The Star in Frisco: the practical visitor guide

The Star in Frisco is not really a stadium and not really a mall, but it gets called both. Officially it is the Dallas Cowboys' world headquarters and indoor practice facility. In practice it is a 91-acre mixed-use district with the Ford Center, two practice fields, the Omni Frisco Hotel, the team store, roughly twenty restaurants and bars, and a 27,000-square-foot plaza with a half-size replica turf field that doubles as a public park.

We live a few miles away and we walk the campus regularly with friends, with kids, with out-of-town guests. It is the closest thing Frisco has to a town square, which is a strange thing to say about a development built around an NFL practice facility, but it is true. It also happens to be a 3-to-8-minute drive from all four of our rentals, so it is the destination we end up explaining to guests more than any other.

Here is the practical version. What it is, what is worth doing, where to eat, and what to know if you are coming on game day.

What's at The Star

The campus is built around a single axis that runs roughly north-to-south along Cowboys Way. From the south end:

• The Ford Center — the 12,000-seat indoor stadium that serves as the Cowboys' indoor practice facility and as a public event venue. Frisco ISD high school football games are played here. Concerts, esports finals, drumline competitions, and the Big 12 women's basketball tournament have all used it. If you have ever seen a photo of the Cowboys practicing on an indoor field with stadium seating around it, that is the Ford Center.
• Outdoor practice fields — two of them, on the east side of the Ford Center. The team uses these year-round when they are in town; in the off-season they are quiet enough that you can sometimes watch a youth camp from the sidewalk.
• Tostitos Championship Plaza — the central outdoor space between the Ford Center and the Omni. 27,000 square feet, anchored by a 50-yard replica turf field with the Cowboys star at midfield. Technically a City of Frisco public park, so it is open and free. This is where the kids run, where the photos happen, and where event stages get set up.
• The Tour Center and team store — these flank the plaza. The team store (officially the Dallas Cowboys Pro Shop) is the largest of its kind, and the Tour Center is where you start the guided behind-the-scenes tour.
• Cowboys headquarters offices — the actual front-office building. You will not get inside, but you walk past it constantly.
• The Omni Frisco Hotel — the 16-story hotel on the north end. You do not need to be a guest to use the restaurants or the lobby bar.
• The Star District — the surrounding retail and dining ring. Restaurants, a few shops, a wine bar, a cookie café, an ice cream shop.

The whole thing is walkable. Park once, see the rest on foot.

The Star Tour

The official Star Tour is the only way to get behind the velvet rope. It runs most days and takes about 75 minutes. A guide walks you through the Ford Center, the practice fields when the team is not using them, the locker room when accessible, and a few of the back-of-house spaces. You learn more Cowboys-history trivia than you can possibly retain.

Tickets are sold through the Star tour ticket office. Pricing changes year to year and varies by tour package (standard, VIP, premium), and the official site is the place to confirm the current rate. As a rough order of magnitude: standard adult tours have historically been in the $25–$45 range, with VIP and premium packages above that. Kids 5–12 get a discount and 4-and-under are free.

A few things worth knowing:

• The tour does not always include the locker room. Player presence and event scheduling change what is open. The guides are upfront about this at the start of the tour.
• Tours can sell out, especially on weekends and during training-camp Frisco days. Book online a few days ahead if you can.
• Tours are not weather-dependent — everything is indoor or covered.
• Strollers are fine; the route is not stair-heavy.

If you do not want to pay for the tour, you can still walk the plaza, peek into the Ford Center lobby during events, and tour the team store. That covers most of the public-facing campus.

Restaurants and bars on Cowboys Way

The Star District has roughly twenty places to eat and drink. Some are chains, some are local concepts, and the quality is honestly a mix. Here is what we tell guests:

• Cane Rosso — Neapolitan-style wood-fired pizza, one of the better-known Dallas pizza brands. Solid, fast, reliable. Family-friendly. The honey-bee pizza is the move.
• Mi Cocina — the local Tex-Mex standard. Mambo Taxis (their frozen swirl margarita) are the reason it stays packed. Loud, fun, fine food.
• The Common Table — long beer list, long menu, the kind of place where a group of eight can all find something to order. Good patio.
• Dee Lincoln Prime — the campus splurge steakhouse, opened by Dee Lincoln of Del Frisco's fame. Prime steaks, Wagyu, a sushi bar, an 800-bottle wine list. Reservations recommended. Bring a credit card with room.
• Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar — Southern comfort food. Biscuits are the highlight. Big brunch crowd on weekends.
• Concrete Cowboy — country-music bar with a full kitchen. Live music most nights. Skews adult after dark.
• Sidecar Social — game-bar concept with bowling, shuffleboard, darts, and a decent food menu. The default place to bring a group that cannot agree on what to do.
• Wabi House — ramen and Japanese small plates. Smaller and quieter than the rest of the district.
• Ascension Coffee — the reliable morning coffee. Better than most hotel breakfasts.
• Cow Tipping Creamery — the soft-serve ice cream stop. Stays open late.
• Nestlé Toll House Café — exactly what it sounds like. Cookie-cake territory. Kids approve.

On game days the bars on the plaza side — Concrete Cowboy, Sidecar Social, the Omni's outdoor patios — become the unofficial pregame venues. More on that below.

If you want a fuller Frisco-wide ranking, our 15 best restaurants in Frisco post has the broader picture.

Training camp

This is the question we get most about The Star, and the honest answer surprises people: the Cowboys do not do most of their training camp in Frisco.

The team's main training camp has been held in Oxnard, California for years, and the city signed a multi-year deal extending Oxnard as the main camp site through 2030. The reasoning is climate — late-July California cool beats late-July Texas heat for a team trying to avoid soft-tissue injuries.

That said, the Cowboys do typically run a small number of camp-period practices at the Ford Center after the Oxnard portion wraps, usually in mid-to-late August. In recent years some of those Frisco practices have been open to the public with free tickets reserved through the team site. The format changes year to year, so the only reliable source is the dallascowboys.com training-camp page.

If you are planning a trip around watching practice, double-check the schedule before you book.

Cowboys gameday at The Star

The Cowboys do not play at The Star. Home games are at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, which is about 45 minutes south of Frisco depending on traffic. That distance is the source of the most common question we get from out-of-town fans: where do we pregame?

The answer for a lot of locals is The Star itself. On home Sundays, Cowboys Way fills up by late morning. Concrete Cowboy and Sidecar Social run gameday specials. The Omni's patio bar puts the game on every screen. Tostitos Championship Plaza often has activations — beer garden, food trucks, occasionally live music — sponsored by whichever Cowboys-adjacent brand is on rotation that year. Then a chunk of the crowd gets in cars or rideshares and heads down to Arlington for kickoff.

Away games are a different scene. Without the post-pregame migration, the bars stay full all afternoon. Concrete Cowboy in particular runs sound on the game and turns into a de facto watch party. This is the move if you have Cowboys-fan friends in town and you do not want to drive to a stadium.

The atmosphere on Cowboys Way ranges from family-friendly during the day to adult-night-out after about 8 PM. If you are bringing kids, the daytime plaza is great. If you are coming for the bar scene, late afternoon onward is your window.

Family-friendly things to do

The Star is one of our most-recommended easy stops for families with kids who have an hour or two to fill.

• The plaza turf field — kids can run on it, toss a football, take photos at the midfield star. It is a public park, nobody is policing it.
• The fountains — the water features along the plaza run most of the year (off during the coldest winter weeks). In summer they double as an unofficial splash pad. Bring a towel.
• The team store — even non-fans get something out of the scale of it. There is a kids' section.
• The Star Tour (ages 7+ recommended) — younger than that and the 75-minute walking format gets long. Older kids love it.
• Cow Tipping Creamery + a lap of the plaza — our go-to "easy weeknight outing" with friends who have kids.

A focused family visit can take ninety minutes to two hours. Park, walk the plaza, photo at the star, hit the team store, grab an ice cream, leave. The campus is designed to make that loop feel natural.

One thing worth flagging: during major events at the Ford Center the plaza occasionally gets fenced off for ticket-holder access only. It is rare, but if you have driven over specifically for the plaza experience, check the Ford Center event calendar first. Concerts, large esports finals, and the Big 12 basketball tournament are the most likely culprits.

Where to stay nearby

The Star is one of the most central reference points in Frisco, which is why we mention it in almost every property page. All four of our rentals sit within a 3-to-8-minute drive of Cowboys Way:

• The Palmera — about 5 minutes, our most-booked property for game weekends and event nights at the Ford Center. Sleeps 9; sauna, outdoor skiball and bowling, projector.
• Frisco Waves & Fairways — about 5 minutes, with a private pool and a backyard mini-golf course. Sleeps 11 — the pick for the largest groups.
• DreamScape — about 7 minutes, our most kid-magnetic property. Splashpad in the backyard, fire pole, outdoor projector. Sleeps 8.
• The Indigo Oasis — about 8 minutes, with a resort-style backyard and game room. Sleeps 10 — natural fit for two families traveling together.

We will not pretend they are all equivalent. For groups oriented around Cowboys Way nightlife specifically, The Palmera is the natural pick because it is closest and the layout sleeps a larger adult group well. For families splitting time between The Star and the pool, Frisco Waves & Fairways tends to win.

Practical info

• Address: 1 Cowboys Way, Frisco, TX 75034.
• Parking: Free, in surface lots and the parking garage on Cowboys Way. Valet at the Omni is paid; the garage is free and almost always has space.
• Best time for first-time visitors: Late afternoon into evening, especially in the cooler months. The plaza is most active around 5–8 PM on weeknights.
• Busiest times: Any home-game Sunday, training-camp open practices, and major Ford Center events (concerts, Frisco ISD playoffs). On those days plan for ride-share or arrive early.
• Hours: The plaza is public 24/7. Restaurants run on their own hours, generally 11 AM–10 PM with a few open later. The team store and Tour Center have shorter hours; check the day-of before you go.
• Restrooms: Inside the Omni lobby, inside the team store, and in the Tour Center. Plaza-side public restrooms are limited.
• Pets: Most plaza areas are dog-friendly on leash; restaurants vary.

See also

• PGA Frisco: everything you need to know before you visit
• The ultimate guide to visiting Frisco
• 15 best restaurants in Frisco