“I don’t know what it’s like to be on a rocket, but this is the closest thing I’ve got to it.”
The remarks were made by Dallas Wings COO Amber Cox onstage at Arlington Hall during a panel discussion hosted by the Dallas Friday Group in late June, and while the comments were in reference to the rise of Dallas’ WNBA team, they could have also referred to a larger story about women’s sports, particularly in North Texas.
Cox said she couldn’t have predicted what was going to happen, specifically with the Wings in women’s sports, when she first joined the team in 2022. “But we sensed the interest,” she said. “There was a lot of interest in the Wings, and the building was steadily filling up. We felt like we were at the start of something really special.”
Moderated by Dallas Sports Commission Executive Director Monica Paul, the discussion focused on the future of professional women’s sports in DFW and featured comments from Cox and Dori Neal Araiza, founder and president of Dallas’ newly announced women’s soccer team, Dallas Trinity FC.
Dallas has recently celebrated a number of significant victories in women’s sports. In early May, WNBA phenom Caitlin Clark made her professional debut in a preseason game against the Dallas Wings in Arlington. In 2023, the American Airlines Center will host the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Final Four, with the final drawing 9.9 million viewers. Dallas is set to host the event again in 2031.
In April, the city of Dallas and the Wings signed a 15-year, $19 million deal to move the team to the Dallas Memorial Auditorium by 2026. The team currently plays at UTA’s College Park Center. “Our partner in Arlington, College Park Center, has been great for us. It’s a great venue,” Cox said. “But the reality is, we’re stretched thin. Right now, we’re sold out. We need more space.”
Also in April, the team celebrated its first-ever sold-out season ticket sales. At the time, the Wings saw total ticket revenue increase 222 percent and individual ticket sales increase 1,221 percent.
“When you look at the growth of women’s sports and the growth of the WNBA, one of the things that has changed very quickly is facilities,” Cox said. “When the league started, all the teams shared facilities with a university or the YMCA. Now we have more teams that have their own buildings and practice locations. These women deserve that.”
“We are excited to be joining the Wings,” Wings president and CEO Greg Bibb said in April. CEO The move is expected to bring in about $1.5 million in additional ticket revenue annually. The stadium was built in 1957 and was last renovated in 2002 and is currently undergoing redevelopment. “As we move forward with the renovations, we’re in discussions to really create a world-class entertainment experience for our fans,” Cox said. “Again, this is exactly what our athletes deserve.”
IThis won’t be the only upgrade to Dallas’ facilities ahead of welcoming a women’s professional sports team. Dallas Trinity FC will play its home opener against DC Power FC at the Cotton Bowl on September 7. It will be the team’s first home season opener since its name, colors and leadership were officially announced in May. The team is one of eight teams joining the USL Super League, which was approved for promotion to Division 1 in February.
The move comes as Dallas is moving forward with a two-year, $140 million project to renovate the Cotton Bowl, the largest financial investment in Fair Park’s 137-year history. The project, which includes adding escalators, expanding the concourse and adding Art Deco artwork, broke ground in March.
When the Neal family began planning to start a Dallas women’s soccer team about two years ago, they considered several venues before settling on the historic icon of Fair Park. Founder and president Dori Neal Araiza noted that whenever she floats the idea of starting a women’s professional soccer team in Dallas, she usually gets the same immediate response: “But… in Dallas?
“It’s important to people in Dallas and people from Dallas, and it’s important to us,” she said, “and it was just so essential and vital to us, as a Dallas team, to be able to have this great venue in Dallas, just off the DART rail line, and to be able to showcase it in a great way for our football players, even though some of it is under construction right now.”
For Paul, the combination of establishing the team and Dallas’ nine 2026 World Cup matches represents a big opportunity in the next few years.
“For those of you who don’t know me, I’m very competitive. I love to win,” said Paul, who is credited as the driving force behind DFW’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026. For her, the region’s next big event goal is the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2031. “Having a professional women’s soccer team here and the support from all the other professional teams, men and women, I think it gives us a great opportunity to support each team, starting with Dallas Trinity FC, and really helps elevate and position Dallas for the next opportunity to be named a host city in 2031,” Paul said.
The team is also aware of the potential local impact: Cox noted the Wings have been adding staff to their youth basketball division and clinic and camp programs are being built, and he also highlighted their partnership with the Dallas Mavericks through their Girls Empowered by Mavericks (GEM) initiative.
“This is the first time this has happened, an NBA team with different ownership has never been a major sponsor of a WNBA team before,” Cox said. “They understood the value, they understood the direction of women’s basketball and they really wanted to bring GEM’s programming to our players and coaches.”
Dallas Trinity FC sees that potential, too. The team’s website notes that the Dallas area has the most female soccer players in the country, citing the U.S. Youth Soccer Association. “When you think about youth, it’s definitely an integral part of what we’re involved in,” Araiza says. “And obviously, being new here, we’re trying to figure out how best to do that — who are the best partners to bring in to make that happen, but it definitely gives our youth players something to aim for. We’re right there with them.”
The discussion offered a glimpse into what is shaping up to be a groundbreaking era for women’s sports. A Deloitte report released in November predicted that women’s elite sports will generate more than $1 billion in revenue this year. As Cox said, the key to maintaining the Wings’ energy starts with the right people. “The ownership group has made incredible investments to grow our front office staff and invest in experienced sports professionals, particularly women and men with experience in women’s sports,” Cox said. “That has allowed us to grow very quickly and do more.”
“We’re growing fast, but I think we have a proven process that we’re following,” Cox added. “We have to keep our foot on the gas and continue to use this momentum to our advantage to grow our fan base, get more people in the pipeline and keep them interested and talking about all of our sports and women’s sports.”
Araiza sums up: “Women’s sports is not a fad. It’s here to stay and will continue to grow.”
