FC Dallas became a charter member club of Major League Soccer on June 6, 1995, selected along with Kansas City and Colorado to give the league 10 teams for its initial year. Known originally as the Dallas Burn, the team’s original colors (red and black) and logo (fire-breathing horse) were unveiled at a gala in New York City on October 17, 1995. That same day, MLS announced that Mexican-icon Hugo Sanchez was allocated to the team as its first player in team history.Six months later, Dallas played its first MLS game, defeating the San Jose Clash in front of 27,779 fans at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on April 14, 1996. In its second year, Dallas claimed its first major championship, winning the 1997 U.S. Open Cup title by defeating D.C. United 5-3 on penalty kicks after a scoreless game.The team was a league-owned entity from its inception until the fall of 2002, when Lamar Hunt and his family took over the operating rights. Between 1996 and 2009, Dallas compiled a regular season record of 180-185-63 and qualified for the postseason on ten occasions. In 2006, the club recorded its highest point total in franchise history, going 16-12-4 for 52 points and earning the top seed in the Western Conference Playoffs for the first time ever.The team changed its name to FC Dallas after the conclusion of the 2004 season. As part of the club’s rebranding, new uniforms and a new logo were unveiled along with the name change. The logo features the name FC Dallas and the number 96, signifying the year that the club played its inaugural game, above a drawing of a bull, signifying the kind of Texas cattle that were driven along the North Texas trails throughout the 19th century. The logo features the club's colors of red, white and blue, (all of which can be found in the American flag and the state flag of Texas), and a hint of silver.After playing all of the team’s home games at either the Cotton Bowl in Dallas or Dragon Stadium in Southlake, Texas for the first nine and a half seasons of its existence, FC Dallas moved to its new home, FC Dallas Stadium, the third soccer-specific stadium in Major League Soccer, on August 6, 2005.In 2006, FC Dallas formed exclusive partnerships with Mexican First Division club Tigres de la Universidad Autonoma de Nueva Leon (UANL) and Clube Atletico Paranaense of Brazil’s Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A. These partnerships provide FC Dallas with an avenue to develop philosophies, practices, and training methods, as well as the opportunity to exchange players through loans.Additionally, these partnerships have seen FCD play an annual home-and-away series against each club. FC Dallas won the inaugural Rio Grande Plate against Tigres in 2006, but the Mexican club claimed the plate in 2007 and 2008. Atletico Paranaense won the inaugural USA-Brazil Challenge in 2007, but 2008 saw FCD claim the title.In December 2007, FCD announced that the team had formed a business alliance with the Trinidad & Tobago Pro League, at the conclusion of the Shaka Hislop Tribute Cup, a tournament played in Trinidad between FCD, Clube Atletico Paranaense, and two all-star teams from the TT Pro League.In 2010 the club earned its first Western Conference title with a 3-0 win over the LA Galaxy. FC Dallas played Colorado in the MLS Cup in Toronto, but fell just short, 2-1, in extra time.