{"id":478138,"date":"2026-03-01T03:08:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/478138\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T03:08:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:08:44","slug":"plano-confirms-earnest-discussions-with-dallas-stars-over-willow-bend-but-no-offer-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/478138\/","title":{"rendered":"Plano confirms \u2018earnest discussions\u2019 with Dallas Stars over Willow Bend, but no offer yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plano officials confirmed they\u2019ve been in discussions with the Dallas Stars<\/a> to build a new arena where a suburban shopping mall currently sits.<\/p>\n

However, city officials told The Dallas Morning News on Friday that no formal offer has been made to relocate the NHL franchise to The Shops at Willow Bend site yet.<\/p>\n

Representatives for the Stars declined to comment on the arena search. Bill Cawley of Cawley Partners, a co-owner of the shopping center, also declined to respond.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past year, the City has been in earnest discussions with the Dallas Stars regarding a potential arena district at The Shops at Willow Bend,\u201d city spokesperson Amanda McNew said in a statement. <\/p>\n

D-FW Real Estate News<\/p>\n

Get the latest real estate news you need to know.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe City does not publicly comment on negotiations until a proposal is ready for formal consideration by the Plano City Council. However, because of recent news reports referencing a formal offer to the team, we want to clarify to the Plano Community that no such offer has been made.\u201d<\/p>\n

The News first reported in October that the Stars were eyeing Willow Bend<\/a> as the site for a more than $1 billion arena. <\/p>\n

The shopping center at 6121 W. Park Blvd. emerged as the favorite<\/a> to land the team after discussions with cities including Frisco, The Colony, Arlington and Fort Worth \u2014 if the Stars opted to leave Dallas and American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

Plano\u2019s acknowledgment of negotiations but denial of a formal offer comes after Dallas City Council member Chad West said the Collin County suburb presented the team with a letter of intent. The letter was first reported by WFAA-TV (Channel 8).<\/p>\n

\u201cI have learned that there is a letter of intent, which is simply an offer on the table for the Stars to move to the Willow Bend mall location in Plano,\u201d West told The News. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not surprising because it\u2019s been public for several months now that a lot of cities are interested in courting the Stars, knowing that their contact with the AAC is going to end in 2031.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The Mavericks and Stars have shared venues since the Stars moved to Dallas from Minneapolis in 1993, previously cohabiting the Reunion Arena. They both moved into American Airlines Center when the venue opened in 2001. <\/p>\n

The Mavericks, under the ownership of the Adelson family, are looking to build a new basketball-first arena in Dallas, freeing up the Stars to find a new home when the AAC lease ends in 2031.<\/p>\n

The relationship between the two Dallas franchises has deteriorated over the last year<\/a>, leaving the pair locked in a legal battle<\/a> over control of the AAC.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Dallas leaders are still working to keep the team within the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are engaged in strong and good faith negotiations with the Dallas Stars, and we will continue our efforts to keep the Stars in Dallas\u2014where they belong,” Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said in a statement Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Staff writers Lilly Kersh and Lia Assimakopoulos contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plano officials confirmed they\u2019ve been in discussions with the Dallas Stars to build a new arena where a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5117],"tags":[196,147,5278,5,4,4088,197],"class_list":{"0":"post-478138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-stars","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-stars","10":"tag-dallasstars","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-real-estate","14":"tag-stars"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116151721533062426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}