British sports/hospitality brand to debut in Dallas

Loyal American baseball fans have always been confused. Why is the bat flat? Where’s first base and third base? Why is the pitcher called a bowler, and why does he throw every pitch in the dirt?

Those questions may soon be answered thanks to Sixes Social Cricket, a new center-based entertainment brand about to debut in Dallas

Sixes’ concept is an immersive experience of the English game whose presence in the United States is mostly felt in cities with large Indian and Pakistani populations who play in cricket leagues.

Sixes will launch at Dallas’s Grandscape, the 400-acre Berkshire Hathaway mixed-use project whose 1.9 million-sq.-ft. Nebraska Furniture Mart and 331,000-sq.-ft Scheel’s sporting goods store hold true to the claim that “Everything’s bigger in Texas.”

"We believe that sport and hospitality hold an unrivalled ability to unite and connect people. We're confident that Sixes will become a staple of the Dallas community,” said Sixes co-founder Calum MacKinnon. “It's an exciting time with Major League Cricket launching in Dallas this June, who we'll be working closely with to grow the game and give people more ways to play."

MLC’s first game in the Dallas area will be played on July 13 at Grand Prairie Stadium, which is outside of Dallas, a cricket-specific stadium with 7,200 seats where most of the circuit’s games will be played. The six inaugural teams are the Seattle Orcas, the Washington Freedom, the San Francisco Unicorns, MI New York, the Los Angeles Knight Riders, and the Texas Super Kings.  A second playing venue is in the works, though its location has yet to be announced.

MacKinnon and partner Andy Waugh are the founders of Mac & Wild’s, a UK pub brand that serves up beers and Scottish dishes like haggis and Veni-Moo Burgers (beef and venison). It’s also where the two cooked up the idea of tech enabled-cricket batting nets where patrons compete against each other.

At Sixes, however, the duo will hold the venison and serve a Beefy Botham Burger and pizzas along with brews.