The Star is the strangest and most successful piece of urban planning in Frisco. It's a 91-acre Dallas Cowboys headquarters that has somehow turned into a real walkable neighborhood — with restaurants, hotels, an indoor stadium, retail, fitness clubs, and a steady rotation of events that don't necessarily involve football. We send guests here whenever they want to feel like they're in a "downtown" without driving to actual downtown Dallas.
Here's how to spend a few hours (or a full evening) at The Star.
What The Star actually is
The Cowboys moved their entire headquarters and practice facility to Frisco from Valley Ranch in 2016. The campus is built around the Ford Center — a 12,000-seat indoor multi-use stadium where the Cowboys hold practices, high schools play their state championships, and concerts/conventions/wrestling events fill the calendar. Surrounding the Ford Center is a public-facing district: restaurants, two team-themed hotels, a Cowboys museum and tour facility, retail stores, and a year-round events plaza.
It's open to the public year-round. You can walk in, eat, shop, and watch the Cowboys practice on the outdoor fields when the schedule's announced (during summer training camp open practices, especially).
The headline experiences
The Dallas Cowboys Stadium Tour
A 90-minute tour through team meeting rooms, the locker room, the indoor practice field, and the team's broadcast studios. The tour walks you onto the actual practice field when the team isn't using it. Even guests who don't follow football come back talking about it.
Tickets: ~$30 adults, $20 children. Tours run multiple times per day. Book ahead on busy weekends.
The Star's restaurants
We have a full Frisco restaurants guide, but at The Star specifically:
- Dee Lincoln Prime — the flagship steakhouse, with a Kobe-beef program and a six-seat omakase counter. Special-occasion territory.
- Whiskey Cake — the namesake dessert and a dependable broader menu. Outdoor patio.
- Mi Cocina — Tex-Mex with the famous Mambo Taxi cocktail.
- Cane Rosso — Neapolitan pizza, the same chain as the Deep Ellum original.
- Press Box Grill — sports-bar food with the best view of the Cowboys' outdoor practice fields. The kids' menu actually works.
Plenty more options on the lighter side: Sushi Marquee, Original ChopShop, Cozymel's, etc.
Live events at the Ford Center
The Ford Center hosts roughly 200 events per year. Some highlights:
- High school football state championships (December).
- Cowboys' open practice days during training camp.
- Concerts, comedy, professional wrestling, conventions.
Check the Ford Center events calendar before your trip; tickets often go on sale months in advance for big names.
The Cowboys Fit gym
A 60,000-square-foot fitness club with locker rooms designed by the same firm that designed the Cowboys' players' facility. Day passes available for visitors — a workout in the same building the team uses is an unusual flex if you're into that. Try-it-out passes around $25.
Hidden / underused things to do
The plaza at sunset
The wide central plaza at The Star is the best-lit photograph in Frisco. Especially in the half-hour before sunset. The fountains run on a schedule, there are seasonal installations (a holiday tree in December, festival markets in spring), and the people-watching is excellent.
The Cowboys Pro Shop
Even if you're not buying anything, the Pro Shop is the only place outside AT&T Stadium with the full team-merchandise inventory. Worth a walk-through for football fans.
The team-themed hotels
The Omni Frisco at The Star is more upscale; the Hilton Garden Inn at The Star is more practical. Both have lobbies that lean fully into the Cowboys aesthetic — even if you're not staying there, the bars are good for a drink. The Omni's rooftop pool has a Cowboys-themed cabana setup and the views over The Star are great.
The Joint Chiropractic, Ulta, etc.
The mundane retail at The Star is genuinely useful if you're visiting from out of town and need anything — pharmacy, beauty supplies, a haircut, a quick gift. It's not the reason you came, but it's the reason you can solve small problems without leaving Frisco.
How to plan a visit
For most visitors, dinner + sunset on the plaza + the stadium tour either before or the next day is the right cadence. A full afternoon and evening (say, 4 PM to 10 PM) covers it without rushing. With kids, the tour in the late morning followed by lunch at Press Box Grill works well.
If you want to combine The Star with Stonebriar Centre and the Rail District, plan two separate evenings. They're each 10 minutes apart but don't reward trying to do all three in one day.
Parking and access
Free parking in The Star's garages on most days. On event days at the Ford Center (concerts, championship games), the closest garages charge $15–$25 and traffic in/out can be slow for the hour after a show ends. If you're staying in Frisco proper, an Uber from one of our properties — The Palmera or The Indigo Oasis are the closest — runs $10–$15 and removes the parking question.
Where The Star falls short
To be clear-eyed: The Star is not a "old downtown" in the European or even American-historical sense. Everything was built starting in 2014. It has the polished, slightly-too-perfect quality of a planned district. Some guests find this charming; some find it sterile. If you want grit and character, the Rail District in Frisco proper is the answer.
