Is Your Business Ready for FIFA?
Legal and Operational Considerations for Large-Scale Sporting Events
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup coming to North Texas, cities and businesses are focused on the visible needs and opportunities – tourism, construction, hospitality, technology, and infrastructure. What’s less obvious – but equally important – is whether your business has the capacity and legal protections to take advantage of what’s often a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Major global events can create accelerated revenue and growth, but they also expose weaknesses in contracts, operations, and business structure. Below are a few considerations to determine if your business is ready for FIFA.
1. FIFA Creates Opportunity and Complexity
Approximately 4 million people are expected to visit the North Texas region for the FIFA World Cup. Dallas is hosting nine matches at AT&T Stadium as well as over thirty days of events at the Fan Festival at Fair Park. With an anticipated 100,000 in daily foot traffic, many businesses, especially those along the routes to event venues, can expect an uptick in customers. Many more businesses will have the opportunity to capitalize on the influx of visitors through strategic events and partnerships. The arrival of FIFA presents an incredible opportunity to profit from the robust amount of visitors and activities, but with more people comes more risk and the need for expanded capacity, infrastructure, and technology.
2. Are You Structurally Ready?
Large scale events like the World Cup present additional risks due to their scale and visibility. Companies taking on large scale infrastructure projects, partnerships, and joint ventures should consider forming separate entities to isolate risk and limit liability from their major assets. Lawsuits arising from large-scale events like the World Cup can threaten the existence of a business entirely. Individuals, artists, and creatives who have been operating as sole proprietors may consider whether now is the time to form an entity to enter contracts in order to separate personal liability and assets from their business deals.
3. Contracts – The Biggest Risk Area
With public facing events and high visibility, FIFA is not the time for handshake deals. Make sure all services and products are memorialized in a written contract and scopes of work are specific in terms of deliverables and deadlines. Don’t assume that your existing templates and contracts with vendors will suffice for time constrained and large capacity events like the World Cup. Agreements should reflect the unique risks, timelines, and visibility associated with global events of this scale. With increased risk and time sensitivity, special attention should be given to force majeure, termination, delivery, and service level clauses, to name a few.
4. Capacity and Operations
If you anticipate increased foot traffic to your business, you should also consider whether your current capacity level –staffing, systems, and physical space – can accommodate a significant increase in customers. Plan ahead to increase staff, consider alternative layouts for small spaces, reasonable areas for long lines, and online and digital ordering capabilities. Even if your business is not along a venue route, pay attention to other FIFA related events happening in your area that could potentially drive more customers to your business.
5. Don’t Forget the Government
If you’re planning a special event for FIFA, make sure you’re aware of the necessary permits required to host, including requirements for space, security, insurance, and applicable licenses and permits for food and alcohol. Give yourself enough time to understand what is required ahead of time. If you’re working with third party vendors, ensure your contracts require them to follow all applicable laws as well and delineate who will be responsible for securing necessary permits and government approvals.
6. Don’t Steal IP
If you do plan to partake in FIFA related events, make sure not to violate copyright and trademark laws in your advertisements and promotions. Any use of a company’s trademark or logo or a celebrity’s name and likeness, requires permission. If you’re working with third-party vendors and service providers, ensure that those contracts include an indemnification clause for intellectual property violations. The last thing you want is your business name alongside a glaring intellectual property violation with no contractual protection.
7. Readiness is Proactive, Not Reactive
If you haven’t thought about how your business might capitalize off of FIFA or if your business is already considering expansion, new partnerships, or large-scale projects connected to the 2026 World Cup, now is the time to start asking the right questions and structuring for success.
Burton Advisory Law supports businesses and organizations at pivotal moments of growth through thoughtful structuring, contracting, and advisory services tailored to your specific business needs.
This post is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
