National Cricket League
Launching a new Professional Sports League in Dallas - cricket!
THE SITUATION
The National Cricket League arrived in Dallas with an ambitious vision: establish the city not just as a team market, but as the league's global headquarters. They were building something from scratch — a six-team professional cricket league, a brand-new stadium, and a fanbase that would need to be both cultivated and energized across a city where cricket was largely unknown to mainstream audiences.
It was a first-mover story, a community story, and a civic story all at once. Our job was to tell all three simultaneously — to mainstream Dallas media, the city's large and passionate South Asian community, national sports business press, and civic leaders — in a way that generated real, measurable coverage from day one.
DALA’S SOLUTION
Rather than lead with the sport itself, we framed the NCL's arrival as a civic win: Dallas landing a global sports headquarters and expanding its identity as one of the most diverse sports markets in the country. We led the news cycle with a press conference in the Dallas City Hall Flag Room, bringing together NCL leadership and city officials to formally announce the league's Dallas headquarters and local team. Making City Hall the venue was intentional. It elevated the announcement from a sports press release to a civic event, signaling to media, community leaders, and potential investors that this was a serious, city-backed initiative with real momentum behind it.
The City Hall event created the news hook. From there, we kept the momentum going with a community kickoff celebration designed to unveil the team names and jerseys and connect directly with Dallas' South Asian community — the built-in, passionate cricket fanbase that would be the league's earliest and most vocal advocates. The event gave media a visual, human story to tell beyond the boardroom announcement, and it gave the NCL an authentic foothold in the community it needed most.
Our outreach strategy was deliberately layered: mainstream Dallas broadcast and print media to build general market awareness, national sports business outlets to establish the NCL's legitimacy as a serious league, and a targeted suite of South Asian community publications to reach the core fanbase with the depth and cultural context those outlets provide.
THE RESULTS
The campaign delivered broad, diverse coverage across every audience segment we were targeting. On the mainstream Dallas side, three of the market's top TV stations covered the NCL launch:
WFAA-TV (ABC): National Cricket League launching in Dallas, Texas
KDFW-TV (FOX 4): National Cricket League to be headquartered in Dallas with a local team
KTVT-TV (CBS 11, Ft. Worth): New sports league headed to North Texas
National business press picked up the story as a legitimate sports industry development:
Yahoo News: New sports league headed to North Texas
The Financial Daily: NCL proudly marks its grand launch in Dallas headquarters
Dallas' influential professional and lifestyle press gave the story cultural credibility:
D Magazine: We're Getting Another Pro Cricket League
KRLD 1080: Cricket is Becoming More Popular in N. Texas
People Newspapers: National Cricket League Comes to North Dallas
The Dallas Express: The National Cricket League (NCL) plans to set up its headquarters and base one of its six teams in Dallas with newly built stadium
The campaign also delivered strong penetration into the South Asian community through a targeted suite of publications — the outlets where cricket actually lives for Dallas's most passionate potential fanbase:
The South Asian Times: Current Indian news in America, latest news of Indian American
The American Bazaar: New sports league and cricket team launched in Dallas
India West: New Cricket Venture Launched In Dallas
theindianeye.com: Dallas to have a new Sports League and headquarters
Hi India: Dallas Mayor Unveils Exciting Sports League Initiative with New Headquarters in the City
“Dallas Mayor Unveils Exciting Sports League Initiative with New Headquarters in the City” — Hi India — capturing exactly the civic story we set out to tell
That headline says it all. From the opening press conference at City Hall to the community celebration that followed, every element of the campaign was engineered to make the NCL's Dallas arrival feel like a civic moment — not just a sports announcement. The result was coverage that reached mainstream Dallas, the national sports business press, and the South Asian community simultaneously, giving the NCL a credible, multi-dimensional launch in its new home city.