FC Dallas President Dan Hunt Talks World Cup

Summary

Bloomberg Talks: FC Dallas President Dan Hunt Talks World Cup

Date: June 9, 2026
Guest: Dan Hunt, President & Co-owner, FC Dallas; Co-chair, 2026 World Cup North Texas Organizing Committee
Host: Julie (Bloomberg)

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Episode Overview

This episode spotlights Dan Hunt, President and co-owner of FC Dallas, exploring his multi-year journey to help bring the 2026 FIFA World Cup to Dallas, Texas. As co-chair of the North Texas Organizing Committee, Hunt discusses the anticipated economic impact, stadium preparations, ticketing challenges, his personal investment, the legacy of soccer in Dallas, Major League Soccer’s (MLS) progress, and his hopes for the sport’s future in the U.S., including the upcoming Women's World Cup bid.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Dan Hunt’s World Cup Journey (00:29–01:03)

• Longevity of Involvement:

  • Dan Hunt shares enthusiasm, stating he’s entering his 107th month working on the World Cup.

    "I'm about to enter month 107 working on the World Cup and it has finally all come to fruition." (00:41, Dan Hunt)

• Emotional Payoff:

  • Expresses excitement now that the event is imminent, especially as Dallas is about to host its first matches in a few days.

Economic Impact & Stadium Preparations (00:53–02:09)

• Projected Economic Boom:

  • Dallas Sports Commission predicts an economic impact exceeding $1.5–2 billion.

    "If you think about Super Bowls ... but visitors from the World Cup come for just under 10 days ... So I see a huge economic boom for our area." (01:03, Dan Hunt)

• Stadium Renovations & Capacity:

  • AT&T Stadium (Dallas Stadium for the event) is undergoing modifications to accommodate World Cup specifications. Pitch is raised by 4–5 feet, potentially reducing seat numbers.

    "Between 700 and 800,000 tickets, it's a huge number." (01:41, Dan Hunt)

• Ticket Demand:

  • Huge ticket demand; thousands of requests received.

Sellout Confidence & Ticket Pricing (02:09–03:45)

• Sellout Prospects:

  • Hunt remains confident games will sell out, particularly the group stages featuring powerhouses like England, Croatia, Japan, Holland, and Argentina (with Messi).

    "When you get into the later games ... those are elimination games ... but this is a split sports city. It has a gigantic sports appetite. So I think the stadiums will be full." (02:14, Dan Hunt)

• Ticket Pricing Challenges:

  • FIFA’s unconventional rollout; some criticism over pricing, but adjustments made to include more affordable options.

    "There's a market demand for this. And the revenue they generate from the World Cup supports soccer globally ... It's a delicate balance, right? You want it affordable for fans because fans make the game." (02:53, Dan Hunt)

Personal Investment & Legacy (03:45–04:48)

• Sponsorship Commitment:

  • States he is a ‘hometown supporter’—has personally invested multimillions in the event, with the goal to leave a legacy in Dallas.

    "It's a multimillion dollar investment and I'm proud to do it. This is me supporting soccer and also supporting the game I love so much." (04:40, Dan Hunt)

• Community Impact:

  • Plans for ‘mini-pitches’ in underserved areas to create safe places for children to play.

• Massive Local Fan Fest:

  • 35,000 people a day expected at Fair Park for non-ticketed fans.

Family Legacy & Emotional Reflections (04:48–06:33)

• Father’s Role in MLS:

  • Recalls his father’s crucial involvement in the inception of Major League Soccer and as Dallas’s host committee co-chair for the 1994 World Cup.

• Personal Meaning:

  • Hosting again in Dallas is emotionally significant—particularly with the International Broadcast Center returning.

    "My dad's been gone for a long time now, but it just touches the heart. It really brings you back to so many happy memories." (05:04 & 05:56, Dan Hunt)

• World Cup Memories:

  • Has attended every World Cup since 1986 (over 130 matches). Emphasizes the creation of family memories and the value of Texas hospitality.

    "Here's what sticks out to me ... you create lifetime memories with families and friends ... I hope our visitors get to experience this Texas hospitality. We do it bigger and better than anyone else." (06:07, Dan Hunt)

Soccer's Growth in the U.S. and MLS Evolution (06:33–07:59)

• Why Soccer's Taken Time in the U.S.:

  • Points to European leagues’ century-long history; MLS is only 31 years old.

    "If you look at where Major League Soccer has come from 1996 to today. I mean, it's just a monumental shift." (06:49, Dan Hunt)

• Father’s Vision:

  • Belief that in 50 years soccer could "catch those leagues" (NFL, NBA).

• Emphasis on Youth Development:

  • Highlights FC Dallas’ contribution: four current U.S. Men’s National Team members came up through their youth system.

    "Youth sports ... is the lifeblood of soccer ... That's how the game is played globally. You develop your own talents and we lead that whole area." (07:29, Dan Hunt)

Business Innovations & MLS Future (07:59–08:41)

• Revenue Sharing & Messi’s Impact:
  • MLS adopted the NFL’s revenue-sharing model, spurred further by Lionel Messi’s arrival.
• Broadcast Changes:
  • Apple partnership moves broadcasts in front of the paywall (e.g., Ted Lasso, FC Dallas).
  • MLS switching to a traditional European calendar next year.

Hopes for World Cup Legacy & Beyond (08:41–09:44)

• Inspiration for Youth:

  • Dreams of “an American Messi” as a product of the tournament.

    "I hope it inspires the American Messi Open, inspires a young person who ... winds up picking Major League Soccer." (08:44, Dan Hunt)

• Attendance Growth:

  • Cites that previous hosting nations see a 30% increase in average attendance post-World Cup.

• Women’s World Cup 2031:

  • Dallas aims to host the final; Hunt wants to inspire his daughters (both soccer players).

    "I want to show them that anything is possible and to get to share more of the beautiful game with local citizens or my fellow Texan, it's going to be an incredible honor." (09:17, Dan Hunt)

Challenges, Regional Cooperation & Looking Ahead (09:44–10:21)

• Main Concerns:

  • The scale of the event, spread-out infrastructure, transportation, safety.

    "My biggest surprise ... and the thing I'm maybe most proud of is how our entire community has worked together." (09:48, Dan Hunt)

• Community Unity:

  • Praises Dallas and its suburbs for collaborating smoothly under Monica Paul’s leadership.

• Significant Shift from 1994:

  • Notably different from 1994—now the entire community knows the event is coming.

Memorable Lighter Moment: Football Rivalry (10:37–11:39)

• Thanksgiving Game Commentary:
  • Lighthearted exchange about Dallas playing Buffalo on Thanksgiving.

    "That has turned into a fierce rivalry ... I'm hoping I have a happy Thanksgiving. And maybe not the same for you, but you know, it's going to be exciting football season." (10:55, Dan Hunt)

  • Praises NFL's current quarterback talent.

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Notable Quotes

• On the scope of World Cup planning:

  "I'm about to enter month 107 working on the World cup and it has finally all come to fruition." (00:41, Dan Hunt)

• On Dallas’s economic impact:

  "I see a huge economic boom for our area." (01:03, Dan Hunt)

• On personal investment:

  "It's a multimillion dollar investment and I'M proud to do it. This is me supporting soccer and also supporting the game I love so much." (04:40, Dan Hunt)

• On generational legacy:

  "My dad's been gone for a long time now, but it just touches the heart." (05:56, Dan Hunt)

• On soccer’s trajectory in America:

  "...my father was a big believer that in 50 years soccer could catch those leaps leagues." (06:49, Dan Hunt)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:41 – Dan Hunt on 107 months of World Cup planning
• 01:03 – Projected $1.5–2 billion economic impact
• 02:14 – Confidence that Dallas games will sell out
• 02:53 – Ticket price controversies and global soccer funding
• 04:40 – Personal multimillion-dollar investment
• 05:56 – Emotional reflection on father’s legacy
• 06:07 – Lifetime memories, Texas hospitality
• 07:29 – FC Dallas youth system’s big impact
• 08:09 – Messi, revenue sharing, Apple partnership
• 08:44 – Hopes for an “American Messi” and attendance growth
• 09:17 – Women’s World Cup 2031 and inspiring daughters
• 09:48 – Biggest concern: community scale and partnership
• 10:55 – Lighthearted rivalry talk about the NFL Thanksgiving game

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Episode Tone & Takeaways

The episode is insightful, aspirational, and personal, blending Dan Hunt’s business acumen with his heartfelt connection to soccer’s history in Dallas. He projects optimism about soccer’s future, balances realism about challenges (logistics, ticketing), and underscores the legacy he hopes to create for his city and his family.

Listeners come away with a clear sense of the scale, stakes, and passions behind Dallas’s World Cup bid, and a deeper appreciation for how mega-events like the World Cup can catalyze enduring community and sporting legacies.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts, Radio News Dan Hunt, president and co owner of FC Dallas. Always great to have you back here.

[C]

Yeah, great to see you, Julie.

[B]

Also, I want talk to you being co chair of the organizing committee in North Texas. I know this has been a long, long venture for you being involved with this. How do you feel going in?

[C]

Yeah, I'm excited. I'm about to enter month 107 working on the World cup and it has finally all come to fruition and it's so great to get that first kick. Coming up in a couple of days.

[B]

Dallas Sports Commission has estimated more than a $1.5 billion economic boost to the area up to over $2 billion. Does that come to fruition?

[C]

Yes, I believe it will come to fruition. If you think about Super Bowls, the average visitor comes for less than three days and we have nine Super Bowls with nine games in Dallas. But visitors from the World cup come for just under 10 days and so they'll be staying at our hotels, spending at restaurants, buying gas, going to retail. So I see a huge economic boom for our area.

[B]

Talk about now it's Dallas Stadium. We know it as AT&T Stadium, but it's certainly Dallas Stadium. Now. FIFA estimates that it will hold more than 93 World cup games. If you do the math there, that's more than 845,000 for the total nine matches. First of all, what do you think of those numbers?

[C]

I mean, the scale of this is so massive and I don't know that we'll be in the 90s for World cup games. We're raising the pitch at AT&T Stadium by four or five feet, which will have some seat kills associated with that. But you know, if you even think about it, between 700 and 800,000 tickets, it's a huge number. Frankly, I need for there to be more tickets with the number of ticket requests that I've had over the last couple of and so it's great. In this entire tournament, there could be over 7 million tickets available.

[B]

Do you think the games in Dallas will sell out? There's been a lot of questions about sellouts, period.

[C]

Yeah, I think the games in Dallas will sell out. If you think about the matches that we have five great group stage games with powerhouses like England, Croatia, Japan, Holland, Argentina, with Messi I think those games will sell out. When you get into the later games, the opponents aren't defined right, because those are elimination games and they're coming out of their different groups. But this is a split sports city. It has a gigantic sports appetite. So I think the stadiums will be full.

[B]

I want to talk to you about the ticket prices. And again, I know those are set by FIFA. It does not go through the host committees. But there's a lot of questions about the pricing, how many were available and the rollout. Do you think that affects attendance overall?

[C]

You know, it's hard to say. I don't think it will affect attendance. The rollout is a little bit non traditional how we would do it in American sports. But FIFA has their way of doing it and you know, they've gotten some criticism over the prices and they went back and repriced some cheaper tickets. And what I would say, you know, is there's a market demand for this. And the revenue they generate from the World cup supports soccer globally. Their initiatives, from grassroots to growing the men's game, growing the women's game, all the money associated with prize money, player money to clubs and just in developing nations and helping the game along. And this is really their pinnacle, you know, tent pole moment that they have every four years. And so I know there's a. It's a delicate balance, right? You want it affordable for fans because fans make the game. But you also need to be able to have, you know, the money to help support the game for the next four years.

[B]

Soccer is obviously extremely important to you. You are actually a sponsor in Dallas for the World Cup. You are a personal sponsor. Let's talk a little bit about why you decided to do that.

[C]

Yeah, I'm proud to be a hometown supporter for Dallas. It was important to me. I mean, I can put my time and effort behind this, which like I said, has been almost 107 months. And it also shows though my enthusiasm for it to put financial support. I want this to leave a lasting legacy. And that support will go to help creating many pitches and communities around in areas that need fields, safe spaces for kids to play soccer. And also help support our local organizing committee. I mean, putting on a World cup is incredibly expensive. And also we have this gigantic fan fest at Fair park for those that aren't going to World cup matches. We'll have 35,000 people a day at Fair Park.

[B]

You've not specified how much you have put in personally. Is it over a million?

[C]

It's a multimillion dollar investment and I'M proud to do it. This is me supporting soccer and also supporting the game I love so much.

[B]

I want to take a step back here. Your father, when you look at it, just instrumental in beginning Major League Soccer in the United States. What's so interesting to me is he too served as a co chair of the Dallas host Committee. That's back in 1994. Emotionally, what has this been like for you?

[C]

It's been an amazing journey is what it's been like. So many of the similarities, the hard work that goes into it, the countless meetings, speaking engagements, raising enthusiasm, fighting for the International Broadcast Center. He was so proud of that in 1994, having it at Fair Park. We get to have it again here in Dallas at the K. Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center. This is where the storytelling of World Cup 2026 will take place. Broadcasting back to almost 200 countries. And that was so important to him. And I see it now as a more older adult and experiencing this and being able to share those commonalities. It really is that connection. My dad's been gone for a long time now, but it just touches the heart. It really brings you back to so many happy memories. He was so proud to bring the World cup to Dallas in 1994.

[B]

You were there and you've been to every World cup since. You just kind of went through a laundry list of all the games you've been to in all the places. Is there anything that specifically stuck out to you?

[C]

Oh, I mean, there's so many memories. I've been to every World cup since 1986, seen over 130 World cup matches. Here's what sticks out to me. And this is my big hope for our visitors and guests and the locals going to games that you create lifetime memories with families and friends. There have been so many great memories, so many great experiences, experiencing cultures. I hope our visitors get to experience this Texas hospitality. We do it bigger and better than anyone else.

[B]

Your family's invested so much into Major League Soccer over the years. It's. It's the most popular sport in the world, but here in the United States, it's not. Football, basketball, baseball. Why do you think it's taking this long for soccer to really make those inroads?

[C]

Well, if you really think about Major League Soccer, we're only, you know, 31 plus years. If you think about the game in Europe, a lot of these leagues and teams are over 100 years. So they have this unbelievable history much longer than anything we've seen so far in soccer. And if you look at where Major League Soccer has come from 1996 to today. I mean, it's just a monumental shift. So I think we're on this unbelievable trajectory. It's not the NFL, it's not the NBA, but my father was a big believer that in 50 years soccer could catch those leaps leagues.

[B]

One area where soccer is growing exponentially and you're very involved is youth sports.

[C]

Youth sports. It's right. That is the lifeblood of soccer. The rest of the world develops a lot of their own players and those players go through to the professional teams. We do an amazing job at FC Dallas of doing that. If you look at the US Men's National Team, you'll have four FC Dallas players on the team. Ricardo Pepe, Weston McKinney, Chris Richards and Alejandro Zendejas. All four of those players came from the FC Dallas youth system. And that's how the game is played globally. You develop your own talents and we lead that whole area.

[B]

On the business side of this, in terms of your growing brands, broadcast rights, what are your thoughts on Lionel Messi and revenue sharing? Sharing ownership rights, Is that the future here?

[C]

MLS was modeled after the NFL. My father was really the father of Major League Soccer and he borrowed a lot of those revenue sharing models from the NFL. And so, yeah, having Lionel Messi play in the league has been an unbelievable uptick there. But working with Apple too, this is this amazing change we're about to have this year. We moved in front of the paywall so you can watch Ted Lasso and watch FC Dallas without having to pay extra. But we're also changing our schedule to a traditional European calendar next year. And I think that's going to really be a boost for the league.

[B]

What do you hope comes from this World Cup, Ben?

[C]

A couple of things. Like I said, lifetime memories for family and friends. I hope it inspires the American Messi Open, inspires a young person who wasn't going to pick soccer to wind up picking Major League Soccer, picking FC Dallas developing here. I think that would be great for the game. And look, they say one of the biggest statistics is hosting nations of World Cups, that their national team has a successful tournament. Their average attendance increases by 30% after the world Cup. So I hope that for all professional

[B]

soccer in America, Women's World cup in the United States in 2031.

[C]

It's coming. We're going to start working on it in August. We've already started, but really get going in August of this year. My stated goal is to bring the final to Dallas in the women's World cup in 2031. I'm so excited for this. I have two young daughters that are soccer players. I want to show them that anything is possible and to get to share more of the beautiful game with local citizens or my fellow Texan, it's going to be an incredible honor. And welcome more global guests to Dallas.

[B]

I want to know what keeps you up at night as you put this bid together.

[C]

You know, honestly, it's the scale of it when you think about the number of people that are coming to this market. We are a spread out community. And, you know, I think my biggest surprise and all of it and the thing I'm maybe most proud of is how our entire community has worked together. Dallas and all the suburbs have worked together in such a great fashion. Transportation is obviously a big issue that a lot of people talk about safety and security, but we have come together in a great way. Monica Paul has been an unbelievable leader for us.

[B]

I mean, you have been everywhere in the past two years. Really.

[C]

Yeah, it's been quite a travel around talking about World cup across the United States and specifically here in the Metroplex. It's great to share the story, but it's different than 1994. So few people knew the World cup was coming, coming in 94. Everybody knows it's coming in 2026.

[B]

Speaking of looking past the World cup, we do have an inordinate amount of subscribers from Buffalo, New York to the Texas edition. And what do you think about playing on Thanksgiving against the Bills in our new stadium, which I just do want to let you know is supposed to be much better with lake effect wins.

[C]

Yeah. You know what? That has turned into a fierce rivalry. And the best rivalry, it really, it really is. And you've got two top quarterbacks there and two great teams. My brother recently toured the stadium before it opened and he said it's going to be really impressive there. So I'm hoping I have a happy Thanksgiving. And maybe not the same for you, but you know, it's going to be exciting football season. I mean, the NFL is an amazing product. Right. And the way these quarterbacks are driving these teams. I can't remember a generation in the NFL of having better quarterbacks. And that on field product is unreal.

[B]

Looking forward to seeing that one. Well, one of us is going to have a great Thanksgiving, but wishing you the best month and thank you so much for being with us, Dan.

[C]

Yeah, thank you, Julie.

[A]

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