Something is changing at the famous AT&T Stadium this summer. The home of the Dallas Cowboys will look very different when the World Cup arrives. The change targets the one stadium feature that team owner Jerry Jones loves the most.

The stadium has giant glass walls at both end zones that let natural light fill the $1.3B arena. Jones has refused to cover them, even after his own players complained about blinding sunlight during games.

Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb lost a touchdown in the sun during a 2024 game against the Eagles.

“I couldn’t see the ball. Couldn’t see the ball, at all. The sun,” Lamb said afterward. When asked about adding curtains, Lamb said, “Yes. One thousand percent.”

Jones rejected the curtain idea with clear anger after that loss. “Let’s just tear the damn stadium down and build another one. Are you kidding me?” he said in November 2024.

He insisted the team knows where the sun will be at every home game. Now FIFA is forcing a change that Jones refused to make on his own.

Blackout curtains will cover those glass walls for at least one of the 9 World Cup matches at the venue. The specific match is Japan versus Sweden on June 25.

A spokesperson confirmed FIFA has operational control of all World Cup stadiums during the tournament. FIFA will decide on curtains for other matches at the stadium as well.

FIFA is also requiring natural grass instead of artificial turf and removing all corporate branding. The venue will be called Dallas Stadium during the tournament despite being in Arlington.

Jones said he is comfortable installing grass for soccer but plans to switch back to turf immediately. The Cowboys owner and other executives maintain that turf creates multi-use flexibility for year-round stadium events like concerts while improving the overall economics of the sport. They argue that the data does not explicitly prove turf is more dangerous.