First games at new Cowboys Stadium will be CONCACAF Gold Cup Quarterfinals (soccer, *gasp*)

by Erin Rice

Giving Dallas/Fort Worth soccer hooligans a reason to bash heads today...

CONCACAF General Secretary and FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer announced Monday that Dallas would be one of the 13 cities to host games of the 2009 Gold Cup. And no, we don't mean Pizza Hut Park in Frisco as Dallas. And certainly not the Cotton Bowl either, which itself is physically in Dallas. We're talking the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. We're talking the first sporting event EVER to be played in the professional football stadium.

The CONCACAF is the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football. Played every two years, historically in American venues, the Gold Cup showcases the national teams from the 12 countries in the confederation with the best records. With a total of 25 games played in the tournament, each host city will feature a double-header, except for New York's Giants Stadium, which is hosting the final. The 12 countries participating in the 2009 Gold Cup are Canada, Mexico and the USA from the North Zone; Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua from Central America; and Jamaica, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Haiti from the Caribbean. The tournament kicks off on July 3 and will conclude in New York on July 26. The quarterfinal games in DFW will be on July 19.

During a press conference Monday morning, Blazer was questioned as to why CONCACAF would choose the forthcoming Cowboys Stadium over other such venues as the FC Dallas stadium at Pizza Hut Park and the Cotton Bowl, which hosted games in 1993. Size was an issue. Citing the tournament's ability to sell out Houston's Relient Stadium in the past, Blazer was confident that similar could happen in DFW, despite the potential 100,000-person seating capacity. Stating the obvious, Blazer also noted that newness was a deciding factor. The location provides fans national-level soccer games, as well as the opportunity to be part of the first sporting event at an already notorious opening stadium.

In the past, CONCACAF games avoided artificial turf fields, which the playing surface of the new Cowboys Stadium is. However, for 2009, four of the 13 stadiums feature grass-like turf. Noting FIFA's recent acceptance of turf versus grass pitches, CONCACAF too is conceding to the times.

Though games have been assigned to particular stadiums, the teams have not been grouped yet. While there's no telling at this time which countries will come to Arlington, Blazer said that it was possible, should Mexico make it to the Quarterfinals, that the game would be played here versus Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, the other Quarterfinal location. Implied in this question and answer was the higher Latino presence in North Texas.

While the CONCACAF quarterfinals will be the first sporting event at the new stadium, George Strait and Reba McEntire will pop the stadium's Cherry Coke dispensers on June 6.

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