Soccer’s new capital city
National Soccer Hall of Fame set to open
Sitting at the south end of Toyota Stadium, the National Soccer Hall of Fame was built into the stadium as part of a renovation. The National Soccer Hall of Fame opens to the public on Nov. 2, 2018.
Fans enter Toyota Stadium at the south end near the newly built National Soccer Hall of Fame. In addition to the 2018 induction ceremony, Saturday’s grand opening featured a concert by the Imagine Dragons.
Featuring numerous displays and the jerseys of famous American soccer players, the National Soccer Hall of Fame features 19,350 square feet of exhibits.
In addition to physical displays, the NSHOF also incorporates technology and interactive digital video boards. d
Names etched in glass cover the scarves of different soccer clubs, just one of dozens of different exhibits in the new National Soccer Hall of Fame at Toyota Stadium in Frisco.
One of the displays features the pregame notes on a whiteboard from U.S. women’s national team head coach Tony DiCicco who led the team to the Olympic gold medal in 1996 and the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Three years after it received final approval to come to Frisco, the National Soccer Hall of Fame at Toyota Stadium made its debut on Saturday kicking off with a ceremony for the five new inductees: Dr. Robert Contiguglia, MLS commissioner Don Garber, and former players Tiffeny Milbrett, Cindy Parlow Cone, and Brad Friedel.
“The vision here for the national soccer hall of fame was incredibly simple,” FC Dallas president Dan Hunt said. “It was to honor those that are currently redefining the game today and those of the future that’ll leave a mark on the beautiful game.”
As one of two females to claim her red hall of famer jacket in 2018, Cone reminisced about her start on the U.S. Women’s National team at age 17.
“On my first trip with the national team, they roomed me with Mia Hamm,” Cone said. “At 17, I still had a poster of her up on my wall at this point. I don’t know the social norms when you’re on a national team trip and rooming with the Mia Hamm. But Mia, being the ultimate teammate, put me at ease immediately and welcomed me onto the team. Because she joined the team at age 15 so she knew how it felt.”
Opening its doors on Nov. 2, the public museum includes a history that U.S. Soccer hopes to reach to young boys and girls across the nation.
“I’ve always believed that you can’t celebrate the present unless we truly understand and acknowledge our past,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said. “We need to preserve our history particularly the history of our sport so that it can inform and influence an even greater future for all of us. That’s what the Hunt family, US Soccer and the city of Frisco have done in creating this incredible, permanent cathedral that’ll honor our sport, the national soccer hall of fame.”
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