitchell Street could combine safer transportation objectives, enhanced aesthetics, and erosion management with new green space distancing sidewalks from roadways. We'll see how much of it actually happens, but it's all proof that despite the school's new plans in western Fort Worth, their Arlington presence is only going to progress. Full details can be found on their website.
Arlington at 150, With America at 250
Arlington Mayor Jim Ross announced that our city, in conjunction with the State of Texas, will be throwing a massive fireworks and drone show over the lake behind Arlington's new National Medal of Honor Museum this coming July Fourth to celebrate the anniversaries of Arlington's founding 150 years ago, and America's 250 years ago. Questions were raised about traffic and logistics and Ross explained that transportation technology will be deployed to help keep things flowing as smoothly as possible.
Eight Affordable, Owner-Occupied Townhomes Proposed in HANA
Donna VanNess, President of Housing Channel, a non-profit home developer, asked to address our group relative to a brand-new project on that little empty space next to Grace Lutheran on Park Row, where she intends to construct 8 2-story townhomes. Her organization will vet the initial buyers and set up an HOA in which homeownership is perpetuated for each unit. The goal is to help low-income workers build family wealth through real estate. She's already won unanimous support from Arlington's Planning and Zoning Commission, and she will be working with HANA's board on aesthetics and design standards for her 3-bedroom, 2-car-garage units. More details will be forthcoming on this project, but you can visit the group's website to learn more about them.