The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be North America's biggest football event in 32 years. The tournament's hosts are working up a sweat to upgrade the sporting infrastructure specifically for it.

The United States preparations to the World Cup

The United States is not slacking in its preparations for the World Cup, which will be hosted jointly with Canada and Mexico in three years' time. The Americans are upgrading not only their run-down facilities, but also the arenas that have been open for the past two decades. One of these is AT&T Stadium. The home of the Cowboys with the capacity to perform in the NFL, it has a seating capacity of 80,000 and opened in 2009 after four years of construction. It cost more than $1.3 billion to build.

According to The Dallas Morning News, the club, which operates the facility, has invested nearly $150 million in it over the past 14 years. One of the improvements is the giant screens installed behind the goals in 2013. The screens are 1,352 m² in size and are incredibly impressive. The Dallas Cowboys paid $16 million for them. However, the investor assured that this move was expected to pay for itself quickly thanks to the advertisements displayed on them during game breaks.

© Anthony Day

Expensive changes

The Dallas Morning News reports that the club has submitted a document to the Texas Office of City Planning and Zoning outlining plans to upgrade AT&T Stadium. The renovation is expected to begin after the new year. The first part of the work will cost $180 million and will include refreshing the interior of the stadium, as well as renovating the premium space and business boxes. Once this phase is complete, the developer is expected to look into commissioning work to upgrade the video screens and upgrade them to 4K quality, refurbish the food and beverage areas and souvenir shops - while also increasing the number of them, as well as upgrading the fan areas.

The entire planned investment is expected to cost $300 million. Adding the money spent on renovations over the past 14 years, the amount the club has earmarked for upgrading the stadium is expected to reach almost $500 million. It must be said that this is impressive considering that the facility is not yet 15 years old. It is also worth noting that the company responsible for the modernisation plans is HKS Architects, the office that created the design of the entire arena. As the Cowboys authorities add, the works will not affect the capacity of the facility or the organisation of the planned events.

© John Sgro