Hunt will get to build a stadium-village.
Congratulations are in order for Major League Soccer’s Dallas FC owner Clark Hunt. You have won the stadium game in Frisco, Texas as you are about ready to receive millions of public dollars, $182 million of public funding, to renovate the soccer stadium you use in Frisco for your business. The Frisco City Council approved the redevelopment of the soccer venue and the surrounding area in downtown Frisco. The 19-year-old stadium just did not have modern revenue streams and something had to be done. The stadium upgrades will include the addition of 3,400 seats, in a new seating area which will enhance Hunt’s bottom line. There will be improved suites, which will enhance Hunt’s bottom line along with the reconstruction of concourses, a renovated press box and broadcast booths and a canopy will add shade to the north, east and west seating area. But there is something else going on. Hunt will have a chance to erect a village around the facility. That will include 1.2 million square feet of office space, a 180,000-square-foot hotel, multi-family housing, 30,000-square-feet of retail, and a new parking structure.
Hunt came up with some numbers that he felt would justify the public spending although it is not clear how economists, probably hired by Hunt’s company, came up with the figures. “We’ve done economic impact studies and the range is somewhere between $130 and $150 million a year, and that’s in the current facility. I can’t even imagine what the new building will do.” Part of the $182 million will come from tax increment financing which redirects property tax in a geographic area designated as a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone to pay for improvements in that zone. It will take funding away from another area in Frisco. Clark Hunt has won the stadium game in Frisco.
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You can have dinner in a new concession area and not even watch an FC Dallas game in the stadium experience.
