Arlington Welcomes the World
As Arlington prepares to host nine matches during the FIFA World Cup 2026™, City departments are working together to ensure residents continue to receive the services they rely on every day while welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors to the community.
Arlington Welcomes the World
Arlington Welcomes the World: Beautification and Sustainability Take Center Stage
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
As Arlington prepares to host the FIFA World Cup 2026™, City teams are working to ensure the community is ready to shine — not just for visitors, but for the residents who call Arlington home.
In the second episode of Arlington Welcomes the World, City leaders highlight ongoing beautification and sustainability efforts across parks, roadways and public spaces.
The Parks and Recreation Department has been laying the groundwork for years, focusing on key areas like the Entertainment District and major corridors across the city.
Residents can learn more and get involved by visiting ArlingtonTX.gov/WorldCup.
Arlington is getting ready to welcome the world for the FIFA World Cup 2026, and that means making our city look its best. I'm Jay Warren, and in this episode of Arlington Welcomes the World, we're talking beautification and sustainability, the work happening right now to prepare our parks, streets, and public spaces. Hear from city leaders and a special guest from the North Texas FIFA World Cup Committee about how Arlington is getting ready for the global spotlight. And joining us now are two of our guests from the Parks Department, our Parks Director, Gary Packen, as well as our assistant director from Parks, Michael Dubrecht. And we appreciate you guys being here with us to talk a little bit about beautification here in the city. This is an important topic for our residents year-round. An important topic now as we've go into the World Cup for our visitors also to see how Arlington looks and how we can really dress up the city. I know you guys have been working on that quite a bit. Give us the broad picture. We'll break down some of these kind of smaller things, but the broad picture of what the Parks Department's been doing as we prepare for the World Cup.
SPEAKER_00We actually started a couple years ago when we first heard that we're going to host the World Cup. And so it's a matter of going through all our parks and making sure that we do light audits, we look at all our sustainability for our planting plant material, taking mainly in effect Robert Kluck and Richard Green Linear Park because they're right there in between the two stadiums, and making that to-do list of what we need to do over the next couple of years to really make this place shine for our visitors.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so Gary, what specifically Michael mentioned the linear parks that we have out of the intertainment district. So specifically, what what have you all done in that area to improve it?
SPEAKER_01Well, uh, we looked at improving our fencing and we we moved some old fencing in there. We improved our mowing and tree maintenance in that area. I mean, things we do every day, but with just a little bit more of a spit shine to to hey, the world's coming, company's coming, we need to be ready. Um, and then we even put in a sculpture earlier this year to kind of highlight what's going on in our community and celebrate.
SPEAKER_02So, what kind of like tree initiatives, tree plantings or floral initiatives, other things will we see between now and the start of the World Cup in what about six weeks?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, on March 27th, we're working with the World Cup. They're gonna be donating trees to our community as that legacy project, one of many that we're doing in our park system. Uh, we'll have trees planted in Robert Cluck Linear Park on the west side of Johnson Creek. Uh, we'll be celebrating that. Volunteers will be coming down at 11:30 on the 27th to plant the trees, and then we'll have a ceremony at 1 p.m. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Michael, you mentioned some of the sustainability efforts. They've been going on for years. I'd like you to talk a little bit about what those things have been and how that connects with what we're doing here for the World Cup.
SPEAKER_00The biggest one we started was back in October. So we planted over 1,300 tr uh plants along I-30 and 360 corridor, uh, knowing that's our our entrance to the entertainment district. And then we also replaced probably somewhere around a dozen trees along that same same area. Um we've upped our with with our anniversary also this year of 150, we're planting 150 trees a month on average to help that. So now we're planning things that are gonna be here for 50, 100 years that that it's it's a legacy to FIFA, as Gary kind of mentioned a minute ago.
SPEAKER_02And I think that's an important point because the investments aren't all happening in the entertainment district, they're happening across all of our 99 square miles. Our residents talk a lot about the desire for a clean community to make Arlington look pretty. Um what is the long-term benefit, do you think, to some of these beautification efforts that we're undertaking now?
SPEAKER_00It's just like again, sustainability for our residents in the future. Uh when you when you fly into our airport and you drive from there to the entertainment district, you you pass so many corridors. And so to make sure those are just as beautiful as the entertainment district where the actual events are taking place. So when FIFA's long gone a year from now, all those corridors are still gonna be here. You know, we'll still maintain those at a high level and make sure that it's it's beautiful for not just not just a world event, but for our everyday residents in Arlington.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because we're all driving I-30 and 360 all the time as well.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01And just to add to that, you know, since COVID, volunteering has been down in our park system, and we're trying to rejuvenate that. We're hoping that people getting out volunteering in various forms for the World Cup here in Arlington, we can stimulate that activity and get them involved for the next 10, 15 years with themselves, their families to give back to the community to help clean up our park system, plant trees, you know, TLC things that we might not be able to get to on a daily basis where we need that volunteer initiative in our community.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think there are a lot of people who would be willing to roll up their sleeves and do something. How do they find out the opportunities to do that?
SPEAKER_01Well, there's there's a number of initiatives on the World Cup's website, so you can go there, but then the City of Arlington's website is the perfect place for you to sign up, find out what we need, and get registered. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, you've talked about a lot of investments we've been making, but then we're gonna have you know hundreds of thousands of people coming through our city and through our entertainment district through a lot of those investments that you've made. How do we protect those things during the World Cup?
SPEAKER_00Well, that's a great question. Not knowing what's coming sometimes, right? We hear about these fan marches and things of that nature. Uh we've had experience here in Arlington, obviously, hosting the World Series Parade and of course World Series events. Um it's it's really just a matter of being out there, uh, honestly, having our crews out there all the time, making sure that all our landscape areas and all that are maintained on a high level. Um, because when you bring a hundred thousand people down to one little area, you never know what might happen. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02No, that's true. How much are what you've invested in this is is sustainable? And by that I mean are you putting in irrigation or you're putting in native plants or things that that really will be long-term investments?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So obviously we don't plant anything that's not native to the North Texas region. Uh we have a a preferred plant list uh that we follow. And so everything that we put in the ground is is native for the most part. We have irrigation that goes along with it. We gotta we gotta keep it alive through our through our heat. And so all the all the trees, all the plants are native. We do have some areas that you know you want to make pretty so you have some of the the not so native plants, but uh but those are just in small pops. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Very good. Well, this takes a team to pull off, and it's not just the parks team, it's it's other departments as well. Gary, kind of wrap us up with how you're working with other departments to to pull all this off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean we're working closely with economic development, code enforcement, public works, all to make sure that we're ready for the we're ready for the world, right, to visit Arlington and that they have a great experience. We're here, whether it's on our roads, in our park system, you know, and we're also helping restaurants and businesses be prepared. So, how can we help our community be ready for the World Cup?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, very good. Well, we appreciate all the effort that you all and your teams have been putting in. I know this is a heavy lift, but it is something that I think long term our residents are really going to enjoy across the entire city. So very appreciative. Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for having us.
SPEAKER_02And we'll be right back with a talk with the FIFA World Cup sustainability director. Stay tuned for that. She is the chief sustainability officer here at University of Texas at Arlington, but also same title for the World Cup Organizing Committee here in North Texas. And we're so glad you're joining us here today.
SPEAKER_03Thank you for having me, Jay.
SPEAKER_02We're excited to talk about some of these types of issues and just give us a broad idea. What does sustainable look like as we talk about the World Cup coming here and nine Super Bowls happening here in Arlington?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, thank you for having me, Jay. And it's a privilege to lead sustainability efforts for UTA and the NATO Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee. Um, sustainability is all encompassing, it's a systems thinking approach for an event this size, which is like everything is part of the puzzle. So when you have a mega event of this magnitude, um with, you know, like you said, 100,000 visitors equivalent to nine Super Bowls, um the environmental impact of an event this size is massive. And so my role as the chief sustainability officer is reducing the negative environmental impact of a sporting event this size for our community as a whole.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, as you said, this is a mega event. We have a lot of big events out in our entertainment district all the time, but wrapping nine of those into six weeks, what does sustainable look like in that environment?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So any sustainability strategy is focused on, you know, three basic pillars social, environment, and economic. Um for FIFA, the sustainability strategy is focused on seven broad goals and objectives. And they are mainly focused on, you know, green infrastructure, transportation, air quality, climate change, um, circular economy, reducing our waste, water conservation, preserving our biodiversity, and of course education and awareness. So uh for North Texas, the focus on sustainability is focusing on all these objectives and making sure that it's not uh something that we do just for the games that's happening, but also living a positive legacy after the games are over, right? So the focus is on resource conservation and management, but also community legacy and community engagement for years to come. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, I want to talk about the legacy here in a minute, but I do think this would have to be a team sport, not just one entity can make something like this massive work, correct? So what does that look like? Those are kind of high, lofty goals you mentioned there, but in practical terms, what does that look like on the ground?
SPEAKER_03So for the last two years, we have a sustainability committee that we um started uh to engage with various stakeholders, University of Arlington, City of Dallas, Fort Worth, nonprofit organizations, grassroots organizations who are part of this conversation and can contribute um to the efforts. Um we've been engaging with all the stakeholders, focusing on all these different aspects of reducing waste. How do you donate uh uh food after after the event or do food recovery, right? Uh, how do you reduce the use of plastic water bottles? Um, how do you improve air quality or increase biodiversity for the region, provide more green space? So it has been a collaborative effort for the past few years.
SPEAKER_02And how have you been collaborating uh with local businesses? So a lot of what you're talking about, I think, is how do we make sure that what's happening in the actual, let's say, game zone is sustainable. We've got a lot of businesses here in Arlington, and we were expecting that you know all these visitors are going to be coming to our businesses here and and and so forth. So, what what does that kind of look like and how are you working with them?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so we launched an initiative called Green Business Certification Program, where we are engaging businesses who integrate sustainability in their operations in their everyday business to kind of give them a space and a platform to highlight their efforts. Like this is a green business that we would encourage visitors to go visit and engage with them. And I think that really gives a voice to the community, which is which is an important part of this.
SPEAKER_02So, how do we generate less waste? I think that's gonna be a big question. You mentioned like water bottles as an example. Recycling, all those things. How does that actually happen again in kind of a practical way?
SPEAKER_03Um yeah, I think um, you know, I'm an educator and so I truly believe in the power of education, right? When you tell somebody not to generate waste, you also have to tell them how to do it. Um and so reducing the use of plastic bottles. So, what is the alternative? Bring your own uh water bottles, right? Uh make sure you follow the signs, you know, recycle compost where possible, you know, make sure you don't contaminate the recycle bin because contamination is even a bigger problem to deal with. So that kind of education and awareness. We are doing that education and awareness for all the volunteers that have signed up, where we tell them and educate them on how to engage with the people and the folks who come to the fan festival on how do you recycle, why do you recycle, and where do you recycle? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Can you talk to us a little bit about the importance of green space in part of this conversation? How important is that?
SPEAKER_03It's important because you know we as human beings thrive on good uh air quality, green spaces, open spaces, access to parks. So we are actually working on a couple of tree planting events to encourage that for the community, but also bring the community together. So for the city of Arlington, we actually have a tree planting plan for March 27th. Um, and that that is a way for people to be part of it and come help us volunteer plant trees because this is something that will stay in Arlington for a long time.
SPEAKER_02Well that kind of gets to the legacy question of this. So we're a lot of investment is being made for this one kind of six-week, if you will, event zone. But but what's the legacy of that moving forward for Arlington in the long term that our residents can enjoy for years to come?
SPEAKER_03Right. Um tree planting is one. I know we have a legacy um uh focus where we are uh working on having mini soccer pitches for school districts. Um but we are also sort of investing in the community, right? So my big focus is how do we get our community ready for something like this? And it's also about behavior change, right? So we are organizing a massive community cleanup challenge in partnership with North Central Texas Council of Government, and I'm proud to say that the City of Arlington is a participating city where we are encouraging the 16 cities who are signed up to go out, work with their local community, and clean up the parks and the spaces where people will visit. Um, and I also think that that is something that can be done on a continuous basis. It is not something that you have to do for six weeks, but it's about behavior change. And pe if people see the positive impact of that, then it it's more likely to happen regularly than as a one-off event.
SPEAKER_02Well, I know this is your life's work. So I'm kind of wondering at the end of this, how would you grade or rate success uh for this this project?
SPEAKER_03Um I think uh success for me is uh how do we set the standard, right? Uh how do we shine not just for the six months, but what are the steps and the processes we t uh put in place for something like this in future, right? Like we all talk about how North Texas is uh um has so many cities uh for sports, right? And so encouraging that and integrating sustainability and legacy into that conversation really sets us up for success in the long term. And my goal is to make sure that after that last whistle is blown, we still continue the work. And that is where uh the greatest joy is to work with the community.
SPEAKER_02Well, that is so wonderful, and we appreciate all your hard work, not only on this very big project, but truly day in, day out as you're as you're trying to keep Arlington clean and our world clean. So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03I consider it a privilege. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02And for the latest updates on the World Cup preparations, events, and what to expect in our community, all you have to do is visit Arlington TX.gov backslash World Cup. We encourage all residents to stay informed, get involved, and be part of Arlington welcoming the world.