Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber announced Friday that MLS Cup 2005 will be held at the Frisco (Texas) Soccer & Entertainment Center, the future home of FC Dallas. The facility, scheduled to open in the spring of 2005, will host the league's 10th championship match on Nov. 13 next year.
The announcement will bring MLS Cup to Texas for the first time in history. It will also mark the fourth time in 10 years that the league's showcase event will be held in a soccer-specific stadium. In 2001 the final was held at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, and the 2003 event took place at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., which will also house the championship match this weekend.
The new facility in Frisco will be a massive 117-acre complex. In addition to accommodating all FC Dallas home matches, the site will also be the new corporate headquarters of the United States Youth Soccer Association (U.S. Youth Soccer). A 20-year agreement with U.S. Youth Soccer and a 15-year marketing agreement between FC Dallas and the North Texas State Soccer Association will help to make the Frisco Soccer & Entertainment Center one of the most important locales for soccer in the USA.
The centerpiece of the complex will be a 21,193-seat soccer stadium, which be used for FC Dallas games, international soccer matches, major concerts, high school football and other activities. Surrounding the stadium will be 17 full-size, tournament-grade soccer fields, which will be utilized year round. An estimated 1.4 million athletes and spectators are expected to visit the monstrous facility each year.
One thing, I thought soccer_linus_mozilla is that the games leading up to this championship I think were
multiple games series , like New England Vs. Columbus, the MetroStars Vs. DC United or KC vs. San Jose.
I know they use goal differentiation to determine who wins the series but because of those 2 games series, I feel a bit let down when there is just this one game.
Also, if I understand correctly now, our 2 top teams go on to play in some International Tournaments of other championship teams of other nations. Maybe it's the Copa Americana, maybe it is some other tournament. That would be proper as well.
It would be nice if the MLS can start bringing in some top-flight international stars, like a Beckham. I lived in Fort Lauderdale back when we still had the NASL Strikers. It has some big name players, albeit in the tail-end of their careers, like Gerd Muller, George Best, Teofilio Cubillas, Gordie Banks, just to name a few. And it was always fun to play the hated Tampa Bay Rowdies. That's what the MLS needs, rivalries.