🤖 A Robot Opened a Shawarma Shop in Frisco (And That’s Somehow Not the Biggest Story)

Sweden's national soccer team is setting up base camp in Frisco ahead of the 2026 World Cup, and honestly, this city is going to feel very different come June.

Here's the setup: The World Cup runs June 11 through July 19, with nine matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, more than any other host city. DFW is the epicenter of the whole tournament. And Frisco is one of just two official base camps in the region.

That means Sweden's players, coaches, and staff will be training and staying here in Frisco. At Toyota Stadium. The longer Sweden stays in the tournament, the longer they're our neighbors.

Why this matters beyond soccer: The North Texas FIFA organizing committee is projecting roughly 100,000 visitors per day to the broader DFW market for the duration of the tournament. Mayor Jeff Cheney is already calling it a "spillover impact" situation for Frisco.

FC Dallas player Herman Johansson could actually suit up for Sweden this summer, which is a wild full-circle moment. He said it himself: "When I decided to come here, that wasn't something I was thinking about at all, but now that it's happening, it feels really special."

A few things to know as the tournament approaches:

A fan event with international soccer energy, face paint, and crowds within walking distance of where I already take my kids? That is a core memory waiting to happen.

The economic picture: The World Cup is expected to generate $2 billion in economic impact for North Texas. More visitors means more sales tax. More sales tax means more reinvestment into Frisco infrastructure. I'll take it.

New U.S. Census data dropped last week and it basically reads like a North Texas flex sheet.

The headline: Celina, about an hour north of Dallas, grew by 24.6% between July 2024 and July 2025, making it the fastest-growing city in the entire country. 64,427 people now call Celina home.

And Celina wasn't alone. Eight of the nation's fastest-growing cities in 2025 were in Texas. Six of those eight are in North Texas: Celina, Princeton, Melissa, Anna, Forney, and Fulshear (just outside Houston rounding out the top two).

The reason this isn't surprising: Texas Demographic Center's interim director put it plainly: people aren't finding affordable housing in Dallas proper, so they're moving further out while still commuting in. As someone who drives from Frisco to Legacy West every day, I can confirm this is a completely real phenomenon and my commute absolutely has receipts.

Dallas itself actually lost about 1,800 residents last year. The suburbs and outer suburbs kept growing.

The flip side: Rapid growth is genuinely hard on smaller cities. Infrastructure, schools, water, roads… it all gets strained fast. Frisco has been navigating this longer than most, but Celina and the newer boomtowns are about to find out what it's like to build a city in real time.

If you've driven north on Preston Road lately, you already know.

No big speech here. Just a quick reminder that Texas runoff elections are today, May 26, and polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

These are runoff races from March's primary, covering statewide offices, state legislative seats, congressional districts, the State Board of Education, and county-level positions. Whoever wins today goes on the November 3 general election ballot.

Collin County voters can vote at any polling location within the county; you don't have to go to a specific precinct location.

If you're in Frisco and unsure where to go, search your county's election website or head to votetexas.gov.

We literally just covered how Celina is the fastest-growing city in America. The whole region is booming. People are flooding in from Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington DC.

So why are Frisco home values down 5.2% year over year, with 78.5% of homes closing under list price?

Here's the honest answer: the buyers are real, but they have options now.

According to Zillow, the average Frisco home sits at $663,246 and takes 54 days to go pending, up from 49 days last year. Nearly 32% of listings took a price cut before selling. The days of listing at a stretch price and watching offers pile up are gone.

But here's what the data also shows: Los Angeles, Seattle, DC, San Francisco, and New York are all sending buyers here right now. These are people moving from expensive markets with real budgets. They just don't know your street, your neighborhood comps, or what sold two blocks over last month.

That's the gap. And that's where local expertise actually moves the needle.

My wife Emily runs a free referral service that connects Frisco sellers with agents who are genuinely hyperlocal, not someone who just transferred their license here from out of state because DFW was trending.

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