FC Dallas is a North American professional soccer team based in Frisco, Texas, United States. Founded in 1996 as the Dallas Burn, the team plays in Major League Soccer (MLS).
FC Dallas' home is the 20,500 capacity soccer-specific Pizza Hut Park, located on the suburbs of Dallas in Frisco, Texas, where they have played since changing their name in 2005. The team is owned by MLS investor Clark Hunt, who is also the owner of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs.
The team was founded as the Dallas Burn in 1996 the inaugural year of Major League Soccer. From 1996-2002 the team played in the Cotton Bowl. In an effort to save money due to the club's unfavorable lease with the Cotton Bowl, the club played its 2003 home games at Dragon Stadium, a high school stadium in Southlake, a Fort Worth suburb. After listening to its fans, the Dallas Burn, as the team was called from 1996-2004, moved back to the Cotton Bowl for the 2004 season. Another factor to the move was the money that the club was losing due to the fact that there could be no alcohol sales at a public high school.
In August 2005, the club moved into Pizza Hut Park, a soccer-specific stadium in the northern suburb of Frisco. To celebrate this move, the club rebranded itself with a more soccer-fitting name, FC Dallas.
The 2006 season saw the creation of Hoops Nation, an official supporters' club that allows fans to get two free tickets each year, a t-shirt, and other benefits, in exchange for a membership fee. The club works in concert with the existing supporters' group, Inferno (whose name derives from the team's days as the Dallas Burn), by offering discounted tickets to the group's special section. Another active supporters' group are La Raza Latina.
The team's colors are Republic Red, Bovine Blue, Shawnee Silver, and Lonestar White. The home jerseys are red, white and blue, the away jerseys are white with blue horizontal stripes. The club has used "Hoops" as part of press releases and marketing campaigns. The Hoops nickname describes the horizontal bands of the team's home and away kits, and refers to the similar sobriquets given to teams such as Celtic F.C. and Queens Park Rangers. Fans and media have also used such monikers as FCD, The Red Stripes, the Waldo's, and the Toro’s.
FC Dallas' oldest rivalry is with Eastern conference rival the Chicago Fire. Since 2001, they have competed for the Brimstone Cup, which goes to the team that wins the season series between the two teams. In 2005, the San Jose Earthquakes were put on hold and the team was relocated to Houston, sparking an intrastate rivalry with the new Houston club. The two teams play for El Capitan, a cannon that goes to the regular season victor. Recently, animosity has grown between fans and players of FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids, mainly sparking from Colorado players' comments towards the fans and Colorado's victories over FC Dallas in the post season.
