Just outside of Fair Park, a new Dallas soccer club is hoping World Cup fans, or even just passersby, will join them for a pickup game.

Atlético Dallas opened its street court on Exposition Avenue when FIFA Fan Fest kicked off last month. In the courtyard, visitors can watch matches on the big screen and buy drinks.

The court will be open Saturday during the World Cup quarterfinals. The games are free, and a pickup captain organizes them so kids and adults get a chance to play.

It’s a glimpse of Atlético Dallas’ plans in the neighborhood. The street court is one of at least six planned throughout Dallas, Atlético co-founder Sam Morton said.

“We want as many people playing the game as possible,” he said.

The Den’s patio will close for construction on the bar and restaurant after the World Cup. The court and building will fully open early next year. 

Atlético’s headquarters relocation comes as other sports teams are planning to leave the city’s center.

“We felt that Dallas was such an incredible soccer market that it deserved and needed a men’s team,” Morton said.

FC Dallas, a Major League Soccer team, plays in Frisco, about 30 miles from downtown Dallas.

Atletico will play its first season in the United Soccer League Championship next year. Trinity FC, a professional women’s club, plays in the Gainbridge Super League.

The team’s neighborhood is entering a new era. 

“We see Expo Park becoming a destination on par with Lower Greenville, Bishop Arts, or the Stockyards, but with a character and sense of place that is unmistakably its own,” developer Evan August said in a statement.

The Den’s more than 125-year-old-building is among more than a dozen structures August Real Estate bought in recent years to revitalize in the neighborhood.

Related: Fair Park’s natural history museum will open on Sundays during FIFA Fan Fest

Morton said he remembers when Fair Park felt “magical.” He grew up in North Texas and wants to bring that feeling back.

“It’s a beautiful place that I don’t think people give enough credit to,” Morton said.

On the opening day of FIFA Fan Fest at Fair Park, soccer fans packed Las Almas Rotas, a mezcaleria. Just behind it, Atlético Dallas’ director of hospitality services, James Moore, was one of several who gathered outside in the heat to play.

The team’s mission is to create a community-oriented space in Fair Park and South Dallas.

“It’s not just a soccer bar,” Moore said. “It’s hopefully a place where, whether you’re a fan of soccer or not, you can still come and sit on the patio or have a drink and some food inside and chill out and visit with your people. And that’s what we’re excited about.”

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.