DALLAS — The Dallas City Council approved a plan on Wednesday to bring a women’s professional soccer team to play at the Cotton Bowl for the next two years.
The DFW-based USL Super League team will be the first professional women's soccer team in North Texas.
"What a special moment to create women's history at the Cotton Bowl now," said team president Charlie Neil. "It’s extremely rewarding and it’s especially rewarding for the young girls that play soccer in this city."
The City Council approved a subsidy of up to $296,000 annually for two years to the team. The money will go to security, site prep, and other expenses associated with conducting games at the stadium, according to a memo obtained by WFAA.
"There is a buzz around Dallas and it’s because of what y’all are doing," Mayor Eric Johnson told City Council following the vote. "It’s creating the accurate impression that Dallas is willing to do deals."
“I am thrilled that Dallas will bring a professional women’s soccer team to our city and am so excited to take a ten minute DART ride to the Cotton Bowl to see them play in just a few months,” said Dallas city councilmember Chad West. “This news means so much to so many soccer fans, but especially young girls like my eight-year-old daughter who has played soccer since she was old enough to walk. For her, it means that women’s professional sports get the spotlight it deserves."
The Dallas organization is led by the Neil family, the team said on its website. The Neil family and USL Super League President Amanda Vandervort will hold a press conference at Klyde Warren Park in Dallas on Thursday to announce the team name and logo.
"We’re sprinting just to be able to play a game in August," CEO and family patriarch Jim Neil said.
Watch the full interview with Jim and Charlie Neil here:
The USL Super League will begin its inaugural season with eight total teams. Here are the other seven:
The following cities are named on the USL Super League website, but will join the league in subsequent seasons, according to a USL Super League press release:
- Chattanooga
- Indianapolis
- Sporting Jax (Jacksonville, Fla.)
- Madison
- Oakland
- Palm Beach
- Phoenix
- Tucson
The Dallas-based team will be unique in that their venue is significantly larger than their counterparts within the league. Brooklyn, Lexington, Spokane and Tampa Bay will all play at venues with less than 10,000 capacity. Carolina will play at a venue with 10,500.
The Cotton Bowl seats 92,100.
The USL Super League club's arrival comes as the Cotton Bowl undergoes $140 million worth of renovations. Games will be held on the opposite side of the stadium from the construction and should have no impact on its timeline, according to the memo obtained by WFAA.
The season will kick off on Friday, Aug. 16, the city said in a release. The league will play on a “fall-to-summer” soccer calendar, the USL Super League press release said, which is traditionally followed around the world.
The recruitment and retention of professional sports in Dallas has been a key focus of city officials, including Mayor Eric Johnson, in recent years. Johnson started the city council’s ad hoc committee on professional sports recruitment and retention in hopes of attracting more sports franchises to the city in 2022.
The new soccer team is the second women's professional sports team brought to Dallas proper within the last month. The Dallas Wings are set to move from Arlington to the Dallas Memorial Auditorium downtown in 2026.
"Rest assured, we are not done here in the area of sports," Johnson said during the city council meeting Wednesday. "The best is yet to come on this."
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