FRISCO, Texas – The eyes of Texas are upon Frisco.
That’s Hunts Sports Group vice president Dan Hunt’s take on the recent announcement by the Dallas Cowboys that they will be moving their headquarters and practice facilities just minutes away from FC Dallas Stadium.
The Cowboys are unquestionably a media and financial juggernaut on both a local and a national level, but Hunt doesn’t see any potential conflict with the NFL team.
In fact, the two franchises are already collaborating at the highest level. Hunt says he is friendly with Jerry Jones, Jr., the Cowboys' Chief Sales and Marketing Officer and executive VP (they live in the same neighborhood), and that the two have discussed what could potentially be a very big project: an international friendly for FC Dallas at AT&T Stadium (pictured at right).
“We’re chasing some big [friendly] opponents coming up in the future for 2014, 2015 or we may get one in each year,” Hunt said. “There are several choices that would make sense to play here at our stadium, but there’s also some very large, iconic brands that might sell 60,000 tickets for an international friendly.”
Even if that tasty nugget doesn’t end up being served to FCD fans, Hunt says the team is already seeing benefits of the Cowboys’ relocation to the northern suburbs of Dallas. Local media have mentioned FC Dallas in conjunction with the move dozens of times since the announcement and he believes the proximity to one of the NFL’s flagship franchises means that trend will continue.
“From a media perspective, we’re not far away,” Hunt told MLSsoccer.com recently. “[Media] are going to be coming up to see the Cowboys, that gets a lot of attention in this town, and we’re just down the street. I look at it as a positive.”
Frisco is already home to the Dallas Stars’ headquarters and training facilities, the Texas Rangers’ AA affiliate (the Frisco Roughriders), The Dallas Mavericks’ developmental league team (the Texas Legends), plus it houses the offices of the NCAA’s Southland Conference and hosts the NCAA Division I Football Championship (formerly the Division I-AA Football Championship) game at FC Dallas Stadium.
- Get more FCD news at FCDallas.com
Hunt believes all of the existing sports entities plus the addition of the Dallas Cowboys combine to make Frisco a destination city for sports fans, which ultimately means more potential ticket buyers for FCD matches in addition to broader media attention.
Concerns have been raised locally about FC Dallas Stadium potentially competing with the Cowboys’ proposed indoor facility for concerts, high school football games or even the NCAA Division I Championship game.
Hunt doesn’t expect it to be an issue.
“The [Cowboys' proposed indoor] stadium size hasn’t been set, but the message I’m getting from local leadership is, 'We don’t want you guys competing against each other for events, we want you guys to all work together,'” he said.
