Dallas, Tex. - FC Dallas President and General Manager Greg Elliott announced today that the Major League Soccer Club has partnered with the Chamber Classic Soccer Alliance (CCSA) on a nine-year partnership arrangement.
"We see it as our responsibility to become the soccer industry leader throughout North Texas and this partnership will definitely help us achieve that goal," said Elliott. "In the future we look to be an important factor in the U.S. soccer community and, with our state-of-the-art stadium and youth fields in Frisco, we will have the facilities to accomplish that."
The nine-year agreement will provide the Boys Classic League the opportunity to host their matches at the Frisco Soccer & Entertainment Center (FSEC). FSEC will be the new home for FC Dallas as they will play their MLS home schedule at the new stadium starting in the spring of 2005. It will be a 117-acre facility which will feature a 21,193 seat soccer stadium and will have 17 regulation size, tournament-grade soccer fields which will be utilized on a year-round basis.
In the last 25 years, all North Texas Boys state champions in all age groups have come from CCSA. The league has also produced many regional finalists and over a dozen national finalists. With 2,300 current players in CCSA, there are 143 teams representing 35 different clubs. The league will expand next year to include 30 teams in each of eight groups for a total of 240 teams and over 3,800 players.
There are nearly 20 former CCSA players that have played professional soccer including, Ramon Nunez, Philip Salyer, Chad Deering, Carl Bussey, Clint Dempsey, Esmundo Rodriguez, Jeff Agoos, Nick Garcia and Jose Burciaga. Class of '03 player Kenny Cooper signed with Manchester United of the English Premiership upon graduation from high school and is now on loan to a first division team in Portugal.
"We are excited for the sport of soccer itself as for a quarter century North Texas soccer fans have dreamed of having a world class soccer facility," said Chairman of CCSA Classic League Wes Vines. "Thanks to visionaries like the Lamar Hunt family and the involved communities that has now become a reality. One can only imagine what playing youth games in plain view of a premier professional soccer stadium will mean to them."
