FRISCO, Texas – Though the Cowboys are primed to kick off another football season in the coming weeks, they kicked off something much larger Friday morning – a new era in franchise history.

Cowboys executives, including owner/general manager Jerry Jones, and representatives of both the City of Frisco and the Frisco Independent School District officially broke down on the team's new headquarters – which will serve not just as a facility for the Cowboys, but for FISD high school athletics.

"When I think of our project, Friday night lights, amateur athletics and specifically high school football is the heritage of a lot of Texas. Now Frisco is taking it a step further," Jones said. "This so exciting to the Cowboys and the NFL -- our opportunity to take this visibility and connect it to Frisco amateur athletics."

The Cowboys' relationship with Frisco and particularly the FISD has been one of the biggest talking points of the team relocating its facility over the past year. The facility will feature a five-acre plot for the Cowboys' headquarters, but that is within a 20-acre multi-use events center, set to open in time for the 2016 football season.

"As you could imagine, we've caught the energy of Frisco. We've got it. We've got the Frisco Flu," Jones said. "We've got it and we sit down and say, 'Boy that's a lot more than we thought we were going to do.' But this isn't a dress rehearsal and we only have one time to go around. So let's do it the right way."

Chief among the development will be a 12,000-seat facility, to be used for both Cowboys practices and Frisco high school athletics – including football, soccer and lacrosse. It will also be used for concerts, graduations and other large-scale ceremonies.

In addition to the stadium and the team headquarters, the development will also feature office buildings and 150,000 square feet of retail space – expected to be ready by the fall of 2016.

"It's an amazing project – a multi-use facility that will serve our community well into the future. It's a great organization to work with. This is everything Frisco," said Frisco Mayor Maher Maso. "There's a lot of words to explain it. A few months ago we sat here and said the best was yet to come. I think you're seeing it now and you're going to see much more of that. Every day I look out here and say 'Wow.' I just can't believe what's taking place."

Jerry Jones was joined for the ceremony by Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones, Mayor Maso and FISD Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Lyon.

Frisco is the fastest-growing school district in Texas and one of the fastest-growing districts in the country, with roughly 50,000 students expected by the end of the academic year. Each of the seven high schools in the district brought a representative student athlete from the sophomore class – the first class that will be able to use the facility once it has opened. All told, the district will have nine high schools by that point. [embedded_ad]

"We want to have balls in the air in the fall of 2016," Stephen Jones said. "We have a lot of work to do. Hopefully these sophomores here will be playing in that facility." Of course, the Cowboys also plan to use the facility, as well. Jerry Jones said at the ceremony he could envision using the Frisco facility as part of the team's 2016 training camp, along with its usual trip to Oxnard, California.