DALLAS — Dallas City Council is set to vote Wednesday on a $15 million package intended to fund necessary upgrades to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center so Dallas could potentially host the 2026 FIFA World Cup International Broadcast Center (IBC).
City officials had planned on holding a news conference about the vote, but it was postponed “after the first of the year to explore additional potential opportunities tied to FIFA’s World Cup initiatives for 2026.”
Officials said the agenda item about the IBC funding will still be considered at the Dec. 12 meeting.
The IBC serves as the temporary home for television and radio reporters during the World Cup and could bring between 2,500 and 5,000 broadcasters to Downtown Dallas from May to the end of July, the Dallas Sports Commission has told previously told city council.
According a council committee, some of the work and cost to prepare the convention center to host the IBC will coincide with building the new convention center. An $8.5 million cost to the city was already anticipated for rebuilding the convention center, and the $15 million expenditure to host the IBC will cover that cost, city leaders said during their meeting last week.
According to FIFA, events from the World Cup (including the IBC and FIFA Fan Festival) are expected to generate $2 billion in economic revenue.
AT&T Stadium is hosting nine World Cup matches, the most of any other site.
“[The Dec. 2] Ad Hoc Committee meeting was the next step for the approval of the International Broadcast Center (IBC) to be located in Dallas for the entirety of the FIFA World Cup 2026,” Dallas Sports Commission Executive Director Monica Paul said in a statement to WFAA last week. “We are confident that we have placed the best bid in front of FIFA and the City of Dallas, and look forward to having a positive outcome during the City Council vote next week.”
FIFA has yet to make its own official announcement for the IBC. The postponement of the news conference doesn’t necessarily mean that the city has lost the bid for the IBC. Dallas’ market is geographically desirable among the 16 host cities due its centralized location. Dallas was also named the top market for sports business by the Sports Business Journal earlier this year.
Dallas previously hosted the IBC when the 1994 World Cup was in the U.S. and was held in Fair Park.
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