Renovations have been approved for Toyota Stadium in Frisco to accommodate the U.S. Soccer Federation’s National Hall of Fame Museum.
This item has been updated since it was originally posted.
It’s finally official. The U.S. Soccer Federation is partnering with FC Dallas to bring its National Soccer Hall of Fame Museum to Toyota Stadium.
Tuesday night’s approval by the Frisco ISD school board was the last of four votes needed to fund $39 million worth of improvements for the stadium, some of which were required to accommodate the Hall of Fame’s move. Also approving the deal were the Frisco City Council, the Frisco Economic Development Corporation and the Frisco Community Development Corporation.
FC Dallas spokeswoman Leigh Anne Gullett said Wednesday that they had hoped to make a big splash with a single announcement. But the various public entities required to approve the funding for the deal had to include details as part of their public records. The votes were spread out at separate meetings during the past two weeks.
The Hall of Fame is expected to be part of a newly constructed second level of the stadium located above the south end zone.
Other improvements to the 10-year-old stadium are designed to better accommodate the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision title game, which will be in Frisco in January for the sixth year. Those upgrades include two 100-person locker rooms, more restrooms, more concession stands, a team store, a suite-level expansion and better audiovisual technology. Crews will also build two access tunnels from the locker rooms to the field level.
Further details on the Hall of Fame and the stadium improvements will be announced at a news conference on Oct. 14.
The National Soccer Hall of Fame Museum at Toyota Stadium is the latest addition to the city’s sports empire. It will be just a few miles north along the Dallas North Tollway from The Ford Center at The Star, which is the future home for the Dallas Cowboys headquarters and practice facility.
Frisco is also home to the Frisco RoughRiders, who play at Dr Pepper Ballpark, and the Texas Legends, who play in Dr Pepper Arena. The Dallas Stars have their headquarters and practice ice at the arena.
The 20,500-seat Toyota Stadium is part of a 145-acre facility that also includes 17 tournament-sized fields in the Toyota Soccer Center. In addition to pro-soccer events and youth tournaments, the complex has also hosted the likes of Jimmy Buffett and Ed Sheeran and next year will be the inaugural host of the Off the Rails Country Music Fest.
The complex attracted nearly two million visitors last year to Frisco.
U.S. Soccer and FC Dallas have been in exclusive negotiations since December to bring the Hall of Fame to Frisco. The agreement is officially between U.S. Soccer and Frisco Stadium LLC, which is really FC Dallas, which operates Toyota Stadium, which is owned by the city of Frisco and Frisco ISD.
The museum was originally based in Oneonta, N.Y., but closed in 2010 because of financial challenges.
The museum’s collection of more than 80,000 soccer artifacts and records is believed to be the largest in the world. Among the collection is the world’s oldest soccer ball and the North American League Soccer archive.
Click here to watch the video of the presentation to the Frisco City Council at its Sept. 15 meeting. (Fast forward to the two-hour mark for the beginning of the presentation, which includes some diagrams of the changes.)
Many of the details are spelled out in this amendment to the lease agreement on the soccer complex.
