In 188 days, the first of nine World Cup matches will take place at AT&T Stadium. With the dust settled following the draw and match schedule reveal for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, leaders of the North Texas Organizing Committee held a news conference Tuesday morning. 

Monica Paul, the president of the organizing committee, Dan Hunt, the president of FC Dallas and organizing committee co-chair, and Chad Estis, an executive with the Dallas Cowboys, answered questions from the media. 

One of the next big steps in the lead-up to the matches is the designation of team base camps. Each national team competing in the World Cup will have a base camp, where they will stay and practice, while traveling across the continent for individual matches. Each national team will submit a list of its top three preferences for base camp cities to FIFA before they are assigned.

Hunt said the North Texas Organizing Committee has hosted delegations from multiple countries to show them what the region's base camps have to offer, and those visits are continuing. There are five primary sites in North Texas that could serve as base camps, and Hunt said he is hopeful that all five of them will be used. Base camps will be assigned in the spring.

Estis, who is the executive vice president of business operations with the Cowboys and AT&T Stadium, said the stadium will undergo some changes following some planned events in February. The changes include widening the playing surface in the corners to accommodate FIFA's requirements. That will be done by removing some of the suites at the field level, Estis said. They will also need to replace the artificial turf that the Cowboys play on with natural grass.

2026 FIFA World Cup matches at AT&T Stadium

On Saturday, FIFA announced the match schedule for the group stage. North Texans will get two chances to see Argentina and all-time great Lionel Messi.

The scheduled matches are:

• Group F – Netherlands vs. Japan on Sunday, June 14 at 3 p.m. CT
• Group L – England vs. Croatia on Wednesday, June 17 at 3 p.m. CT
• Group J – Argentina vs. Austria on Monday, June 22 at 12 p.m. CT
• Group F – Japan vs. the winner of UKR/SWE/POL/ALB on Thursday, June 25 at 6 p.m. CT
• Group J – Jordan vs. Argentina on Saturday, June 27 at 9 p.m. CT

In addition to the five group stage matches, AT&T Stadium is also hosting four matches in the knockout stage:

• Round of 32 on Tuesday, June 30 
• Round of 32 on Friday, July 3
• Round of 16 on Monday, July 6
• Semifinal on Tuesday, July 14