alt Dallas is hoping that a visit from Premiership club Chelsea to their new stadium will help convince United States officials to pick it for the final of the World Cup if the country's bid is successful.

 

The $1.15 billion (£702 million) Cowboys Stadium, named after the city's American football team, who will be its main tennant, will be officially opened this month with a series of soccer matches, including the visit on July 26 of Chelsea, who will play Club America, one of Mexico's leading teams.

 

Stephen Jones, the Cowboys' executive vice-president who has helped oversee the new stadium's development, said that the new 100,000-capacity arena was built to accommodate soccer as well as American football.

 

He said: "Soccer wasn't at the back of our minds in building the stadium.

 

"It was front and centre alongside football.

 

"It is one of the pieces of the puzzle we knew we had to have in making our stadium more than just the home of the Dallas Cowboys."

 

That may help to explain why the first two sporting events at Cowboys Stadium will be soccer matches.

 

First up is a CONCACAF Gold Cup quarter-final doubleheader July 19 and then a week later by Chelsea, who are touring North America.

 

Jones said: "These games will be a learning experience for us.

 

"You don't take a Lamborghini home from the showroom and know everything it can do.

 

"You test drive it for a while and then put the pedal to the metal."

 

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The ultimate goal for Jones is for the Cowboys Stadium to host the World Cup final if US is chosen by FIFA to stage the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, Jones admitted.

 

David Downs, the executive director of the US World Cup Bid Committee, said: "We are keenly aware of the 100,000 seating capacity.

 

"That it is also one of the state-of-the-art stadiums is another plus.

 

"The upcoming games are the perfect look-sees for us and FIFA."

 

Last month, the USA Bid Committee announced that it had asked 37 US venues to submit proposals to host World Cup games, including the Cowboys Stadium.

 

Mark Williams, the associate principal at Dallas-based HKS Architects, which designed Cowboys Stadium and who is working on Liverpool's proposed new ground at Stanley Park, said that from the start, the plan was to make the structure "FIFA-friendly".

 

He said: "Lots of venues [in the US] can't squeeze in the layout of a soccer playing surface.

 

"Some didn't think of it.

 

"Some chose not to fit it in.

 

"We made sure the pitch layout of our playing surface would fit."

 

The Stadium also has a retracable roof which means that the temperature can be controlled.