England fans – More than 10,000 England supporters have flooded into Dallas ahead of Wednesday’s World Cup opener against Croatia at the AT&T Stadium. As kickoff approaches, fans are trading city life for cowboy hats, gun ranges and pilgrimages to the Grassy Knoll—while fami
By the time the Texas heat settles in, Dallas already feels like it belongs to England. More than 10,000 supporters have been piling into the 32C city ahead of Wednesday’s World Cup opener against Croatia—an old foe who ended England’s tournament dream in 2018 with a semi-final exit.
On Tuesday. Harry Kane and his squad flew in from their Kansas City base to begin the build-up in the “wild west” setting of Kansas and Texas. For the fans. the journey has been its own storyline: flights. accommodation and. for those fortunate enough to land them. tickets that have pushed spending to headline-grabbing levels.
Some supporters have been soaking up the local culture in full costume, trading stadium queues for Texas pastimes. A number have been spotted at the gun range. Others have gravitated to famous local landmarks such as Billy Bob’s Texas. where one fan posed with a donkey at the world’s largest honky-tonk. while another walked a donkey through the excitement.
The mood has been amplified by history too. Several supporters have made the trip as a pilgrimage to the Grassy Knoll, the small hillside downtown where US President John F Kennedy was passing when he was shot dead in 1963.
For John and Marie Marland and their 18-year-old son Daniel, it has been eight years in the making. Between them and family friends Stuart and Annette Thompson, they have spent £23,000 on the trip. Daniel, a first-year accountancy student at Lancaster University, had to miss his final exam for the chance to be there.
“It’s all worth it because I think England will get to the quarters or semis,” Mr Marland said, while Daniel struck a more ambitious note, saying: “I think we’re going to win every group game and then breeze through to victory.”
Stuart Thompson. 52. who runs an engineering company with his wife. 48. said the trip started as a disciplined plan—money set aside in ISAs and saving £200 a month. “But with the way the economy has been. what should have been a luxury trip has turned into a bit less salubrious. We’re staying in an Airbnb. Fifa really have taken advantage,” he said.
Mrs Thompson said they had travelled without their adult children Dominic, 20, and Abigail, 18. “It’s so expensive, we had to leave them behind,” she said, prompting a joke from her husband: “Someone had to stay home and put the bins out. But we do love them.”
England’s schedule has come with an additional layer of restrictions this time around. Unlike previous tournaments. the WAGs have been staying 1. 400 miles away to keep the players “focused on the task ahead.” Bukayo Saka’s fiancée Tolami Benson. Jude Bellingham’s model girlfriend Ashlyn Castro. and Ellie Watkins—married to striker Ollie Watkins—are among those who waited in Miami while the team prepared in America’s ‘wild west’ states of Kansas and Texas.
There is also a rule aimed at avoiding the type of wild scenes seen in Baden-Baden in 2006. Families will be at the games, but they have been forbidden from overnight stays with players.
Even with those controls, the trip itself has become the headline—and the argument—around this tournament. The price of travelling to the World Cup and the cost of tickets and accommodation in the US has been hugely contentious. But the fans in Dallas have made it clear they aren’t letting cost concerns steal the moment.
The England Supporters Travel Club sold tickets to around 3,315 members, while another 7,618 die-hard supporters secured seats via the FIFA website.
Not everyone has managed to get into the stadium. A group of City workers from Chesham grammar school in Buckinghamshire have spent £4. 000 each so far—without even bagging seats for any England games. The seven. all aged 26. are touring the “Wild West experience” Stockyard in neighbouring city Fort Worth. believing it is their best chance to see a World Cup before turning 30.
Calvin Hill said: “We won’t regret the spend. We haven’t got tickets for the game. We are monitoring the prices every day but the prices are going in the wrong direction.”
Some of the remaining tickets online still carry eye-watering figures. On Tuesday, the few remaining tickets on the FIFA website were priced up to $11,498 (£8,576), with the cheapest on offer costing $1,983 (£1,479).
Max Glennie. the only one of those ticket hunters living in the US in Washington DC. said: “We are here to support and soak up the atmosphere. We won’t just get one ticket – it’s seven or nothing.” When Arvin Bains was asked if it had made financial sense to spend so much without a ticket between them. he replied: “When you put it like that it doesn’t look a great decision.”.
For those with seats, the stakes are sharpening as kickoff closes in. England’s game against Croatia at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas kicks off at 9PM UK time.
And in the final hours before the first whistle, the players’ mindset is clear. England midfielder Jordan Henderson, who turns 36 on the day of the opener, said: “We cannot wait for the first game to show everyone what we can do.”
Behind him, Dallas is already turning into a fan festival—guns, cowboy hats and margaritas not as jokes, but as the soundtrack to a tournament opener that carries real weight, and real distance, for anyone who made the trip to see it.
There’s a sharp rhythm to the weekend playing out: the team has landed and shifted into tournament mode. while thousands of supporters are burning through the city day-by-day—some with expensive tickets in hand. others tracking prices hour by hour. all heading toward one shared moment on Wednesday night.
England fans Dallas Croatia World Cup opener AT&T Stadium Harry Kane Jordan Henderson WAGs in Miami Bukayo Saka Jude Bellingham Ollie Watkins Tolami Benson Ashlyn Castro Ellie Watkins Grassy Knoll Billy Bob's Texas