Just bought tickets to a Japan game at AT&T Stadium in Dallas for the group stage. Had to think it over for a day because of price. But there will never be such an accessible World Cup in my life again, close to home.
In a sort of delightful New England impasse, the town of Foxborough is refusing to license the World Cup match in Gillette unless organizers pony up the funding for security.
I can’t blame them; Foxborough is a small town and the security for something like the World Cup far surpasses what they probably see for a Patriots game (even in the playoffs).
Something that I have been thinking about with regards to these games is the rude awakening some of these international fans are going to get regarding the misleading names of the stadiums. Gillette Stadium is being called “Boston Stadium”; the French fans are going to have fun learning how far they are going to have to travel from actual Boston to get out to the boondocks where Foxborough is.
AT&T Stadium is kind of the same issue; it is being called “Dallas Stadium”, but is located in Arlington. At least Arlington is square in the middle of the DFW Metroplex, with an abundance of hotels nearby.
Now, come on, you can’t expect FIFA to dip into its colossal profits to pay for something like, can you?
FIFA would be wise to make sure to do so; they certainly don’t want to have a repeat of the incident that happened at the 2024 Copa America final in Miami, when thousands of people stormed the entrances without tickets and caused significant damage to Hard Rock Stadium. That was CONMEBOL not FIFA, but still.
Foxborough still saying no, with less than a month to go for licensing!
I watched the Select Board meeting, nobody there could tell the town where the money was going to come from.
I think this world cup is a complete clusterfuck and should be cancelled, the title, of course, should remain with it’s actual holder…
Good for them.