McKinney Chupacabras FC x Landon Winery
Landon Winery Partnership Brings Local Flavor and Soccer Together in McKinney
Local winery shifts focus toward fan engagement and watch parties as North Texas soccer market grows
Photo: Michael Hitchcock and Bob Landon
When Bob Landon first started making wine as a science project at age 12, he never imagined it would one day help bring soccer fans together in McKinney.
“It was terrible, I’m sure,” Landon said. “But it was cool as a kid.”
Now president of Landon Winery, he is betting on a different kind of experiment — a partnership with McKinney Chupacabras FC that blends business, community and a growing soccer market.
Founded in 2005, Landon Winery is more than a winery. The company operates across multiple beverage categories, including wine, beer and spirits, and now owns eight wineries, five distilleries and five breweries.
With a background in finance, including an MBA and CPA, Landon understands the business side of expansion. After meeting with Chupacabras founder Michael Hitchcock, he saw the club’s vision and decided to become a partner.
“I wanted to get in early,” Landon said. “Whenever you do a partnership in business, both people have to win.”
Born in Canton, Missouri, in 1959, Landon has seen American soccer change dramatically. As a tween, he and a group of friends formed a soccer team. They lost all but two matches — one because of a forfeit and another because the game was snowed out.
Decades later, he sees a very different future for the sport in the United States.
For Landon, the Chupacabras partnership is less about immediate profit and more about long-term community growth — a philosophy shaped by decades of business experience and a belief in investing early in emerging opportunities.
One of his early goals is to turn Landon Winery into a gathering place for soccer fans.
“To host watch parties for games, both Chupacabra games and World Cup games,” Landon said. “Hopefully make this the place that people are going to hang out and watch Chupacabra games.”
The winery employs 95 people, and while Landon has long had a rule of no televisions, this new partnership is set to change that.
As soccer continues to expand across North Texas, he believes partnerships like this will become more common.
For Landon Winery, the experiment is just beginning.
Written by Grayson Pitts
Edited by Elliott Stockdale
