DALLAS \u2014 The Dallas Mavericks are considering Dallas City Hall as a potential site for a new basketball arena, adding a new chapter to ongoing discussions about the future home as their lease at the American Airlines Center will expire in 2031.<\/p>\n
Mavericks CEO Rick Welts recently confirmed the team\u2019s interest in the City Hall site during a North Dallas Chamber of Commerce meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love for the Mavs to stay in Dallas,\u201d said Christopher Kratovil, an attorney who works for Dykema in downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n
With the Dallas Stars reportedly exploring a potential move to Plano, some residents and stakeholders say keeping the Mavericks within city limits is increasingly important.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would leave Dallas as the largest city in the country that doesn\u2019t have a professional sports team playing within its municipal borders – that would be unfortunate. So, the Mavs are kinda of the city of Dallas\u2019s last hope,\u201d Kratovil said.<\/p>\n
Still, the question of where the team will ultimately build remains unresolved.<\/p>\n
The Adelson family, which owns the Mavericks and controls Las Vegas Sands Corp., also owns roughly 100 acres in Irving and has expressed interest in developing a resort destination there while lobbying Texas lawmakers to legalize gambling.<\/p>\n
Another possible site is the former Valley View Center property in North Dallas, which some say offers more space for development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mavs say they need 50 to do the project the way they want to do it. I don\u2019t know how they can get a 50-acre site when the City Hall site is only 12 acres. Valley View, on the other hand, is more than large enough,\u201d said Kratovil.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The City Hall proposal comes as Dallas officials debate the future of the nearly 50-year-old building, designed by architect I. M. Pei. The city estimates it could cost more than $1 billion to remain in the building because of needed repairs, prompting consideration of a potential move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI question why council is trying to move on this so quickly,\u201d one Dallas resident said in a March City Council meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson did not respond to a request for comment but previously wrote in an op-ed: \u201cThe fact is that no matter where the team\u2019s next arena is built, it will create economic value and vibrancy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m supportive of the Mavs making downtown Dallas their home. In an ideal world, I\u2019d like to see them do that without tearing down City Hall,\u201d Kratovil said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 The Dallas Mavericks are considering Dallas City Hall as a potential site for a new basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[1981,1970,2096,7,686,149,4057,55317,88871,166,88872,6,67,969,2098,55314,6032],"class_list":{"0":"post-712533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-app-professional-sports","9":"tag-app-sports","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-dallas-mavericks","14":"tag-dallasmavericks","15":"tag-dfw-what-you-need-to-know","16":"tag-el-paso","17":"tag-mavericks","18":"tag-michael-lozano","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-san-antonio","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","24":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116420804266847982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}