An artist's rendering of the Burn's new 20,000-seat stadium, which is scheduled to open in time for the 2005 season. Dallas Burn/HKS

FRISCO, Texas -- Lamar Hunt smiled, gripped his commemorative shovel and gazed out over the North Texas grassland that soon will feature a sprawling 17-field youth soccer complex and America's third soccer-specific stadium.

For Hunt, a founding father of the old American Football League and MLS, soccer's viability in this country is an article of faith. "I'm a firm believer that the biggest deciding factor will be the development of stadiums," he told me at Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony for the $65 million Frisco Soccer & Entertainment Center, the future home of his Dallas Burn. "Projects like this inspire other cities to have an interest and then take the leap."

MLS' construction phase began in 1999, when Hunt (who owns three MLS teams) built Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. It continued with last year's debut of the Home Depot Center for Phil Anschutz's Los Angeles Galaxy. Now more bricks and mortar are on the way in Frisco; in Bridgeview, Ill., where city planners recently approved a financing deal for the Chicago Fire's new home; and in Harrison, N.J., where the MetroStars are finalizing plans for a new stadium that (if the drawings I saw this week pan out) will be a gem.

Hunt is 71. He had surgery to remove his prostate last fall. His legacy is secure: enshrinement in the NFL, soccer and international tennis Halls of Fame. In other words, he certainly doesn't need to be doing this. And yet there's no denying Hunt's love for soccer (he was wearing a tie festooned with soccer balls), his passion for sports facilities (he visited every World Cup stadium in Japan and South Korea in 2002), or his boundless energy (he went door-to-door selling Kansas City Wizards season tickets last year).

Is it any surprise that Hunt earned the nickname "Games" as a boy for organizing contests in his neighborhood?

"Clearly, he's the only person who's been foolish enough to be involved in two soccer leagues in this country [the NASL and MLS] over a 40-year period," joked Clark Hunt, Lamar's son and fellow Burn owner. "He's doing this in his 70s, and he's still got more energy than the rest of us. Ever since I was young he told me, 'What got the AFL over the hump was the construction of new facilities.' We've all seen it happen in other sports. Early on, facilities were part of the business plan for MLS, but it didn't happen because it's expensive. Yet, here we are, coming in eight or nine years later and starting to get these stadiums built."

Lamar Hunt always has been a visionary. It was Hunt who came up with the name "Super Bowl," who spearheaded negotiations on the AFL-NFL merger and who helped usher in the Open era of tennis with his World Championship Tennis startup.

Now he hopes future MLS stadium projects will follow the Frisco model, combining public and private financing while uniting the cash cow of youth soccer with the as-yet unprofitable pro game. Frisco, a booming suburb north of Dallas, is home to the fastest-growing school district in Texas, which is combining with Collin County and the city to provide $55 million of the $65 million for the complex. (The Hunt Sports Group will cover the difference, plus any cost overruns.)

Hunt doesn't need to be doing this. Yet he's pushing ahead in a sport that finally may be turning the corner after decades in the American wilderness. "We're all progressing forward," he said. "In the case of soccer, this sport has not achieved the success that we want it to, and that it has to, but it takes things like this to get it done."

That attitude, in turn, breeds tremendous respect. As Dustin Christmann, the founder of the Burn's Inferno supporters group, told me, "We've been trying to come up with a good nickname for the new stadium. We're thinking of 'Uncle Lamar's House of Whoop-Ass.'"

Don't know what Lamar will think of that one, but it sounds perfect to me. Can't wait for the stadium to open in next April.

Ten Random Things

• Speaking of Dallas, Cory Gibbs looks like he could be a monster addition at centerback for a defense that was horribly porous last season.

• So Anschutz has purchased the San Francisco Examiner and several other Bay Area papers. Never mind the irony of a man who doesn't give interviews owning a newspaper. Want to bet the Anschutz-owned San Jose Earthquakes start getting better beat coverage in at least one outlet?

• Jerk of the Week Award: Goes to Holland coach Dick Advocaat, who had this to say after his team's 1-0 friendly win in Amsterdam against the U.S.: "We missed some sharpness, and performing against such conservative opponents didn't inspire us. We were supposed to meet the Germans tonight and then we'd have had a match with enthusiasm and prestige." Classy, Dick. Classy.

• Not much to take away from the U.S. defeat, except that we shouldn't be surprised by the Yanks' countering (and largely defensive) posture, particularly given the opponent and the venue.

• Tiffeny Milbrett's decision to step away from the U.S. national team (as long as April Heinrichs remains the coach) ends a difficult stretch for the woman who had no peer worldwide in 2000 and '01. One hopes this isn't the end of Milbrett's international career, but if it is she has been one of the greats, scoring 98 career goals in a U.S. uniform and earning winner's medals at the 1996 Olympics and '99 World Cup.

• A little birdie told me that Soccer United Marketing is on track to get the rights for the CONCACAF Gold Cup -- which means we might actually get to see the regional championship on television next time around. Imagine that.

• Spoke with former Burn GM Andy Swift down in Dallas this week. Bilingual, young, smart and experienced, Swift could be a huge asset to any MLS team, yet nobody has picked him up yet. Amazing.

• I can wear my Boca Juniors jersey anywhere in the Western Hemisphere ... and some random person will scream at me in glee within an hour of going out in public.

	MAILBAG Grant Wahl will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

• While we're on uniforms, the new U.S. kits have a good look about them. One request, though for Nike: If you're going to design them with funky cool numbers and a blue field on the back for players' surnames, make sure you sell jerseys that have those names and numbers on them. Otherwise it looks kind of weird.

• Tony Kornheiser now has mentioned Freddy Adu in parts of four columns in the Washington Post. Three of those mentions have questioned his age, saying in effect that Adu and his mother are liars. Don't you think it's about time Tony K. took the time to look into this a little more if he's going to keep throwing that out there?

Check back for another soccer column in a few weeks. In the meantime, send me a question for the U.S. Soccer mailbag

Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl keeps you up to date with the world of U.S. soccer at SI.com.