The site of the demolished Valley View Mall sits vacant in Dallas, Friday, May 29, 2026.
Angela Piazza/The Dallas Morning News
Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban’s legal dispute with franchise majority owner Patrick Dumont has changed courts — and a judge has ordered the case to be resolved through arbitration.
Though the Mavericks say they are legally prohibited from discussing specifics of the case, one media report’s interpretation of phrasing in a court filing has compelled the franchise to reemphasize its intention to build a new arena and entertainment district on the former site of Valley View Mall.
“We’re still fully committed to Valley View and are doing our due diligence,” Mavericks chief communications officer Gina Miller said. “We are 100% focused on doing the due diligence necessary to get this deal done.”
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On June 1, the Mavericks announced they had entered option-to-purchase agreements to acquire 104 of the Valley View site’s 110 acres.
On July 8, Cuban’s attorneys filed a petition in Dallas County’s 134th Judicial District Court accusing Dumont of “adversarial business practices” and shutting Cuban out of the arena plans and other lucrative development opportunities.
On July 31, the case was moved to Judge Bill Whitehill’s Texas Business Court First Division. On Aug. 6, Whitehill granted the Mavericks’ motion to send the case to arbitration. Whitehill scheduled an arbitration hearing for this Friday.
The Dallas Business Journal was the first to report the case’s move to the same Texas Business Court and judge who in May ruled in the Mavericks’ favor against the Stars in the teams’ dispute over control of American Airlines Center.
The outlet also interpreted wording in team attorney James Bookhout’s Aug. 6 response to Cuban’s petition as the Mavericks being uncertain and noncommittal about their arena plans.
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The portion of the 106-page document, which was obtained by The News, reads in part:
“Mr. Cuban has demanded that he be involved in the search for the Dallas Mavericks’ new home arena and the Valley View Options process. Because of the purely exploratory nature of the Valley View Options, and the uncertainty regarding which entity will operate the new arena, there is no current business opportunity to present to Mr. Cuban or Petitioners.
“This fact has been communicated to Mr. Cuban.”
Related: Mark Cuban-Patrick Dumont dust-up typifies three decades of Mavs owner rifts
Miller said there is no ambiguity, nor has there been a change, in the Mavericks’ plans.
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Technically, they have not fully committed to the Valley View site. The option-to-purchase agreement is a standard safeguard during due diligence. In the Mavericks’ case, that means working through issues such as zoning, entitlements, and financing for what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar project.
The Mavericks established Arena Development Intermediate, LLC as the company that acquired the 104 acres from multiple landowners, but ADI won’t necessarily be the Mavericks subsidiary that ultimately operates the arena — which the franchise hopes will be complete in time for the 2031-32 NBA season.
Seritage Growth Properties owns approximately 20% of the Valley View site. As a public company, it was required to publicly file the Mavericks’ option-to-purchase specifics, which also are contained in the team’s petition response.
The Mavericks are required to make monthly, nonrefundable payments of $169,200 that started June 1 and run through the end of the year. The monthly payments in 2027 will increase to $274,950 until the purchase agreement is fulfilled or terminated.
As the Mavericks’ court-filed response notes, the Seritage deal is “subject to customary closing conditions” and “cross-conditioned and cross-defaulted” with the their options to buy the Valley View site’s larger tracts.
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Some Dallas city leaders and downtown landowners might hold out hope of a Mavericks pivot from Valley View, but in that scenario, the more likely Plan B would be the 200-acre Irving tract owned by Sands Corp., of which Dumont is chairman and CEO.
As for downtown Dallas, the Mavericks’ only reported potential option, the City Hall site, appears no closer to having its fate resolved than 10 weeks ago, when the team announced it had chosen Valley View.