The Crazy Final World Cup Numbers and 5 Reasons Why Texas Is a Lock For an Even More Prominent Role In the 2038 American Cup Return

When the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994, drawing more than 94,000 fans to the Rose Bowl for the Final, it would take 32 years for the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza to return. This next wait will be much shorter. All signs point to the World Cup returning to America’s shores in 2038 after this summer’s supersized Cup thrilled just about everyone. And made FIFA more money than ever.

Texas figures to loom even larger in the next World Cup in the United States. North Texas could host The Final (it should have this time, and that last match would have been more exciting than Spain’s 1-0 choke hold of Argentina if it had). Houston proved itself worthy of a better slate of matches with NRG Stadium surprising even locals who regularly go to the stadium for Texans games. Don’t be surprised if Austin works itself into the 2038 World Cup mix too.

By 2038, you can be sure there will be new stadiums in Texas that compete with NRG and even Jerry World for these coveted matches (including maybe even one in Bridgeland).

Whether this is a moment that will elevate soccer even higher in the United States is still to be seen. But there is no doubt it’s made the World Cup forever bigger, forever now more demanding of the type of stages that this Cup provided. Texas-sized stages in many ways.

“The World Cup 30 years ago was here in the United States, no professional soccer league,” former Houston Dynamo favorite Mike Chabala tells PaperCity. “Just a green space to just like really change the world. And obviously FIFA expanding from 32 to 48 teams (for this World Cup) is just a true testament to the opportunity in this market. . .

“We’re in position to be not only in a space to just enjoy the game, but to like grow it now. And really change the world in terms of what the United States has to offer in the soccer market.”

More than one million people attended World Cup events (the matches themselves at NRG, the FIFA Fan Festival that turned EaDo into the center of America’s fourth largest city for six weeks, fan walks and the like) in Houston. The final numbers for North Texas, which hosted two more matches than H-Town, have not been released yet. But Texas Live!, the hulking bar and restaurant land in Arlington, certainly became one of the most recognizable spots of this entire World Cup — for better or for worse.

2038 is coming — and this next U.S. World Cup will be more Texas centric than ever. But before turning the page to the next countdown, let’s look back at the 5 Lone Star State World Cup moments that helped ensure this future:

5). Political Layups

Yes, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson got booed during the opening of the city’s FIFA Fan Festival, but even with that, it is hard for any politician not to relish the feel-good scenes and photo shoots the World Cup tends to provide. Houston Mayor John Whitmire seemed to be at every World Cup event imaginable, soaking in the city’s success.

You thought the competition to be a host city was intense this World Cup? Just wait till 2038.

4). Togetherness Wins

For all the worries and faults of this World Cup (many of them well earned), for all of the commercial crassness of FIFA (which forced stadium employees to even cover up the name of the ketchup and mustard because they were not official World Cup sponsors), this World Cup still mostly brought people together. Europeans who expected the worse from a Donald Trump America and instead found friendly welcoming Americans thrilled to show off their hometowns. Americans who could not get enough of seeing people delighted by things they take for granted.

Somehow, it all worked and meshed. Beautifully.

3). The Fan Walk Armies

The Netherlands’ iconic Oranje Fanwalk drew more than 10,000 people to the streets around Rice Village for the two mile-plus walk to NRG Stadium. Almost all of them in orange. Thousands of them with no real allegiance to the Netherlands. That’s the thing about this World Cup. Everyone wanted to be part of the excitement, even if they had never heard of these players or traditions until just days before.

A slightly smaller orange army did the fan walk to Jerry World for the Netherland’s game there. But the Argentina horde that took over Klyde Warren Park needed no qualifiers.

2). Houston’s 95th Minute Magic

Houston and NRG Stadium did not get the level of matches that its setting deserved. Yes, Cristiano Ronaldo played two matches here, but watching a 41-year-old Ronaldo at this World Cup is like watching Michael Jordan during his cameo with the Washington Wizards. All together disappointing, And a little sad.

But Houston got one great match — one of the best matches of the whole 104-match World Cup — in Brazil’s pulsating 2-1 second half comeback against a game Japan squad that was not decided until the 95th minute. Nearly six minutes into stoppage time and a minute away from extra time.

If Brazil could have kept winning after this Round of 32 escape it would have meant even more.

1). The Big Match Excitement at Jerry World

From the Netherlands and Japan’s electric 2-2 tie on the first Saturday of the World Cup to Spain’s 2-0 throttling of France and Kylian Mbappé in that soccer superpower semifinal, no venue produced more consistent thrills than the land in Arlington dubbed Dallas Stadium. This is the stadium where Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and England announced their championship contender arrival and offensive firepower in a 4-2 win over a Croatia team that later would be cruelly victimized — and eliminated — by VAR.

Jerry World also saw Lionel Messi score three goals in little more than a match and 10 minutes of action. It is where Viking hero Erling Haaland scored two goals, including one in the 86th minute, to push Cinderella darling Norway into the Round of 16. And where Cristiano Ronaldo’s unsatisfying World Cup career came to an end.

No other stadium in the Cup could match this relentless star power. No other place but Texas could. It turns out 2038 is already calling.