The big picture
The Toyota Stadium upgrades, which Frisco City Council members approved with a $182 million partnership amendment during a Sept. 17 meeting, will see dirt moving starting January 2025. The east side of the stadium will see the first upgrades while the west side remains operational for the 2025 MLS season.
The stadium has been the home of Major League Soccer club FC Dallas since it opened in 2005 through the same partnership amended Sept. 17. Partnership members include the city, Frisco ISD, Frisco Economic Development Corporation, Frisco Community Development Corporation and Frisco Stadium LLC, which represents the Hunt family members who own FC Dallas.
Jimmy Smith, FC Dallas chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said he hopes the new improvements will allow the stadium to be enjoyed by the entire community.
Upgrading the stadium to include a mixed-use district, which will feature retail and hotel buildings, could keep Frisco competitive with nearby cities, said Judith Grant Long, an associate professor of sport management and urban planning at the University of Michigan.
Long said most stadiums do not get the money back on their investment but that Toyota Stadium is in a unique place to be an exception. Adding hotels and Frisco-specific amenities will bring in new revenue from nearby cities, she said.
“Fans coming for a sporting event or concert will now have more reason to stay in the area,” said Christal Howard, president of the Frisco Chamber of Commerce, in an emailed statement. “We see it as a win all the way around that they’ll have nearby Frisco Square and The Rail District to explore and give them plenty of opportunities to stick around longer.”
Zooming out
The stadium improvements, which include adding shade structures and technology upgrades, will provide Toyota Stadium with the level of excellence North Texas sports fans expect, Smith said.
“We owe that to our fans, to our community, to have that higher level of experience,” Smith said.
The Sept. 17 agreements also renewed FC Dallas’ contract at Toyota Stadium for another three decades, keeping the team in Frisco until 2057.
FC Dallas President Dan Hunt said Sept. 17 that the improvements will both keep the stadium fan-friendly and open the door to new possibilities, such as concerts or hosting national teams.
In just under two years, Toyota Stadium will be a base camp for a team participating in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Renovations are expected to begin in January 2025 and be completed in phases to work around the major event, Smith said.
“The plan is to start on the east side [of the stadium] next year and we’ll have that completely done prior to the World Cup in the summer of 2026,” he said.
A closer look
The renovations will add 3,400 seats in a new supporters section on the field’s north side, bringing Toyota Stadium’s capacity to over 22,500 seats. The project’s approval came during a record high for FC Dallas ticket sales, Smith said.
Gordon Flynn, a member of El Matador, one of FC Dallas’ support groups, said the new supporters section is what the fans want.
“I can’t wait to see how it goes,” Flynn said.
Funding the project
Long said half of the major league sports venues in the U.S. and Canada, of which a majority are still proposals, are associated with mixed-use projects.
“There’s a reason why teams do it, which is to try to extend their revenue generating and revenue capture potential,” Long said.
Paying for Toyota Stadium’s improvements involves contributions from its public-private partnership members. The FCDC and Hunt Sports Group are contributing a combined $105 million with the rest coming from a city Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ.
A TIRZ captures growth in property tax value. Taxes generated from the TIRZ’s captured value can only fund improvements for the properties inside its boundaries.
Toyota Stadium is located in Frisco’s TIRZ No. 1. Council members on Oct. 15 amended the city’s TIRZ No.1 ordinance to add the stadium improvements and widen the zone’s boundaries to over 3,500 acres for new FISD properties, which the TIRZ also helps fund maintenance for.
What comes next?
Toyota Stadium sees almost 2 million visitors every year, Smith said.
“We did an economic impact study for the last 20 years, and it’s over $1.5 billion,” he said. “I expect that to double over the next 20 years [from the renovations].”
Smith said FISD uses Toyota Stadium the most. The renovation schedule was designed with the district’s student-athletes in mind to allow them to continue playing, he said.
“For them to have their home as well, whether it’s their high school soccer or high school football, for them to continue to play those matches...that’s been very important for us and for the city,” Smith said.
Included in the city’s Sept. 17 partnership update was a Dec. 31, 2028 deadline to finish all of the stadium improvements. Smith said once renovations are finished, Toyota Stadium will be one of the best soccer-specific stadiums in the country.
Chase Futrell, an FC Dallas fan who attended the team’s last home game on Oct. 19, said while the renovations will take a while, the end result—including new shade covers, which are listed in the improvement plans—will be nice to see.
“All of us at FC Dallas are excited for our fans, partners and players to experience this state-of-the-art facility,” Hunt said in a Sept. 17 news release.
