Dallas’ new Cowboys Stadium was built with football and soccer in mind. "Soccer wasn’t at the back of our minds in building the stadium. It was front and center alongside football,” Stephen Jones, the Cowboys’ executive vice president, said. “It is one of the pieces of the puzzle we knew we had to have in making our stadium more than just the home of the Dallas Cowboys."
Jones suggested the new stadium wouldn’t just compete with other American soccer stadiums, but with soccer venues all over the Western Hemisphere. This helps explain why the stadium will open with soccer matches, hosting a Concacaf Gold Cup quarterfinal doubleheader July 19. Next comes the World Football Challenge match July 26 when English club Chelsea will play Mexico’s Club America. "These games will be a learning experience for us," Jones said. "You don’t take a Lamborghini home from the showroom and know everything it can do. You test drive it for a while and then put the pedal to the metal."
Jones hopes the test drives will attract more bigtime soccer events, fans and ultimately, the biggest event of all — the World Cup. The U.S. bid committee is optimistic that it will land the 2018 or 2022 World Cup when FIFA awards the hosting sites next year. David Downs, executive director of the U.S. World Cup bid committee, pointed out that the semifinals and final game must have a minimum capacity of 80,000 seats. "We are keenly aware of the 100,000 seating capacity," said Downs, executive director of the United States’ World Cup bid committee. "That it is also one of the state-of-the-art stadiums is another plus. The upcoming games are the perfect look-sees for us and FIFA."