Croatia forward Ivan Perišic (left) and England forward Harry Kane at the FIFA World Cup match, June 17, 2026, in Arlington.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Somewhere, in the epic labyrinth that is AT&T Stadium — sorry, Dallas Stadium — there are celebrities. The June 17 matchup of England vs. Croatia is a coveted ticket, and among the 70,000 or so lucky humans inside the giant silver structure off the highway in Arlington, only a handful have names you’d recognize.
Emmitt Smith and Dez Bryant are here. Brooke Shields is probably here, since she dined at Al Biernat’s the previous night. David Beckham must be here, because he was spotted at the Los Angeles game as the U.S. Men’s National Team beat Paraguay, and since June 17 is England’s first bout in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, what are the chances the most famous British soccer player would miss it?
But wherever David Beckham is — ensconced in a high-level suite with Jerry Jones, tucked away in a private room near the field — he is not at the VIP Hospitality area on the main concourse, a buzzing hive of mid-level luxury where hundreds of normies are getting a taste of life behind the velvet rope, which apparently includes silver trays of creamy ravioli, rows of mini-cupcakes and all the Stella Artois and vodka sodas you can drink.
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At the open bar inside the VIP Hospitality area hosted by On Location.
Courtesy On Location
On Location is the hospitality group that puts together these VIP experiences — for the Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four, any number of big-time concerts and now, the World Cup. They’re part of a growing industry that offers access and opulence for fans willing (and able) to pay for it. Along with the VIP designation on my ticket comes an all-you-can-eat buffet, an open bar and an exceptionally good seat on the first balcony tier near midfield.
When I asked how much tickets to the Dallas VIP experience cost, a representative from On Location avoided actual numbers, saying tickets “reflect market pricing at a wide range of price points.”
So OK, let’s guesstimate. The going price on StubHub for seats in my general area was $5,000, and we’ll add a thousand bucks for incidentals and ballpark the cost at $6,000. Whatever the amount, it had to be in the thousands, a number that would be unthinkable to our grandparents but doesn’t sound that insane in an era of Ticketmaster price gouging and what my diehard sports buds have called “FIFA piracy.”
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Outside the walled garden of the VIP Hospitality area, people are waiting in tedious lines for food served in a paper boat, but under the high-vaulted ceilings of this spacious portion of the main concourse, there are white plates with silverware and plush disposable napkins. There are frosty bottles of soda in a retro cooler, help yourself. A woman is sipping champagne from a golden flute. Surely it’s plastic? Didn’t ask. The better, softer life is here in the VIP Hospitality area — yours for roughly the cost of a used car.
Fans support Croatia inside the VIP Hospitality area at the England vs. Croatia match on June 17, 2026.
Courtesy On Location
Exclusivity is a relative term
Technically, every person at the June 17 England vs. Croatia match is getting an exclusive experience. They’re at the World Cup. Within that fortunate mass, however, exist hierarchies known to every sports fan. Gone are the democratizing days of sharing a bench at the Cotton Bowl, first come, first served. Today’s fandom is a multitiered, multiticketed series of QR codes and add-ons meant to separate you from your savings account.
It’s unclear how many people inside the VIP Hospitality area paid for their ticket. The ones I spoke to had been invited by corporate sponsors, who get a big chunk of these tickets. But I have no doubt many people — some traveling from England or Croatia, so none of this has been cheap — are willing to pay a premium for a bucket-list experience that will go gangbusters on Instagram.
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On Location started in 2015 as the hospitality group for the National Football League, possibly the world leader in elite fan experiences. Headquartered in New York, On Location has since branched into other sports — basketball, baseball, UFC, the Olympics — and opened offices in London, Raleigh and Los Angeles.
Back in 1971, when the Dallas Cowboys opened Texas Stadium, luxury suites were one of its pioneering features. Premium boxes catered to high rollers and muckety-mucks, who turned out to be plentiful among football fans.
As seen with a fisheye lens, the flags of England (left) and Croatia at the FIFA World Cup match on June 17, 2026, in Arlington.
Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News
Fast forward 55 years, and today’s football stadiums are a rabbit warren of exclusive suites, private boxes and secret entrances. That’s especially true of AT&T Stadium, which opened in 2009 as the biggest, baddest, most over-the-top facility in the NFL. More than 15 years later, it’s still jaw-dropping.
The Brits I spoke to were knocked out by the stadium’s size. And it’s air-conditioned! One delight of the World Cup has been seeing our country through the eyes of foreign travelers. Who knew we had it so good in America, with our Buc-ee’s and free soda refills and adorable yellow school buses? Here in Dallas, where land is vast and AC mandatory, we can build palaces of commerce that rival the Sistine Chapel for scale, if not beauty.
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“That is one hell of a television,” said a British guy, pointing toward the Jumbotron.
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Jerry World vs. the soccer hooligans
Perhaps no figure in American culture has been as skilled at fusing sports and capitalism as Jerry Jones, the visionary who brought us AT&T Stadium, where corporate sponsors colonize every square inch, helping make the Dallas Cowboys the most lucrative brand in sports even if they haven’t won a Super Bowl since Friends was on primetime. Each time I enter Jerry World, my mind spins just contemplating the vast fortune being accumulated: tickets, beer, parking. How do people afford this stuff?
That went double at the World Cup, where prices have been supersized by demand and opportunism. A friend who attended a World Cup match at AT&T Stadium recently paid $200 for parking. And he wasn’t even close! Quesadillas can run you $26, beer $16. This isn’t for VIP treatment; it’s the going rate.
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English fans dressed as three lions cheer England in a World Cup match against Croatia on June 17, 2026, in Arlington.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
That live events are financially out of reach for many people is one of the known deficits of modern sports. If that’s a bummer, it also has upsides. Preparing for the England vs. Croatia match, I read Bill Buford’s Among the Thugs, a crash course in British soccer hooligans, who could binge drink and menace their way through matches, in part, because the games were so cheap. That bygone era told a story of class and racial tension, unemployment, the intersection of booze and testosterone, but it’s also a cautionary tale about what can happen when the doors fling open to everyone at no cost.
The Brits at the June 17 World Cup match were more balding middle-aged banker than chain-smoking anarchist. They still enjoyed themselves. The night before the game, in a headline that went viral, a Dallas pub had to shut down after being wiped out by British soccer fans, who drank 5,000 beers.
The Croats were also out in full force at the June 17 match. I was surprised by how many showed up, easy to spot in a red checkered print that made everyone look a bit like a tablecloth in an Italian restaurant.
“We’re a very small country with a very big heart,” said Croatian Anto Garic, standing outside the stadium. He was in the fan zone, a happy and high-energy mix of cultures and drinking songs where it felt like everyone — for a moment — was equal.
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Would you pay $6,000 for this?
The VIP Hospitality badge on my FIFA ticket granted access to what looked, from the outside, like an exclusive party. Attendants in jackets monitored the entrance, which opened into a spacious gathering that numbered into the hundreds. Nobody looked that fancy, but it was a soccer game, so who would? The room was hard to read: These people could have been millionaires; they could have been contest winners.
The food was not particularly VIP. The limoncello burrata ravioli tasted like cheese ravioli in cream sauce, which I happen to like, but the red curry cauliflower and rice cakes went straight in the trash. The banger on the menu was the “Texas Size Bacon & Cheese Tater Tot,” short and stout logs of deep-fried deliciousness. There was also a cheese tray, and a low-key salad bar and an unlimited supply of tasty milk chocolate cajeta cupcakes, petite enough to pop in the mouth in one bite, which I did three times.
One strong recommendation for this spread was its ease. No lines, no credit card transactions. The sticker shock of the World Cup is such that I bet people pay good money to escape its clutches. Who wants to be reminded, each time they buy a round of drinks, that they are basically flushing a hundred dollar bill down the toilet? That might be a VIP experience’s most underrated quality — to be politely shielded from all the money you’re dropping.
At a time when people seem reluctant to pay for music, movies or news, they will shell out for live sports. As a nonsports fan, I don’t really get this, but I do understand the impulse to splurge on memories and experiences. I just want to point out that the word experience used to mean you didn’t pay. It wasn’t a commodity, packaged and sold. An experience was just life.
Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic (1) dives and forward Ivan Perišic (14) slides in vain as England forward Marcus Rashford’s goal slices between them at the FIFA World Cup match on June 17, 2026, in Arlington.
Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News
After all, you’re my wonderwall
Few experiences rival the World Cup, though, at least for hard-core soccer fans, and the England vs. Croatia match was killer. The crowd roared. The crowd booed. I could see Harry Kane and Luka Modric from where I sat, two giants of the sport meeting at midfield to signal the start of an incredible match.
It was tense until the second half, when England pulled into the lead, and slurry drinking songs broke out around the stadium. England took the game 4-2, and MVP Harry Kane stood near the goal, staring into the crowd with tears in his eyes (according to the Jumbotron) as the stadium sang along to “Wonderwall” by Oasis.
I don’t know if England has the world’s best soccer team, but they might have the world’s best pop bands. Next we sang “Hey Jude” by the Beatles, the nah-nah-nah-nah of 70,000 people in unison prickling the hair on my arms as midfielder Jude Bellingham flashed his mega-watt smile on the Texas-sized television.
Was it worth $6,000? Not sure. But I’ll tell you this: I won’t forget it.