FRISCO, Texas – It’s been a fantastic start for league-leading FC Dallas in 2013, on a nine-game unbeaten run and atop the MLS heap with the league’s best record through the first two months of the season.
And it looks like things are improving off it, as well. The club is moving closer to finding a new sponsor for the naming rights of FC Dallas Stadium, according to Dan Hunt, vice president of Hunt Sports Group.
“We’re working on three [potential sponsors] right now ... for this season,” Hunt told MLSsoccer.com this past weekend. “It would be a partial deal for this season and a full deal next season. If I do my job, I hopefully will get one of them to put their name on the stadium and complex and get the others to support the team through another sponsorship.”
READ: Watson's premonition holds up as Jamaican scores late winner vs. DC
The 20,500-seat soccer-specific stadium and adjoining 17 practice fields was originally called Pizza Hut Park when it opened in 2005. But in what was termed a “shift in sports marketing philosophy,” the well-known pizza chain ended its sponsorship agreement in January of last year, leaving the stadium in its current eponymous state.
Hunt says interest in corporate sponsorship is very high right now due to increased attendance and local media exposure (the club is also on track to reach its goal of 7,000 season-ticket holders, Hunt added). He declined to mention any of the potential suitors by name, but did say that the city of Frisco has been integral in helping the club identify potential partners.
“One’s an international company who has a very big presence in the Texas market, one has subsidiaries headquartered here and offices on the East Coast and one is headquartered here,” said Hunt.
