The Czech Republic national football team will train in Mansfield throughout its 2026 FIFA World Cup run, using Texas Health Mansfield Stadium as the team’s official base camp — its private practice ground, recovery space, and operational hub between matches in Mexico and Atlanta. It is the first time Czechia has qualified for a World Cup in 20 years, and the first time a country with a deep, top-flight footballing tradition has placed its headquarters inside Mansfield city limits. Group A play opens on Thursday, June 11, when Czechia faces South Korea in Guadalajara — exactly 30 days from today’s publication.

For Mansfield, a city of roughly 84,000 east of Highway 360, the next two months are a one-time test of whether a brand-new $85 million stadium and a small-town tourism office can stage-manage a moment usually reserved for cities ten times its size. For Czech fans — many of whom will travel — Mansfield becomes, for a few weeks, the nearest thing the team has to a home pitch.

Related: For background on the stadium itself — opening date, capacity, cost, naming rights — see our explainer on Texas Health Mansfield Stadium. For the full Mansfield-and-DFW guide to the tournament, see our World Cup 2026 hub.

This article explains what a “base camp” actually is in FIFA’s framework, why Mansfield was chosen, what Czechia’s group-stage path looks like, what the city has organized so far, and the open questions that still sit on the calendar — including whether any of the team’s training sessions will be open to the public.

What a FIFA “base camp” actually is

The phrase “base camp” gets used loosely. In FIFA’s framework it has a specific meaning: every team at the 48-nation 2026 World Cup must designate one Team Base Camp (TBC) — a paired training facility and team hotel that serves as the squad’s “home away from home” for the duration of its tournament, per FIFA’s official Team Base Camp portal.

Each TBC must include, at minimum, a full-size training pitch that meets FIFA regulations, locker rooms and treatment space, private fitness areas, and a nearby high-standard hotel that can accommodate elite athletes’ nutrition, meeting, and sleep requirements, as the consultancy GIS.sport summarized in its overview of the FIFA framework. FIFA published a brochure of 64 pre-approved venues across the United States, Canada, and Mexico from which federations could choose; teams may also nominate their own facility, subject to FIFA approval.

Teams fly out from the base camp on the day before a match and return after — which makes a base camp’s geographic location, more than anything else, a math problem about flight times. Czechia plays in Mexico and Atlanta in the group stage. North Texas sits roughly equidistant by air from Guadalajara, Atlanta, and Mexico City, all reachable in three to four hours by charter, which is one of the reasons the Czech Football Association (FAČR) settled on Mansfield rather than a base in either Mexico or the Southeast.

FIFA also requires base-camp teams to make at least one training session available to media and partners during the group stage, and many federations historically open a session to the public as well. The German national team, for example, has confirmed an open training session at Wake Forest University on June 8, the school announced. Czechia has not yet announced any equivalent for Mansfield (see below).

How Mansfield got the assignment

The Mansfield Stadium base-camp designation came in two steps.

Step one was in early 2026, when FIFA confirmed Texas Health Mansfield Stadium as an official Team Base Camp Training Site assigned to the eventual winner of UEFA Play-Off Path D — a four-way bracket among Czech Republic, Denmark, North Macedonia, and the Republic of Ireland. The pairing was announced in a March 2026 city of Mansfield civic alert. At that point Mansfield knew it was hosting a European team, but did not yet know which one.

Step two came on March 31, 2026, when Czechia beat Denmark in a Path D penalty shootout — 3-1 on spot kicks after a 2-2 draw — and clinched the playoff, as reported by SportsTravel and FOX 4 News. With that result, Czechia inherited the Mansfield slot, and the Czech FA formally confirmed the venue as its World Cup base camp shortly afterward.

REV Entertainment, the Texas Rangers’ affiliate that operates the stadium for the City of Mansfield, framed the assignment as a milestone for the venue. “This is an incredible opportunity and a defining moment for the venue,” REV President Sean Decker said in a statement reported by FOX 4. “We look forward to serving as a host on soccer’s national stage and delivering a world-class experience for an elite national team.”

A few specific factors made Mansfield workable for FIFA’s checklist:

• A brand-new, FIFA-spec pitch. Texas Health Mansfield Stadium was purpose-built for professional soccer to MLS NEXT Pro standards. Natural grass and FIFA-compliant pitch dimensions are non-negotiable for a base camp; many older multi-use stadiums in Texas — including some larger ones — could not meet that bar without re-sodding.
• Privacy and security. The stadium sits on a developing site east of Highway 360 with controllable perimeters and limited line-of-sight from public roads — important because teams treat training as competitive intelligence.
• Geography. Mansfield is roughly 40 minutes from DFW International Airport, putting Czechia within a 25-minute drive of a global aviation hub for charter movements to Mexico and Atlanta.
• Hotel inventory. The Staybolt Street Entertainment District around the stadium is being built with athlete-oriented hospitality in mind, although the team-hotel half of the Czech base-camp arrangement has not been publicly disclosed.

It is worth noting what Mansfield did not offer: matches. The stadium is not a host venue for any World Cup game. Czechia will fly to AT&T Stadium in Arlington (now branded “Dallas Stadium” for the tournament) only as visitors, if at all — Czechia has no scheduled fixture there during the group stage, although a knockout-round draw could change that. The stadium 18 miles up the road is hosting nine World Cup matches; Mansfield’s is hosting one team’s practice runs.

Czechia’s squad and Group A path

The Czech Football Association announced a preliminary 54-player squad on May 12, 2026, Prague Daily News reported. Manager Miroslav Koubek will trim that group to a final 26-man roster ahead of the team’s departure for Texas. Key names on the preliminary list include:

• Patrik Schick (Bayer Leverkusen) — striker, 2021 Euros Goal of the Tournament winner, the team’s most recognizable player
• Pavel Šulc (Olympique Lyon) — striker, breakout 2025–26 Ligue 1 season
• Adam Karabec (Olympique Lyon) — attacking midfielder
• Ladislav Krejčí (Wolverhampton Wanderers) — center back, defensive captain candidate
• Matěj Kovář (PSV Eindhoven) — goalkeeper

Czechia’s Group A schedule, per Atlanta FWC26, FOX Sports, and FIFA’s official match list:

Date	Opponent	Venue	Local kickoff	TV (US)
Thu, June 11	South Korea	Estadio Akron, Guadalajara (Zapopan), Mexico	9 p.m. CT	FS1
Thu, June 18	South Africa	Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta	11 a.m. CT	FOX
Wed, June 24	Mexico	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City	8 p.m. CT	FOX

The opener against South Korea is, on paper, Czechia’s most winnable group match. South Africa is a defensively organized side returning to its first World Cup since 2010. The Mexico match in Estadio Azteca — at altitude, in front of a crowd of 87,000 backing the co-host — is the test that will likely decide whether Czechia advances.

The expanded 2026 format takes 48 teams into a new Round of 32, with the top two teams in each of 12 groups advancing automatically along with the eight best third-place finishers. For most groups, that math means a single group-stage win and a draw is usually enough to advance. Czechia’s most plausible path: beat South Korea, hold or beat South Africa, and try to steal points in Mexico City. The Round of 32 draw would then determine where (and against whom) Czechia plays next.

A 20-year drought, and what it means at home

The fact that Czechia is at this World Cup at all is the story Mansfield’s hosting cannot quite be separated from.

The Czech Republic last qualified for a World Cup in 2006, when an aging “golden generation” featuring Pavel Nedvěd, Patrik Berger, and Karel Poborský finished third in their group in Germany and went out at the group stage. After that, the program endured a steady run of near-misses, as documented in the Czech federation’s modern history: no qualification for 2010, 2014, 2018, or 2022. They cycled through coaches. Talent left for the Bundesliga and the Premier League without national-team milestones to anchor it.

The deeper Czech footballing tradition goes back further: as Czechoslovakia, the country reached two World Cup finals (losing to Italy in 1934 and to Brazil in 1962). As an independent Czech Republic, the team’s most famous moment is the 1996 European Championship final, lost in extra time to Germany on Oliver Bierhoff’s golden goal — a generation-defining defeat the country has spent decades trying to surpass.

For Czech fans, the 2026 qualification is not just another tournament. It is the first major-tournament appearance for an entire cohort of supporters who came of age after 2006 and have never watched their country in a World Cup. That history matters in Mansfield because it shapes who travels: federations whose fans have been waiting decades tend to send larger and more committed traveling supports, which is part of what the Czech FA and the City of Mansfield are now jointly planning for.

How Mansfield is preparing

Mansfield’s preparation is happening on three tracks: the stadium, the local business community, and the city tourism office.

The stadium itself is, as of mid-May 2026, not quite finished. Texas Health Mansfield Stadium is in the final weeks of construction, the Mansfield Record reported, targeting substantial completion in late April or May ahead of its July 4 official debut with North Texas SC. Crews have prioritized the north building — locker rooms, treatment areas, and team-only space — over the southern public-facing portions of the venue, because Czechia’s base camp does not require the stadium bowl to be tournament-ready, only the team facility. “The majority of the stadium is done, the bones of the stadium, if you will,” general manager Scott Norton told NBC 5 DFW. “They don’t care if we don’t have all the seats in or, you know, a few screws need to be put in here and there.” More than 150 workers are on site daily, working six days a week.

The business community is leaning in publicly. Dirty Job Brewing, the Mansfield craft brewery on North Main Street, has confirmed it is brewing a Czech-style lager specifically for the tournament window. “Czech people love beer. You will know everybody’s name in no time,” owner Derek Hubenak told FOX 4. Czech beer culture is a distinct draw for Czech tourists — pilsner was invented in Plzeň, about 90 minutes west of Prague — and Hubenak’s positioning of Dirty Job as a Czech-friendly room is one of the more deliberate moves any Mansfield business has made for the tournament.

Boomerjacks Grill & Bar, on West Broad Street, has positioned itself as the city’s primary watch-party venue. Bart McClung, VP of operations for parent company On Deck Concepts, told FOX 4 the location will host viewings of Czechia’s group-stage matches on its 32-foot screen: “They will not miss one single shot.”

The city tourism office is doing the less-visible work of inviting Czech fans to actually come. Mansfield Tourism Manager Tim Roberts told Fort Worth Report and FOX 4 that his office has already deployed digital advertising targeted at Czech audiences — both in the Czech Republic and at Texas’s existing Czech-American community — to drive base-camp tourism into Mansfield rather than over to Dallas or Fort Worth. “Down in West Central Texas…we have a natural Czech group,” Roberts said, alluding to the Czech-Moravian Brethren communities in places like West, Texas, that trace heritage to 19th-century immigration waves. Roberts has described his goal as making Mansfield feel, for a few weeks, like “Little Czechia.”

Mayor Michael Evans put it more bluntly to Spectrum News back in March, before Czechia was even confirmed: “Whatever that country’s colors are, we’re gonna be that. Whether it’s green, orange, red, we’re gonna paint the city of Mansfield.”

What has not yet happened: any officially announced public training session, a published team arrival date, a public-facing fan-zone calendar, or a confirmed Czech-team hotel. The pace of confirmations is consistent with how most federations operate — most logistics are finalized in the final two weeks before arrival.

Will the public get to see training?

This is the single question Mansfield residents are asking most often, and the honest answer as of May 12 is: maybe, but not confirmed.

FIFA requires teams to make a minimum number of training sessions available to accredited media. Many federations also choose to hold one open-to-public training session as a fan-engagement event — Germany has confirmed one for June 8 in North Carolina; several other nations are expected to follow suit. Dan Hunt, FC Dallas president, told NBC 5 that he expects there will be public opportunities to see the Czech team during their Mansfield stay, but specifics remain undetermined.

Two factors complicate any prediction:

1. FIFA controls media windows. Federations cannot freely open or close training without coordinating with FIFA’s match-day operations and with their group-match host cities. That means a Mansfield-side announcement cannot reasonably come more than 7–10 days before the session itself.
2. Czech team culture under coach Miroslav Koubek has historically been guarded about training. Czech press conferences have been frequent during the qualification cycle; on-field training has not.

Mansfield Observer will publish a same-day note the moment the Czech FA or the City of Mansfield announces any public-access window, and will run a full dispatch from any open session.

The economic impact projection: $15M to $40M

Spectrum News and Mansfield city communications have cited a public projection that hosting Czechia will generate “over $15 million” in local economic impact, Spectrum News reported, with regional reporting on the broader DFW base-camp story citing a range as wide as $15 million to $40 million. Those figures align with the broader Texas-wide projection: the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool estimates the tournament could drive $3.5 billion in statewide economic activity, most of it tied to Arlington’s matches.

The Mansfield estimate is a city-projection, not a peer-reviewed independent study, and the spread between $15M and $40M reflects substantial uncertainty about a number of variables that are not yet resolved:

• Will Czechia advance past the group stage? A Round of 32 run would extend the camp by at least one extra week, doubling some categories of spend.
• How many Czech traveling fans actually arrive? Estimates depend on charter availability from Europe and on how price-sensitive the Czech supporter base is for what will be expensive trans-Atlantic travel.
• How much of the spend stays in Mansfield versus leaking to Dallas hotels, Fort Worth restaurants, or Arlington match-day commerce.

The base-case spend categories are predictable: hotel-room nights (the team’s roughly 50-person traveling delegation, plus media, plus traveling fans), restaurants and bars, retail, transportation contracts, and stadium-rental income to the venue. The City of Mansfield has not published a category-by-category breakdown of how it arrived at the $15M figure; the Observer has asked for it.

A reasonable layperson’s read: Mansfield will see a real but modest boost concentrated almost entirely in late May through late June, with the upper end of the range only achievable if Czechia wins its group and stays put through July.

What happens if Czechia advances

The 2026 World Cup’s new 48-team, 12-group format puts an unusual amount of weight on what teams do after the group stage with respect to their base camps. The Round of 32 begins June 28; the Round of 16 follows on July 4 and July 5; quarterfinals run July 9–11; semifinals are July 14 (at AT&T Stadium / Dallas Stadium) and July 15.

Czechia has two practical options if it advances:

1. Stay in Mansfield. Several Pot 1 teams that placed their base camps in Kansas City — Argentina, England, and the Netherlands — have publicly committed to remaining at their group-stage base camps “following the Round of 32 instead of hopping to each match city,” Sporting Kansas City reported. The logic is operational continuity: keep the same training environment, the same hotel routines, the same staff arrangements. For Mansfield, this would extend Czechia’s stay by anywhere from one to four extra weeks.
2. Relocate based on the bracket. If Czechia draws a knockout match in, say, New York or Los Angeles, the cost-benefit of staying in Texas weakens. Smaller federations historically prioritize travel-cost discipline over operational continuity.

The Czech FA has not yet publicly stated which it will do. The decision will likely follow the group-stage table on June 24 and be communicated within 24–48 hours of clinching advancement.

For Mansfield’s economic impact, this is the single most consequential variable. A round-of-32 exit on June 28 ends the camp at roughly six weeks of activity. A semifinal run keeps Czechia in town through mid-July.

What it means for Mansfield

By the time the World Cup ends on July 19, Texas Health Mansfield Stadium will have done its first job before its public debut — and Mansfield will have hosted, in operational terms, one of the better-known traveling national teams in European football. Whether the city converts that visibility into longer-term tourism, business relationships, and stadium bookings is the next question, and one the Observer will track through July and into the fall, when the same stadium pivots to its second 2026 mega-event: the Concacaf W Championship and the U.S. Women’s National Team’s quarterfinal match on November 27.

For the next 30 days, though, the assignment is narrower. Mansfield is the place where a 20-year drought gets a roof over its head.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Czech Republic’s World Cup base camp? Texas Health Mansfield Stadium at 3405 Stadium Drive, Mansfield, TX. It is a brand-new $85 million city-owned soccer stadium that opens publicly on July 4, 2026.

When does Czechia play its first World Cup match? Thursday, June 11, 2026, at 9 p.m. Central time, against South Korea at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, Mexico. The match airs in the U.S. on FS1.

Where can I watch Czechia matches in Mansfield? Boomerjacks Grill & Bar has confirmed it will show all three Czechia group-stage matches on its 32-foot screen. Dirty Job Brewing on North Main is releasing a Czech-style lager and will host viewing of at least the South Africa match (June 18) and the Mexico match (June 24).

Will Czech Republic training be open to the public? Not confirmed as of May 12, 2026. FIFA requires accredited-media access at base-camp training, and many federations also hold one open-public session. Czech FA has not yet announced one for Mansfield. Any announcement is likely to come 7–10 days before the session itself.

When does Czechia arrive in Mansfield? The exact arrival date has not been publicly disclosed by the Czech FA or the City of Mansfield. Most national teams arrive at their base camp 5–10 days before their opening match. For Czechia, that range points to early June.

How long will Czechia be in Mansfield? At least through the group stage, ending June 24. If Czechia advances to the Round of 32 on June 28, the team may remain in Mansfield, potentially extending the stay deep into July depending on tournament progress.

Is Mansfield Stadium hosting any World Cup matches? No. The actual World Cup matches in DFW are at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, branded “Dallas Stadium” for the tournament. Mansfield Stadium is exclusively a team training base.

Is this the same as the U.S. Women’s National Team event? No. The USWNT plays a Concacaf W Championship quarterfinal at Mansfield Stadium on November 27, 2026 — a separate, later tournament. The men’s World Cup base camp ends by mid-to-late July at the latest.

How was Mansfield chosen? FIFA pre-approved 64 base-camp venues across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Mansfield Stadium was selected as the Path D play-off winner’s site in early 2026. When Czechia beat Denmark in a March 31 playoff shootout, they inherited the Mansfield slot.

What is the economic impact projection for Mansfield? The City of Mansfield has cited a projection of “over $15 million” in local economic impact; regional reporting has cited a wider $15M–$40M range. The upper end depends on Czechia advancing past the group stage and a stronger Czech traveling-fan turnout than the base case.

What is FAČR or FACR? FAČR (Fotbalová asociace České republiky) is the Czech Football Association — the governing body of Czech soccer and the federation that nominated Mansfield as Czechia’s base camp.

Has Czechia ever won the World Cup? No. As Czechoslovakia, the team finished as runners-up twice (1934 and 1962). The independent Czech Republic’s best major-tournament finish is runners-up at the 1996 European Championship, losing the final to Germany. 2026 is Czechia’s first World Cup appearance since 2006.

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This article was last updated May 12, 2026. Mansfield Observer will refresh this guide as the Czech FA, the City of Mansfield, and FIFA confirm training dates, arrival logistics, and public-access details. Tips: [tips@mansfieldobserver.com].