Welcome Dallas Rattlers

Dallas lacrosse fans now have their own professional team

Hey Rattlers, welcome to Texas.

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The Rochester Rattlers, a professional lacrosse team from New York, will relocate to Texas. As rumored, the team will be rebranded as the Dallas Rattlers for the 2018 MLL season, and will play its home games at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters and practice facility, and the site of the 2017 MLL Championship Game.

David Gross, head of Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the outdoor professional lacrosse league, confirmed that they've been interested in North Texas for quite some time. "We believe this relocation will make the franchise stronger than ever and will bring the highest level of lacrosse to a rapidly growing hotbed for the sport," he said in a release.

Longtime sports executive Bill Goren will be president of the team.

Bill Warder will serve as head coach, replacing Tim Soudan, who is stepping down. An assistant coach with the Rattlers since 2007, Warder played in MLL in 2001 and has held coaching roles with the Rattlers and his alma mater of Hobart College. He was an assistant coach when Rochester won the first MLL Championship in franchise history in 2008.

"Bill brings incredible passion and knowledge of MLL and will be a strong asset for the club," Gross said.

Last season, the Rattlers went 8-6 and qualified for the postseason for the eighth time in franchise history. They were eliminated by the Outlaws in the MLL Semi-Finals, 15-8.

New Balance will continue to own the team and the Rattlers will be the first MLL franchise in the state of Texas and the only team to play in the Central Time Zone.

The Rattlers were managed by David and Wendy Dworkin during the 2017 season and returned to play at Capelli Sport Stadium. They are one of the six original franchises that began play in MLL in 2001 and won the Steinfeld Trophy in 2008 with a 16-6 win over the Outlaws for the first Championship in franchise history.

The team relocated to Toronto before the 2009 season, but resumed play under the Rochester Rattlers brand in 2011 when the Chicago Machine relocated to Rochester.

Ford Center is a 12,000-seat indoor facility on the campus of The Star that hosts the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters and serves as the team's practice facility. It opened in August 2016 and hosted the 2017 MLL Championship Game that saw the Ohio Machine win the first league title in franchise history.

The facility serves as a focal point to the sports and entertainment district with more than 15 restaurants, the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor Walk, an Omni Hotel, and the Tostitos Championship Plaza.

The Rattlers will be the seventh professional sports franchise in Frisco, which is home to the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters, the Dallas Stars corporate headquarters and practice rink, FC Dallas of Major League Soccer, the Texas Rangers Double-A affiliate, the Frisco Roughriders, the Texas Revolution of Champions Indoor Football, and the Texas Legends, the G-League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks.

Frisco also hosts FBS football’s Frisco Bowl, the FCS Championship Game for Division I college football, and the Conference USA Basketball Championships.

Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the premier professional outdoor lacrosse league, was founded by Jake Steinfeld and is headquartered in Boston. MLL has continued to lead the sport of lacrosse into the mainstream of competitive team sports since 2001. The league is made up of nine teams: The Atlanta Blaze, Boston Cannons, Charlotte Hounds, Chesapeake Bayhawks, Dallas Rattlers, Denver Outlaws, Florida Launch, New York Lizards, and Ohio Machine.

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World Cup match recap

Japan and Sweden play to 1-1 draw in World Cup match at Dallas Stadium

Japan v Sweden: Group F - FIFA World Cup 2026

Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images

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ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Daizen Maeda gave Japan the lead and Anthony Elanga took it away six minutes later, helping Sweden to a 1-1 draw Thursday night, June 25 that sent both teams to the knockout round of the World Cup.

Elanga’s impressive left-footed strike from just outside the right corner of the box in the 62nd minute was his second goal of this year’s tournament. Elanga has scored only three goals in 49 games for Newcastle, but zero in 32 Premier League matches.

Six minutes earlier, Maeda settled a nifty pass from Ritsu Doan with his left foot in the penalty area and easily beat Jacob Widell Zetterstrom with his right foot.

It was Japan’s seventh goal of the tournament, the country’s most for an entire World Cup. That topped the six the Japanese scored while reaching the round of 16 in Russia eight years ago.

Japan is advancing out of the group stage for the third consecutive World Cup and fifth time in seven tries since first reaching the round of 16 as co-hosts in 2002. The Japanese team finished second in Group F behind the Netherlands and will play Brazil in Houston on Monday.

“For the good of football in Japan, I think it would be a very good experience,” coach Hajime Moriyasu said through a translator of his 16th-ranked team facing No. 5 Brazil. “We do believe there's a chance for us to win. And then we hope that we will be able to move one step further move on to the next stage.”

The Swedes have advanced to the knockout round the past four times they’ve qualified for the World Cup going back to 1994 — when they reached the semifinals the last time the U.S. hosted soccer’s biggest event.

Sweden will have to wait to find out its opponent in the round of 32 next week.

“We have to probably recover the players first and make sure that physically we’re in a good place for whoever we play,” coach Graham Potter said. “We’ve got to be on our toes in terms of logistics. I would say if you had said to me when we first came that would be the challenge we’d face, I would have absolutely taken it.”

Elanga had another chance to score in injury time, with his right-footed attempted forcing goalkeeper Zion Suzuki to make a diving deflection.

On the ensuing corner kick, Suzuki deflected Alexander Isak’s header off the crossbar and into the air, eventually ending the scoring chance with a leaping grab in a crowd of players.

The Blue Samurai's bag-waving, chanting fans among 70,137 at the sold-out home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys were persistent as a scoreless game dragged into the second half. Japan seemed content to sit back and play for a draw that would have guaranteed the same spot in the knockout round as a win.

Just like that, things changed when Doan put Maeda in perfect position to score.

Elanga wasn't anywhere near scoring range, but Suzuki appeared screened and reacted late as the shot beat him to the far post.

Just three minutes later, Isak was inside the penalty area with a great scoring chance, but Suzuki deflected it wide and over the end line, angrily gesturing toward some of his teammates as Sweden lined up for another corner kick. The Swedes had eight corner kicks to only two for Japan.

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