The Mavericks’ timeline for a new arena is at least five years away, but the team’s employees won’t have to wait nearly that long for an upgraded corporate headquarters.
Mavericks CEO Rick Welts told The Dallas Morning News that in the next few weeks, a multimillion-dollar overhaul will commence of the franchise’s current headquarters in Dallas’ Design District.
That is despite the fact the Mavericks don’t plan to remain in the Design District long-term. Welts said that when the franchise builds a new basketball-specific arena, ideally within Dallas city limits, it also plans to build an adjacent new headquarters and training facility.
“We’re asking [employees] to operate in a super-professional environment,” Welts said. “We need to provide that, so the whole place is getting redone, even though we’re moving out in five or six years.”
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The Mavericks continue to work with city of Dallas officials to pinpoint where to build an approximately 50-acre arena and entertainment district.
Welts told The News on Jan. 20 that the team and city are focused on two locations – the 110-acre Valley View site; and an unspecified footprint downtown.
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One possible downtown location includes the current site of city hall, as conversations continue about whether to preserve or demolish it. Welts originally set a goal of pinpointing a site by the end of the first quarter of 2026, but on Jan. 20 he amended the timetable to “around July 1.”
Why spend millions of dollars upgrading what likely is a temporary headquarters? Welts said that soon after the Adelson-Dumont families purchased controlling interest in the Mavericks in Dec. 2023, team governor Patrick Dumont noted the need for a larger and more modern HQ.
Since late 2016, the Mavericks’ corporate HQ and adjoining basketball training facility have been on the 12-acre Design District footprint purchased by then-majority shareholder Mark Cuban. The Adelson-Dumont families purchased the property and buildings in Jan. 2024.
The property is across Stemmons freeway from American Airlines Center, where the Mavericks have played since 2001, but the team’s lease expires in July 2031.
When the current 35,000-square foot HQ was constructed by Terrell General Contractors, the facility housed about 175 Mavericks and Mark Cuban Company employees. Since then the Mavericks’ business office size has swelled to well over 200 employees.
Welts said construction will take about a year. During construction, employees will be moved to an adjacent building on the property, also owned by the Adelson-Dumont families.
“It’s a part of Patrick people don’t see,” Welts said. “There’s a real caring about how our employees are doing, as well as our fans. It’ll be a super-welcomed upgrade of the workplace.”
Previously, the Mavericks have not been on record as saying they plan to build a new HQ and training facility, in addition to an arena.
It’s logical, though, to want all three to be part of the same footprint. Many Mavericks basketball staff members office at both AAC and the training facility.
The Mavericks practice at the training facility, but game-morning shootarounds usually are held across the highway at AAC, where there also is a basement practice court that gets utilized. It’s a disjointed, but necessary way to operate while the basketball and business staff expands.
As president of the Golden State Warriors from 2011 to 2021, Welts oversaw virtually every facet of the planning and building of San Francisco’s $1.4 billion Chase Center, which opened in 2019, with the business offices and training facilities all under one roof.
The Warriors’ business offices, however, recently relocated to an adjoining building. The Warriors initially wanted to replicate the arena-training-offices complex that they had at Oakland’s Oracle Arena from 1971-2019.
“I think I made a mistake in Golden State and the Chase Center, where we really fought hard to get both the practice facility and business offices in Chase Center,” Welts said.
“We had our practice courts on one level, and then the business offices and basketball offices on the next level,” Welts said. “We were all in the same place, all the time.
“It was great, but like always happens in arenas, you run out of space.”
Lesson learned, to be applied in Dallas, ideally with a site picked within the next four months.
“We’ll put them together,” Welts said of the Mavs’ next HQ and training center, “but we won’t be in the arena. We’ll be in a separate building – adjacent, somewhere close.”
Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.