In 2014, I stood in the parking lot at Valley Ranch, the longtime headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys. I expected to feel the weight of America’s Team. Instead, I felt a gap between the brand that lived in millions of minds and the building in front of me.

The Jones family, owners of the Cowboys since 1989, felt that gap too. So they closed it.

Today, you drive up to The Star in Frisco and you feel it immediately. It’s 91 acres of planned destination, home to the Cowboy’s world headquarters and practice facility, surrounded by restaurants, retail, hotel, office space and public plazas. Every element is designed to close the gap between what people expect from the Cowboys and what they actually experience.

The Star is now one of the most copied ideas in professional sports. Teams across every league are planning districts around new stadiums, arenas, headquarters and practice facilities. We covered the why in Beyond the Final Whistle. This post is all about the how.

Here’s what nearly 30 years and more than 2,500 projects have taught us: the buildings are the easy part. The hard part is giving people a reason to show up on a Tuesday in March. That’s what these 30 ideas are for.

What Makes a Mixed-Use District Feel Alive:

Before the planning begins, four principles. Every idea below passes through at least one of them:

• Invitation, not control: The Star isn’t about control, it’s about invitation. Come see, come feel, come take part. A district that tells fans to look but not touch will feel like a museum
• The space between things matters most: the most valuable real estate in any experience is the space between things. Walkways, plazas and pauses are where people decide to stay
• Personal meaning inside a shared experience: fans want their own chapter in a bigger story. Design one experience that each visitor can interpret their own way, then talk about together
• Every day, not just game day: an NFL team plays a handful of home games a year. A district has to earn its traffic the other 350+ days

For the business case behind these districts, including how they open new sponsorship categories, see Building Energy 365 Days a Year and our recap of The New Home Field Advantage panel from the 2026 National Sports Forum.

Arrival & Identity Ideas

1. Brand the Front Door

The district should announce itself before anyone parks. Gateway monuments, branded entry plazas and lit signage at every major approach tell visitors they’ve arrived at their destination.

2. Build One Icon Worth the Trip

At The Star, we broke the Cowboys’ blue star apart geometrically so fans could stand inside it. Taking the most sacred symbol in the franchise and letting fans occupy it could have been vetoed. It wasn’t. The first weekend generated thousands of photos, and after the first year we stopped counting. People now plan their visits around that photo and come back each year in different jerseys, with different people. That’s not a photo-op. That’s a ritual. And nobody needs a sign to know what to do there. The moment you tell people how to post, they stop wanting to.

3. Create One Visual Language Across Every Tenant

A district with ten tenants and ten visual identities feels like a strip mall. Shared brand guidelines for signage, materials and graphics keep it cohesive while letting each space keep its own character. We built this kind of system for Fanatics across more than five of its corporate locations worldwide.

Anchor Building Ideas: Team HQs, Practice Facilities & More

A district doesn’t have to have a stadium or a ballpark at its center. The Star proved a team headquarters and practice facility can anchor one just as well, and because a headquarters is active every weekday, it may anchor it better.

4. Open the Headquarters to the Public

The Star opened for public tours soon after it debuted, giving fans access to a building that used to be reserved for players and staff. A public lobby, guided tours and viewable team spaces can turn a corporate office into the district’s main attraction.

5. Turn the Back of House Into the Front of House

Fans are hungry for what happens behind closed doors. When we designed the U.S. Tennis Association’s new players’ spaces at the U.S. Open, Netflix’s “Break Point” had just placed cameras in the players’ tunnel and locker rooms, capturing moments fans rarely get to see. Spaces that were once private, the back of house, were suddenly seen by millions of viewers. We designed the players’ tunnel with this in mind – first, to reflect the gravity of that final walk out to Arthur Ashe Stadium, then to give fans a glimpse behind the curtain during that epic moment.

6. Put the Team’s Mantras Where Everyone Can See Them

At the Tennessee Titans’ Saint Thomas Sports Park, we placed the coaching staff’s mantras through the headquarters and locker room so the last words players saw before practice reflected the culture the team was building. One of those phrases made its way onto local sports talk radio. When the team’s values are visible inside the building, they travel outside it.

7. Build the Anchor to Be Updated

Rosters change, sponsors change and seasons end. Design graphics, displays and digital content so they can be refreshed without a renovation. At The Star, an updatable facility was one of the core goals from day one. Opening day gets the attention, but year three decides whether the district works.

Partner & Sponsor Zone Ideas

A district multiplies the places a partner can live. For a deeper list, see our 50 sponsorship activation ideas. These four are built for districts specifically.

8. Find Where the Sponsor’s Story Meets the Team’s Story

The best partner spaces don’t feel like ads. On The Star’s Ring of Honor Walk, Dr Pepper’s “one of a kind” message fits naturally into a space honoring the individual legends who define Cowboys excellence. Look for that overlap first, then design around it.

9. Give a Partner a Whole Place, Not Just a Sign

The Miller Lite House at AT&T Stadium is an 87,000-square-foot outdoor property with two beer gardens, six bars, a 70-yard turf field, more than 60 screens and the biggest walk-in beer cooler in Texas. Fans don’t walk past the brand. They spend the afternoon inside it. Local artists even created displays like a hand-painted Miller Lite beer can wall, which roots the space in its city and gives fans something worth photographing.

10. Create Premium Partner Decks

At the AT&T Stadium Ford Deck, we designed a VIP standing-room experience with King Ranch seating, personal TVs, kinetic lighting and live game streams. It blends two strong brands without compromising either, and its lightweight, removable components support the stadium’s other events.

11. Design for Every Kind of Visitor

Some visitors stride through, some stroll and some stop to study every detail. Plan partner touchpoints for all three. We broke down this approach in Striders, Strollers and Studiers.

Plaza & Non-Game Day Ideas

12. Throw Watch Parties for Away Games

Away games are home games for the district. Big screens, team-branded seating and food and drink specials turn road weekends into some of the busiest days of the year. Miller Lite built away-game watch parties into its Cowboys activation for exactly this reason.

13. Give Fans a Field to Play On

The 70-yard turf field at the Miller Lite House invites fans to throw a ball, play tailgate games and let kids run. A playable surface turns spectators into participants on days when there’s nothing to spectate.

14. Give People Reasons to Linger

Shade, seating and comfortable gathering spots keep people in a district long after they’ve done what they came for. Test materials for your climate too. At the Miller Lite House, we tested surfaces to make sure displays could stand up to Dallas summers.

Heritage & Storytelling Ideas

15. Build a Walk of Legends

The Cowboys have honored their greatest players in the Ring of Honor for more than 40 years. At The Star, we gave each of 21 legends an individual display with career stats, anchored by their number in bright metal and Cowboys blue. From Bob Lilly to Darren Woodson, every honoree gets a moment fans can stand next to.

16. Let Fans Touch Greatness

People don’t just want to see greatness. They want to pose with it. At USC, we left the Heisman trophies exposed and touchable, and visitors have taken hundreds of thousands of stiff-arm photos since. Physical interaction changes emotional connection. When fans can touch something, they own a piece of it.

17. Tell the City’s Story, Not Just the Team’s

A district becomes part of a community when it reflects that community. When the PGA of America moved its headquarters from Palm Beach to PGA Frisco, CEO Seth Waugh said Advent “turned our building into our home.” Local history, landmarks and people give fans who aren’t diehards a reason to care.

18. Start With the Story Before the First Shovel

The districts that feel like community hubs, rather than empty developments, have a clear story behind them. Our StoryMining process interviews the people closest to an organization to find the authentic story worth telling. It works best before design begins, not after the walls go up.

Youth Sports & Community Ideas

20. Make a Fieldhouse the District’s Front Porch

Youth sports bring families back every weekend, in and out of season. At Hylo Park, Agora Realty’s 73-acre mixed-use community in North Las Vegas, a 250,000-square-foot fieldhouse anchors the district. Every athlete, family and fan who visits passes through it.

21. Give Young Athletes the Pro Walk-In

Most young athletes never feel what the pros feel when they walk into their building. Pro-level graphics, lighting and digital experiences in youth facilities change that. At Hylo Park, the goal is simple: whether a kid lives down the street or flew in for a tournament, they should walk in and know it was built for them.

22. Host Tournaments That Pull From the Whole Region

Tournaments fill hotels, restaurants and shops on weekends that would otherwise be quiet. At the WYO Sports Ranch in Casper, Wyoming, LED screens, interactive kiosks and donor displays help a 10-court facility attract teams and tournaments from across the region.

23. Share the Anchor With Local Teams

When the community plays where the pros practice, the district becomes theirs too. The Star hosted the Texas Tech spring football game shortly after opening. High school games, college events and community leagues build loyalty that no ad campaign can buy.

24. Recognize the People Who Made It Possible

Founders, donors, community partners and local heroes deserve visible recognition. Done well, it gives the district a sense of shared ownership. Our Donor Recognition Guide covers 30 ways to approach it.

Digital Content and Technology Ideas

25. Run Every Screen From One Place

A district can have hundreds of screens across dozens of spaces. The Advent Operating System™ (AOS) lets your team run all of them from a single iPad. If you can use a phone or tablet, you can update every piece of tech in the space, and AOS can power the screens you already have.

26. Add Interactive Exhibits That Reward Curiosity

Touchscreens, interactive tables and motion-activated games give studiers a reason to stay and dig in. At The Star, interactive displays let visitors explore the franchise’s history and iconic players up close.

27. Keep the Content Fresh All Year

Screens showing last season’s highlights in August tell fans nobody’s paying attention. Plan a content calendar, and partner with a team that can produce at the pro level. Magic Trick Media, Advent’s official content partner and an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning production team, brings decades of experience, even for clients with in-house video teams.

Ideas for Before the District Opens

A district’s experience starts years before opening day, when tenants, partners and fans first try to picture it.

28. Build a Preview Center Inside the Venue You Already Have

Before The Star opened in 2016, the Cowboys asked Advent to create a preview center inside AT&T Stadium. Oversized renderings, dynamic graphics and exhibits showed visitors and potential partners what The Star would mean for the organization and for Frisco. Fans already coming to games got a first look without a separate trip.

29. Let Partners Step Inside Before It’s Built

Renderings ask people to imagine. Immersive environments let them experience. The Immersive Cube® puts decision-makers inside a live digital model of a future district so they can explore it together in real time. We explain why that matters for developers in Beyond Architectural Visualization.

30. Show the Community What’s Coming

Neighbors, local leaders and future season ticket holders all want to know what the district will mean for them. Public previews, construction-site graphics and community open houses build excitement and goodwill before the doors open.

Every organization has a Valley Ranch moment, when it realizes the experience it delivers may not match the brand living in people’s heads. A mixed-use district is a huge opportunity to close that gap.

The Jones family didn’t just build a facility. They built a three-dimensional version of the Dallas Cowboys brand that already existed in fans’ minds, and then they invited everyone in to celebrate the brand together.

If you’re planning a district, a headquarters or a practice facility, we’d love to hear what you’re building. Let’s connect.

Written by John Roberson, CEO & ‘Chief Cheerleader’