Expansion of Toyota Stadium benefits FISD
With The Star coming into town, another sports team in the area is making a splash with an expansion to its existing facility. FC Dallas, U.S. Soccer, FISD, and the City of Frisco broke ground on a $39 million renovation of Toyota Stadium Thursday afternoon, which will include the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame, upgraded video boards and improved locker rooms.
The ceremonial groundbreaking for the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame featured (from L to R): FISD Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Lyon, FC Dallas president Clark Hunt, 2016 Hall of Fame inductee Brandi Chastain, FC Dallas’ Dan Hunt and Frisco Mayor Maher Maso.
For Frisco ISD students, the renovations will provide a big impact for athletes in the district.
“The facility itself will be greatly enhanced,” superintendent Dr. Jeremy Lyons said. “Better locker rooms, better sound systems, better video boards. From just a quality perspective, we’re going from great to greater.”
Along with the Hall of Fame comes new opportunities for Frisco ISD students to be able to work and learn with the FC Dallas team.
“There will be opportunities for students to work in the Hall of Fame,” Lyons said. “They can be apart of that, whether it’s an ISM project, or an internship in the summer. Those kind of opportunities are there. This is just an extension of the partnership we have with a world class organization, and we’ve got the spirit of seeing of what we can do and how we can do things to make things great for our students.”
The renovations will not be completed until December 2017, in time for the FCS Championship that takes place annually at Toyota Stadium. Dan Hunt, the president of FC Dallas, says the wait will be worth it for fans and people in the city.
“People have asked me to describe what the new Hall of Fame will be like,” Hunt said. “If you’ve been to AT&T Stadium and been to the Founder’s club there, combine it with Canton, Ohio and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. You have the luxury suite level meet a state of the art museum.”
Upon completion of the Toyota Stadium expansion, the south end will feature covered seating as well as the U.S. National Hall of Fame.
Along with the groundbreaking ceremony came three inductees into the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame. Former U.S. Women’s National Team Players Brandi Chastain, Shannon MacMillian, and current Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber were all announced as 2016 inductees.
“To be inducted into the Hall of Fame and have my name read in the same sentence with our country’s best is truly humbling,” Chastain said.
Combined with The Star, the expansion of Toyota Stadium has Lyons excited.
“I have two thoughts,” Lyons said. “I wish I was a kid growing up in Frisco, and I wish my sons had an opportunity to go to school here, and experience a fraction of this stuff. It’s extraordinary, and it’s very exciting.”
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