Houston was not a factor during the sport-changing 1994 World Cup in the United States of America, which led to the formation of Major League Soccer and eventually helped create the Dynamo.
Almost five years ago, one of the biggest cities in the country was devastated by flooding and constantly on the national TV news because of the minute-by-minute horrors that Houstonians were facing.
“I remember immediately after Hurricane Harvey people were kind of writing us off,” Houston Major Sylvester Turner said on Thursday, in the middle of a downtown area that in 2017 served as a temporary home for displaced residents.
Now, Houston is a World Cup host.
The biggest sports event in our big city’s history is only four years away.
Is it too early to book hotel rooms and plan parties for 2026?
Not if you’re Chris Canetti, who spent years working toward an announcement that suddenly placed Houston in the middle of the world.
“I’m still trying to come to grips with all of that,” said Canetti, president of the Houston World Cup Bid Committee. “This is an important and big thing, and it’s so great for our city and for the people. My kids, who are 17 and 15, are excited about the opportunity to go to a World Cup match in Houston.
“When you meet people and talk to people that have been to World Cups wherever it was – in Dallas, in Germany, in South Africa, Brazil, Russia – they all have these amazing memories, right, and these things that last a lifetime. ”
Keeping an NFL team in Houston was once a serious problem. Constructing sports stadiums and arenas that were state of the art and nationally competitive was a real issue as a new millennium approached.
On Thursday, Houston received the equivalent of five to six Super Bowls at eleven – that’s how many 2026 World Cup matches that Canetti expects the city to receive – and won a bid for a once-every-four-years tournament that will be bigger than ever, featuring 80 matches that bounce between the United States, Mexico and Canada.
“It’s the 25-year anniversary of the Harris County Houston Sports Authority and we were birthed into existence to build these stadiums,” said Janis Burke, CEO of the HSA. “I was hired after the buildings were built to put Houston on the map as the biggest and best sports town in the world, and that’s what we’ve tried to do.”
There was a brief moment during Thursday’s nationally televised announcement when it felt like all the construction, communication, promotion and proud selling might suddenly fall apart.
Kansas City, Mo., was called out in a semi-surprise.
Dallas, as expected, was awarded a 2026 ticket.
Then Atlanta.
“My heart definitely sunk, I’ve got to be honest with you,” Canetti said. “That worried me quite a bit.”
There was no way that a city as diverse, unique, down home and corporate as Houston was going to be skipped.
It just took Canetti’s pulse rate on his Apple Watch hitting 130 before the fourth-largest city in the country was officially named a World Cup city.
The return of the NFL, arrival of the Texans and creation of what’s now known as NRG Stadium played a part.
Houston’s growth and evolution – as a big, vibrant city and proud soccer town – was at the heart of it all.
From losing the Oilers to adding the Dynamo and Dash, while the University of Houston prepares to enter the Big 12.
From all the destruction and chaos during Harvey to Houston thriving and constantly changing during the present day.
“The city has proven to be highly resilient,” Turner said. “Not only do we bounce back, we bounce forward. We don’t throw in the towel. We are a can-do city, and in large part it’s because of the diversity that exists.”
Interstate 45 will become a corridor for the 2026 World Cup, with Houston and Dallas blending together as host cities.
“There’s a lot of advantages to putting Houston and Dallas together. The accessibility to one another,” Canetti said. “And, by the way, both cities supported each other. We shared good luck messages today with Dallas. And we do business in a state that is positive, as well, in the way that we have sources of funding through our state that make it advantageous for major sporting events to come here.”
After decades of building toward a peak, Houston finally broke through on Thursday and went international.
The countdown to 2026 – and the biggest party in our city’s history – has begun.
www.houstonchronicle.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism