\u201cThe World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world, so it was a must-have in my book for Dallas,\u201d Paul said in a recent interview at her Sports Commission office in Fair Park. <\/p>\n
Dallas hosted the men\u2019s World Cup in 1994, when six games were played at Cotton Bowl stadium. \u201cSo it was never if we were going to bid on it, but how are we going to make it happen?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Arlington\u2019s iconic AT&T Stadium will become Dallas Stadium during the games. FIFA always keeps the venue names simple without sponsorships.<\/p>\n
These days, Paul jockeys between her cramped sports commission basement office at Fair Park and her sparse World Cup office in Founders Square near the convention center \u2014 not that she spends much time in either of them. \u201cHey, we\u2019re a nonprofit, and it works for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
North Texas was the largest metropolitan area in the country without a sports commission until Paul created one in 2014 to go after the NCAA Women\u2019s Final Four in 2017 at AT&T Stadium. She pulled that off to rave reviews.<\/p>\n
Paul and her staff of about a dozen scope out promising events. She goes after those prospects with the fierce competitiveness needed to succeed in this industry. <\/p>\n
And she\u2019s very, very successful. <\/p>\n
![\"Monica](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MEKPAGBPI5C5NKQEPARAZOBMRA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Monica Paul, executive director of the Dallas Sports Commission poses for a portrait at her office in Dallas in June.<\/p>\n
Nathan Hunsinger \/ Special Contributor<\/p>\n
Not a spotlight hog<\/p>\n
Paul is described by her multitude of fans as a humble leader who knows what needs to be done, works incredibly hard, earns trust and doesn\u2019t put herself at the center of the spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cMonica\u2019s the glue that brings everybody together,\u201d said Dan Hunt, president and co-owner of FC Dallas. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why we\u2019ve had more big events with her serving in control than any other city in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or as Greg Bibb, CEO and managing partner of the WNBA\u2019s Dallas Wings, puts it: \u201cMonica\u2019s superpower is her ability to connect people of all different backgrounds and interests so that they understand the common good of that initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether she\u2019s talking to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a volunteer at an event, she gets immediate buy-in from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bibb was introduced to Paul\u2019s aplomb in 2017, when he was founder and owner of Capital Sports Ventures and needed her help in getting 20 miles of city road closed off for his Dallas Bike Ride, a large-scale, public, traffic-free bike ride that ran through the center of downtown. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of ingredients that make Dallas and North Texas the leading sports market for business in the country,\u201d Bibb said. \u201cBut the most important ingredient is Monica.\u201d<\/p>\n
The World Cup has consumed most of Paul\u2019s professional life of late, but she\u2019s also juggled, pursued and kept Dallas at the forefront for many other sporting holy grails. She\u2019s already reeled in the 2030 NCAA Men\u2019s Final Four and the 2031 NCAA Women\u2019s Final Four.<\/p>\n
Paul is in hot pursuit of the 2031 Men\u2019s Rugby World Cup and the Women\u2019s 2033 Rugby World Cup, and she\u2019s building a war chest to grab a dominant share of the 2031 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup, with the tournament final as the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why it\u2019s imperative that things go off without a serious glitch next year. <\/p>\n
Smooth operator, mostly<\/p>\n
Paul is cool under pressure. She\u2019ll never let you see her sweat. <\/p>\n
That said, Paul admits to a \u201chigh-anxiety attack\u201d three years ago as she stood in the predawn hours at AT&T Discovery District downtown waiting for FIFA to announce its 2026 World Cup host cities.<\/p>\n
She fully expected Dallas to be among them.<\/p>\n
And why not? <\/p>\n
Paul had marshaled support from the entire family of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, AT&T Stadium, Dan Hunt and his older brother, Clark Hunt, the other local sports owners, as well as leading sports heroes, and business and civic luminaries throughout North Texas.<\/p>\n
But when Paul looked on her iPhone at FIFA\u2019s North American online map, Dallas was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart just dropped, and I thought, \u2018This just can\u2019t be possible. How could I have possibly screwed this up so badly that Dallas is not going to be chosen as a host city?\u2019\u201d Paul recalled. \u201cAt this point, we\u2019d been working on World Cup for about five years, and those five years flashed through my mind. \u2018Is somebody playing a joke?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Her palpitations were quelled when FIFA reloaded its map showing North Texas among its 16 North American host cities.<\/p>\n
Fast-forward to Feb, 4, 2024, when Paul, Hunt, Jones and a who\u2019s who entourage were at a large reveal party at AT&T\u2019s Stadium Club waiting to hear just what kind of bounty Dallas had hauled in for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n
Athletes Dirk Nowitzki, Marty Turco, Emmitt Smith and Paxton Pomykal, along with the mayors of Dallas, Arlington and Frisco were there waiting for FIFA\u2019s Sunday evening broadcast.<\/p>\n
Encouraging rumors had North Texas getting five, six and maybe even seven games if it was lucky.<\/p>\n
Paul, Jones and Hunt were seated front-and-center when the screens showed that Dallas had far exceeded anyone\u2019s expectations with nine games. They gave Paul a standing ovation. <\/p>\n
That news was just the beginning.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just the nine games that stretch from June 15 to July 14. FIFA is designating the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center as its international broadcast center, where media outlets and the world\u2019s broadcast studios will set up shop for the whole tournament.<\/p>\n
An undetermined number of teams will set up North Texas base camps. <\/p>\n
All will spend money on lodging, transportation and entertainment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep hearing that the economic impact could be worth north of $2 billion \u2014 maybe much more when the experts make their final calculations,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cThe metroplex is truly the epicenter of World Cup 2026. That\u2019s not debatable.\u201d<\/p>\n
None of this happens without Paul, he said.<\/p>\n
Hunt recently looked at his personal calendar for June and July 2026. \u201cIt was the coolest thing. Every few days, I saw a Dallas World Cup game come up.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Monica](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756639994_677_CFWW3ITLGRB7LGXRSFFFDLYQRY.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Monica Paul, president of the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee, looks on Fernando Martinez (left) and Daniel Doucette of Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages make a ceremonial donation of soccer balls during a press conference to provide updates with one year until FIFA World Cup 2026 kicks off on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Frisco. <\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
Booted from HS honor society<\/p>\n
Paul\u2019s life has been a magical mystery tour of \u2014 among many other things \u2014 playing college volleyball, being a delegate of USA Women\u2019s National Olympic Volleyball, overseeing international events for both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s national volleyball teams, putting on the National Senior Games and helping save USA Taekwondo from Olympic decertification and financial ruin.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, she finished her physical education degree and earned a master\u2019s degree in sports administration.<\/p>\n
The middle-school girl who thought her school trip to Washington, D.C., was a big deal has been to 27 countries. She hasn\u2019t been to Antarctica or Africa. She\u2019d love to get to Africa but will take a pass on Antarctica. \u201cThat might be too cold for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Paul delights in retelling how she was kicked off the National Honor Society at Caldwell High School because she wrote an English paper for another student for $30. <\/p>\n
Her punchline is that her classmate got a higher grade than she did.<\/p>\n
Paul grew up as a tomboy on her family\u2019s farm. She was hell on four-wheelers and dirt bikes and rode tractors with her grandfather. She played basketball, golfed and threw shot put and discus before zeroing in on volleyball. <\/p>\n
![\"Tomboy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/JSD44WYMNVGAPPZ3W3X2SKUMRE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Tomboy Monica Paul on her grandfather’s tractor at the family’s farm in Caldwell, Texas. <\/p>\n
Courtesy Monica Paul<\/p>\n
She hated dresses and cried when her grandmother gave her one for Christmas. <\/p>\n
The high school valedictorian went to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, a private Christian college in the central corridor of Texas, on a full-ride academic scholarship \u2014 choosing it over one offered for volleyball.<\/p>\n
Her playing days ended when she tore her ACL her freshman year, and she decided to transfer. \u201cThe 11-o\u2019clock curfew just didn\u2019t fit what I was expecting my college experience to be.\u201d <\/p>\n
Transferring to the University of Texas at Austin was a gamechanger.<\/p>\n
Just before Paul\u2019s senior year as a physical education major, she spotted an ad in The Daily Texan for a volleyball team manager under UT\u2019s legendary head coach Mick Haley.<\/p>\n
Haley was offered the top coaching position of the USA Women\u2019s National Volleyball Team in 1997 ahead of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He asked Paul and an assistant coach to join him at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs the next May. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t finished my degree but knew that this was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity and that there were people who were way more qualified than me,\u201d she said. \u201cHopefully, I\u2019d shown my work ethic and initiative. And I\u2019m like, \u2018Yep, I\u2019ll take it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Team USA wasn\u2019t expected to make it out of the first round of the competition, but it finished a surprisingly close fourth \u2014 just shy of a bronze medal. \u201cIt taught me, \u2018Don\u2019t ever count yourself out.\u2019 It was amazing to see the team gel at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Directing competitions for the 2007 National Senior Games in Louisville, Ky., was among her most personally gratifying experiences. \u201cWe had 14,000 athletes \u2014 including a 102-year-old bowler and table tennis player \u2014 in 18 sports at 36 different venues over 16 days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, Paul\u2019s been asked many unusual questions, but none like the one posed by a tennis player in the oldest age group. She needed to know the exact distance from the tennis courts to the nearest restroom.<\/p>\n
Friends in high places<\/p>\n
Kellie Fischer, CFO of the Texas Rangers for 20 years, said Paul navigates among the most powerful businesspeople in the area as well as decision-makers both internationally and locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key players have always enjoyed camaraderie,\u201d she said. \u201cBut Monica has been a significant part of bringing sports owners to the table when joint efforts were needed for special events like the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s no small feat. At last count, North Texas has 14 professional sports teams, including the new-to-the-scene Dallas Trinity FC, a women\u2019s soccer team. <\/p>\n
Paul found a steadfast ally in Charlotte Jones, chief brand officer and co-owner of the Dallas Cowboys, 11 years ago when they crafted the successful bid for the NCAA Women\u2019s Final Four in 2017 at AT&T Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeader. Teammate. Friend. All of these apply to Monica, and we\u2019re so fortunate to have her on our side,\u201d Jones said recently. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have the World Cup and many other events without her tireless effort. She approaches everything with an energy and competitive fire that\u2019s contagious, and you can always tell that her heart and love for Dallas are in it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gina Miller, vice president of broadcasting, media and communications for FC Dallas, has seen Paul\u2019s overarching impact up close and personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe brings cohesive vision to the D-FW sports market that motivates all of us to pursue world-class events and produce at the highest level,\u201d Miller said. \u201cHer leadership isn\u2019t just strategic. It\u2019s also deeply supportive, and that makes a real difference in how we collaborate and succeed as a region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul says that\u2019s because she and her team understand the role at hand. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to run a professional team. We\u2019re not trying to run a venue. We\u2019re trying to bring in sporting events that generate economic impact and position Dallas and the D-FW region on a national and international stage,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to step on toes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three texts, then a phone call<\/p>\n
Dan Hunt is a very, very busy guy. The family-first co-owner of both FC Dallas and the NFL\u2019s Kansas City Chiefs also has numerous business and philanthropic interests. But he says his jam-packed calendar doesn\u2019t hold a candle to Paul\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cMonica is one of the busiest human beings that I\u2019ve ever known,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cHer attention to detail is amazing. She takes the most copious notes that become like this gigantic checklist that she and her staff systematically execute.\u201d<\/p>\n
People in her close orbit quickly respond to her texts and phone calls, but she can\u2019t always reciprocate.<\/p>\n
Hunt has a three-text rule for reaching her. \u201cMonica gets grace through three text messages, and then I call her because she\u2019s just so busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul is slightly sleep deprived, getting about five hours a night with her beloved dachshunds, Stella and Rosa. \u201cThey allow me to share their bed with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She tries hard to carve out time for friends. She celebrated her recent Big 5-0 with pals on an island off the coast of Cancun, and has weekly adult beverages on her patio in Addison. But she doesn\u2019t get to her Cedar Creek lake house to kick back and party as often as she\u2019d like.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it\u2019s both a strength and a detriment,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I have a great work ethic to the point where work sometimes gets prioritized over personal health, family and friends. I have a hard time saying no to people. I don\u2019t want to disappoint them.\u201d<\/p>\n
True, Hunt says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of conversations when we\u2019re about to add to her to-do list and she says to me, \u2018Please don\u2019t do this to me\u2019 with a grin on her face, and then she makes it happen. She\u2019s a remarkable asset for this community.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Monica](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/QINXB4VTSBGOPITN5NPXSNE3UA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Monica Paul in Frisco in June. <\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
Meet Monica Paul<\/p>\n
Title: Executive director, Dallas Sports Commission; president of the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee<\/p>\n
Age: <\/b>50<\/p>\n
Resides:<\/b> Addison<\/p>\n
Born: <\/b>Caldwell, Texas<\/p>\n
What she does:<\/b> Crafts bids and marketing programs to attract sports competitions and events \u2014 including Olympic, professional, collegiate and amateur sports; works closely with professional leagues, the NCAA, Olympic National governing bodies and amateur sports federations<\/p>\n
Education: <\/b>Caldwell High School, valedictorian, 1993: bachelor of science in physical education, University of Texas at Austin, 1998; masters of arts in sports administration, University of Northern Colorado, 2001<\/p>\n
Professional boards of directors:<\/b> SMU Athletic Forum, Cotton Bowl Classic and Jason Witten\u2019s SCORE Foundation<\/p>\n
Personal:<\/b> Pet mom of dachshunds Stella and Rosa<\/p>\n
SOURCES: Dallas Sports Commission, Monica Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monica Paul is on the last leg of a 16-year marathon as the final countdown to the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":189259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,7948,59853,64,1596,50027,3777,221,222,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,88415,105860],"class_list":{"0":"post-189258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arlington","10":"tag-att-stadium","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-jerry-jones","14":"tag-olympics","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports-business","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-volleyball","26":"tag-world-cup-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115123166404432652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}