A Walla Sport reporter visiting AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, before the England vs. Croatia match described the venue as something that looks more like a spacecraft than a football ground. The visit came one day before the game, and outside conditions were classic Texas summer, 32 degrees with high humidity, but inside the air conditioning made the temperature feel completely controlled and comfortable.
The stadium, built for American football, normally uses synthetic turf, but FIFA requires natural grass for the World Cup. To make that possible inside the enclosed arena, the venue uses mobile greenhouse-style lighting systems that keep the grass healthy when no matches are being played. The reporter compared the setup to high-tech farming inside a sports stadium.
The best-known feature is the enormous suspended scoreboard. The stadium has two main screens, each about 22 meters high and 49 meters wide, hanging above midfield. The scale is so large that the reporter said he found himself following England’s attack on the screen rather than on the pitch, including the move that ended with Jude Bellingham’s third goal. In the early years of the stadium, NFL kicks even struck the screen, prompting debate over whether it hung too low.
Movement around the building also emphasized its size, with multiple tiers, corridors, work areas, media rooms and locker rooms. The venue is officially called AT&T Stadium, FIFA refers to it as Dallas Stadium, but many Texans still call it Jerry World, after Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who bought the team in 1989 and drove the stadium’s creation. The reporter concluded that the site feels almost too perfect, but also likely represents the future of major sports venues for World Cup 2026.
