Behind the Banner - April 2021 by VisitDallas

dallas rising By Stephen Evans

One day we’ll all have stories to tell our kids and grandkids about the day the world came to a halt, and the days, weeks, and months of desolation and isolation that followed. It was an eerie emptiness cast upon a thriving metropolis. That quiet stillness that pervaded the streets of downtown Dallas and its massive convention center. The deserted soccer fields dotting the DFW landscape, stirred only by the lonely Texas breeze. The magnificent stadiums and arenas which help make Dallas America’s Premier Sports Destination devoid of the fans and the competition that make them come to life. The heartbeat of our region had slowed to a mere murmur.

Like every destination city across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on our region. ‘Normalcy’ was redefined, and then redefined again. But even as the pandemic raged and tightened its grips, paralyzing the sports tourism industry, there was never any question – yes, Dallas would be back. Now, that eerie emptiness is finally lifting in Dallas and throughout the country. Normalcy is beginning to look more recognizable. And within the sports industry, it was our region that led the way back. Without question, Dallas is rising again. “I’ve learned to never doubt the will of the people and the corporate community in our area,” said Monica Paul, Executive Director of the Dallas Sports Commission.

Thanks to our partnership with the Dallas Sports Commission, we were able to secure some great sporting events to start the year, including the first women’s pro volleyball league in America and the first international club soccer match in the U.S. since the pandemic began. - Peter Sullivan, General Manager of Fair Park/Cotton Bowl® Stadium “Like every sector of our society, things were grim for a while. But sports are in our DNA in Dallas, and we collectively rallied around sports to help breath life back into the region, which I think helped pave the way to jumpstart our recovery.” It has been the Dallas region that has inspired sports’ return in the United States. On August 12, 2020, FC Dallas became the first professional sports team in America to allow fans back in attendance for a live game. Not to be outdone, the Dallas Cowboys led the NFL in attendance during the 2020 season and the Texas Rangers recently became the first U.S.-based sports league to have a full-capacity crowd since the coronavirus pandemic started altering the sports landscape, proving once again that the heartbeat of American sports emanates from North Texas. As the region became the trusted home for relocated sporting events, one of our area’s newest entertainment districts proved to be a powerful draw for event organizers throughout the country. Globe Life Field in Arlington hosted Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series and the World Series, as well as the National Finals Rodeo, a staple event that relocated from Las Vegas. BEHIND THE BANNER APRIL 2021 EDITION

And even The Granddaddy of Them All saw North Texas as its best option to host its College Football Playoff national semifinal game, as the prestigious Rose Bowl was relocated to AT&T Stadium because of COVID-19related issues in the state of California. “We have been thrilled by all of the opportunities to safely host events in the Arlington Entertainment District with enhanced protocols that maximize safety while delivering on the fan experience,” said Sean Decker, Executive Vice President, Sports & Entertainment for the Texas Rangers. “We are increasingly excited and optimistic about all of the events and opportunities moving forward through this year and beyond.” Since the calendar flipped to 2021, more and more events have continued to populate the sports calendar. Dallas Cup, one of the world’s premier youth soccer tournaments, welcomed more than 250 teams from throughout the country to our region. “Despite a challenging year of preparation revolving around uncertainties and other ‘what-ifs’, Dallas Cup was able to come together and host a great event in 2021,” said tournament Executive Director Andy Swift.

“As we continue to plan for 2022, we cannot wait to see the ongoing revival of businesses and the other amazing live events in Dallas that help lay the blueprint for organizations like ours.” Revival is a key word, and that is exactly what’s happening in the Dallas sports scene. With an eye still squarely on bringing the 2026 World Cup to Dallas, the region continues to prove it’s a soccer hotbed. Tour Aguila, a Liga MX friendly pitting Club América against C.F. Monterrey, played before a sold-out crowd at Cotton Bowl Stadium in March, marking the first international club soccer friendly to take part in the United States since the pandemic began. Meanwhile at MoneyGram Park, numerous youth soccer tournaments continue to take centerstage. The Next Generation Cup will take place May 21-23, with the Texas Cup kicking off the following weekend. On their heels will be the Premier SuperCopa, making Dallas one of the most active destinations for youth soccer in the country.

Athletes Unlimited Volleyball at Fair Park in Dallas

At Fair Park, volleyball returned to the region in a big way when Athletes Unlimited, a burgeoning new sports league, moved its volleyball season from Nashville to Dallas. The success of the event was meaningful in many ways, as the league is attempting to carve a pioneering path for professional women’s sports in the United States. In downtown Dallas, sports are once again filling hotels and restaurants. One of downtown’s largest annual events, the adidas Lone Star Classic youth volleyball

tournament, made its way back to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, as did the 2021 AVCA Division II Women’s National Championship . Future events will keep downtown bustling, with more regional volleyball tournaments scheduled for May and a host of youth basketball tournaments on tap for the summer. Speaking of basketball, the WNBA’s Dallas Wings made history this month, owning the first two picks in the WNBA Draft. Already with the league’s top scorer, the Wings made great progress towards solidifying their future when they selected Texas native and University of Texas star Charli Collier with the first pick and then added the 6-foot-5 Finland star Awak Kuier with the second pick. For good measure, the Wings also had the fifth pick and drafted University of Arkansas guard Chelsea Dungee, adding more talent to their youthful roster. With so much going on, it’s clear to see that Dallas is back open for business, and the sports community has taken notice. The region’s resiliency, and the support displayed by the community and the corporate sector during this challenging period, is evident, as the WWE recently announced that it is bringing its largest event of the year, WrestleMania, to North Texas in 2022. WrestleMania 38 is expected to be the first postpandemic WrestleMania with full attendance, and the WWE will surely be looking to break the all-time attendance record of 101,763 it set when the event was last in our area in 2016. Everywhere you look, sports are returning to full swing. The AT&T Byron Nelson will welcome golfers from all over the world to North Texas in mid-May, and on May 30 the Mexican National Team kicks off the opening match of its 2021 U.S. tour at AT&T Stadium against Iceland. The Mavs and Stars are chasing the playoffs, while the Rangers and FC Dallas are in the early stages of their 2021 seasons. Soon the Cowboys will be back on the field in preparation for a brand-new season and before you know it college football will be back. If that’s not enough, the good news continues to come at breakneck speed. In fact, Dallas sports fans should be on the lookout for a BIG announcement from the Dallas Sports Commission soon as Dallas continues its rise out of the pandemic. No, things are still not exactly how they used to be, and it’s possible some aspects of life never will. But one thing is for sure … sports are back in Dallas, for all the world to see.

dallas welcomes

the world’s game By Steve Davis

North Texas may be football country, but it’s also futbol country – and has been for years. If things go as planned, the Dallas area’s long-established place in international soccer is about to grow stronger still. Dallas appears increasingly well positioned in pursuit of a part in global soccer’s top treasure, the FIFA World Cup. The latest effort to strengthen its bid as a 2026 FIFA World Cup hub was just announced, as the Mexican National Team makes another North Texas stop.

the teeming backdrop for six globally watched matches, including a memorable quarterfinal that was widely considered the tournament’s top contest. Before and after that seminal moment in Dallas’ international soccer history, the United States and Mexican national teams made regular stops at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park, at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium and at Frisco’s Toyota Stadium. (Not just the men’s national team, either; the fabulously successful U.S. Women’s National Team long ago dropped a pin on North Texas and made its own regular visits.)

The Mexican team opens its popular and successful annual tour of the United States (MexTour) on Sunday, May 30, at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium against Iceland, a match presented by AT&T. The friendly against Iceland will serve as critical preparation ahead of the CONCACAF Nations League Finals in June. As such, El Tri manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino is expected to bring his top players, dialing in the tactics before important June FIFA dates. The May 30 match in Arlington and the upcoming 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup matches in North Texas represent the latest layers of a rich international soccer history, one that stretches back decades. Dallas was among the first U.S. cities to embrace soccer in the 1970s, sowing deep roots for the professional game and establishing itself as fertile grounds for youth development. As international soccer gained traction and cultural awareness through the 1980s and 90s, Dallas and a burgeoning North Texas region were front-and-center in the sport’s forward push. The previous high-water mark was Dallas’ place in the 1994 World Cup, when the historic Cotton Bowl served as BEHIND THE BANNER APRIL 2021 EDITION

All of this is to say: The North Texas region and international soccer have long been partners, mutually beneficial collaborators in the game’s ongoing growth and influence in American sports. Dallas leaders are working hard to ensure that partnership flourishes anew in 2026 as the World Cup comes to the United States for second time. It will only serve to build on a legacy already solidly

enshrined. Of course, no one is counting getting too far ahead of things here. While North Texas seems well positioned to once again host World Cup matches, the venue selection process is ongoing. FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, will select 10 U.S. host cities from among 17 remaining candidates later this year. (FIFA will also appoint matches to three cities each in Canada and Mexico.)

youth championships. Finally, the region’s governing body also plans and manages the CONCACAF Champions League, the region’s top annual competition for professional clubs. Mexican teams have historically dominated, although Major League Soccer clubs, including FC Dallas, continue to push further and more regularly into the tournament’s later rounds. While Mexico’s popular national team, nicknamed “El Tri,” makes regular stops across the United States, AT&T Stadium has become a sort of unofficial second home. (“El Tri” is short for el tricolor, or “three colors;” Mexico’s flag is white, red and green.) The region’s close relationship began long ago, developing even further upon completion of Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, the Dallas Cowboys’ home since 2009. Upon the $1.3 billion facility’s opening, the Mexican team immediately established it as a national soccer team showcase. El Tri was the feature attraction during the summer of 2009 in the gleaming facility’s second event (and first sporting event). A crowd of more than 82,000 saw Mexico defeat Haiti in a CONCACAF Gold Cup contest, the second half of a tournament double header.

That rich history in international soccer, the primary driver in Dallas’ chances of making the final 2026 cut, is largely attached to those long-standing ties with CONCACAF and with the Mexican Football Federation (FMF). CONCACAF is the acronym for “Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football.” The North Texas region has long been a central element in the organization’s planning and functioning. For instance, Frisco’s Toyota Stadium just north of Dallas hosted matched in the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Either Toyota Stadium or AT&T Stadium hosted matches in the CONCACAF Gold Cups of 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017. Before that, the Cotton Bowl served among the host facilities for Gold Cup action. As for CONCACAF’s part in the global soccer structure, it serves as one of six continental zones from which teams are drawn into international competition. For instance, up to four nations from the CONCACAF region will qualify for the next World Cup, to be held in 2022 in Qatar. CONCACAF also oversees regional qualifying for Olympic Soccer (men’s and women’s), for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and for all men’s and women’s FIFA

The region’s attachment to FMF and El Tri became more official in 2019 as leaders and partners on both sides cobbled together an innovative four-year agreement. FMF and an array of local partners now work symbiotically to stage regular matches at AT&T Stadium. The agreement runs through 2022 as officials locally and in Mexico seek to turn North Texas into even more of an ongoing El Tri destination. So what does this recent Gold Cup announcement – where matches will be hosted at not just one, but three of our top North Texas venues – mean for Dallas’ bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026? Dallas leaders have long said the area would be a perfect World Cup hub. This provides the chance to showcase not only AT&T Stadium as a premier, potential host venue for the tournament’s grand final or semifinal, but also an opportunity to present Dallas’ Cotton Bowl Stadium and Frisco’s Toyota Stadium as ideal base camps for top national teams that qualify for World Cup 2026. With nine major international soccer matches in the Dallas market from May through July, these participating national teams will get a chance to experience everything the North Texas region has to offer, including all that famous Texas hospitality. FIFA will be watching, and we think they’ll like what they see: a North Texas area that knows international soccer, proudly demonstrating how a World Cup experience in Dallas might look.

THE PROS AT HOME IN MAY SUN

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S AT 1

6:30 PM

VS. BKN 1:35 PM

VS. SEA 16

1:35 PM

7:05 PM

VS. NYY 25

VS. HOU 30

BEHIND THE BANNER APRIL 2021 EDITION

7:05 PM

VS. NYY 26

VS. SEA 14

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8:00 PM

VS. TOR 20

1:05 PM

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BIG NAMES, NEW HOME HEADLINE RETURN OF THE BYRON NELSON A fantastic field is in store for the return of the AT&T Byron Nelson, Dallas’s PGA Tour stop that was cancelled a year ago due to the COVID pandemic. But the tournament will return with one major change, as it will tee off this year from a new location. The Byron will be played at the TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, marking the third location for the event in the past few years. Tournament organizers recently made news when they announced that Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 ranked player in the world, will be in this year’s Byron Nelson field. That announcement, along with the recent resurgence of Dallas’s Jordan Spieth, is sure to add a jolt of excitement for the 10,000 fans who will be allowed at the course each day of the four-day event that returns May 13-16.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

M AY 8 - 9 & 1 5 - 1 6

Tour of Texas & Texas Fest

// Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas

M AY 1 0 - 1 6

AT&T Byron Nelson // TPC Craig Ranch

M AY 2 1 - 2 3

Next Generation Cup

// McInnish Park Sports Complex

M AY 2 2 - 2 3

Lonestar Invitational Basketball

// Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas

M AY 2 8 - 3 0 MSI Invitational

// Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center

M AY 2 9 - 3 1 Texas Cup

// MoneyGram Soccer Park

M AY 2 9

Mexican National Team vs. Iceland // AT&T Stadium

J U N E 1 7- 2 0

Premier SuperCopa // MoneyGram Soccer Park

BEHIND THE BANNER APRIL 2021 EDITION

DALLAS ONCE AGAIN ESTABLISHES ITSELF AS HUB FOR YOUTH SOCCER Not only is Dallas home to the second largest youth soccer organization in the country, but it also annually serves as host to numerous youth soccer tournaments and other events that typically draw hundreds of teams and thousands of young athletes and their families to the region every weekend. Though COVID slowed the pace of those events, many have again made their way back to Dallas, including the revival of Dallas Cup after a one-year hiatus. MoneyGram Park and other local soccer complexes will be a hub of soccer activity this summer with tournaments featuring boys and girls teams of all ages happening nearly every weekend. Next Generation Cup, Texas No. 2 youth tournament, will be played at McInnish Soccer Complex May 21-23, while the Texas Super Cup will feature the top clubs in the Dallas region on Memorial Day weekend at MoneyGram Soccer Park. MoneyGram will also host Premier SuperCopa 2021 in June, a premier national tournament for U9 - U12 boys and girls competitive youth teams. Rounding out the regional youth soccer events is the MSI Elite Invitational which will be help May 28-30 at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

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