The FIFA World Cup 2026 opened yesterday in Mexico City and it does not slow down from here. Dallas is one of 11 United States host cities and AT&T Stadium in Arlington is one of the tournament’s anchor venues — nine matches in total, including a semifinal on July 14 that will be one of the most watched sporting events on the planet. The city has been building toward this for three years. The next five weeks are the payoff.
Tonight is the first real watch party night in Dallas. The United States plays Paraguay at 8 p.m. Central at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles — the opening match for the home side, the game that will fill every bar with a screen and a sound system from Uptown to Deep Ellum. You don’t need a ticket to AT&T Stadium to have an extraordinary World Cup experience in this city. You just need to know where to go.
The first match at AT&T Stadium is this Sunday, June 14 — Netherlands vs Japan at 3 p.m. Central. If you are going, doors open two hours before kickoff and parking in Arlington requires a plan. If you are watching in Dallas, Sunday afternoon at a serious sports bar is exactly as good as it sounds. The full AT&T Stadium match schedule runs June 14, 17, 22, 25, and 27 in the group stage, then Round of 32 matches on June 30 and July 3, a Round of 16 on July 6, and the semifinal on July 14. Argentina plays in Dallas twice during the group stage — June 12 against Austria and June 22 against Jordan — which means Lionel Messi is coming to Arlington, which is worth saying plainly.
The FIFA Fan Festival at Fair Park opens today and runs through July 19 — free admission, big screens showing every match, international food vendors, live music, and the kind of energy that a 34-day global festival produces when it lands in a city that actually knows how to throw a party. Fair Park is 10 minutes from downtown Dallas and a straight shot on DART’s Green and Orange lines. This is the free option that rivals the stadium experience for atmosphere if not for proximity to the pitch.
We have spent the last several weeks building the most comprehensive World Cup dining and drinking guide in North Texas. It covers every neighborhood where you want to be for the next five weeks — the bars, the fan zones, the restaurants, the watch parties, and the places that will make visitors from 47 other countries feel like they found the right city. The full guide is below. Use it. Share it. The World Cup is here.
Our complete neighborhood-by-neighborhood coverage:
Where to Watch the World Cup in Dallas — Every bar, pub, fan zone, and free screen in North Texas, organized by neighborhood and type.
Bar Guide: Where to Drink in Every Neighborhood — From underground mezcalerías to century-old hotel lounges. The full Dallas bar guide built for the World Cup.
Downtown Dallas — Where to eat and drink within walking distance of the hotels and the Discovery District.
Knox-Henderson — The most concentrated stretch of good food and drink in Texas.
Uptown — McKinney Avenue, the Katy Trail corridor, and the city’s most active dining neighborhood.
Oak Lawn & Cedar Springs — The Cedar Springs bar corridor and one of the most welcoming neighborhoods in the American South.
Bishop Arts — North Oak Cliff’s most walkable neighborhood. Independent restaurants, no chains, worth the trip from anywhere in the city.
North Dallas & Addison — Addison has more restaurants per capita than any city in Texas. The Belt Line Road corridor is the reason.
And if you want the full picture — every neighborhood, every cuisine, every guide we have published in one place — our CraveDFW Master Dallas Dining Guide is the place to start. Steakhouses, burgers, French restaurants, bars, and every neighborhood dining guide we have built, all in one place. Bookmark it. You will use it more than once.
