Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said city officials will take “all reasonable necessary steps” to keep the NBA’s Mavericks and NHL’s Stars within city limits.
“My ad hoc committee on professional sports recruitment and retention will help guide this collaborative process,” Johnson said in his state of the city address Thursday.
The basketball team has said it’s looking for a new arena after its lease at the American Airlines Center runs out in 2031.
The Stars, who share the AAC with the NBA team, have also begun looking at locations across the Metroplex to relocate and expand their own entertainment outfit.
Political Points
But the two teams have been locked in a dysfunctional relationship for years, The Dallas Morning News reported, later revealing how the tensions climaxed on Oct. 28 when the Mavericks took the Stars to the Texas Business Court to oust the hockey outfit from the American Airlines Center, citing a breach of a 1998 contract that required the Stars to maintain their corporate headquarters in Dallas.
City officials have been mixed on whether or not the city should get involved to broker peace between the two teams. In a recent interview with CBS News, Johnson said the issue didn’t involve the city.
“We’re sort of a sports crazy city, and I’m a sports fan myself, but it’s a bigger issue than that,” he said.
The sports business has evolved, he said, and teams these days are looking for prospects beyond the confines of an arena or a stadium. “There’s a lot of issues now related to these sports teams wanting to be in a multiplicity of businesses, everything from retail development and stores and restaurants to hotels to gaming, all kinds of things now,” Johnson said. “And so they’re looking at a bigger picture than they were before. And so it’s a very complex conversation.”
As the two teams fight it out, Johnson is focused on courting more teams. Since last year, Dallas has managed to attract three sports teams, the Dallas Wings, Dallas Trinity FC and Atletico Dallas, to set up their stomping grounds within city limits.
“And while we won’t be negotiating these deals in public, I will say this to any professional sports team owner who may be listening. If you’re truly serious about Dallas on your uniforms, we’re serious about keeping you here at home in our city,” he said.
The Stars have been operating in Frisco since 2003, and the Stars countersued, accusing the Mavericks of attempting a “hostile takeover” of the arena. They argue that only the city of Dallas can determine if a breach occurred, and they’ve been operating in Frisco without issue.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit also highlighted that the Mavericks, who are exploring a new basketball-only arena, have withheld tens of millions of dollars in quarterly arena proceeds from the Stars.
Records show Johnson, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and other city officials were negotiating with the Stars about AAC, while simultaneously collaborating with the Mavericks on a new downtown, basketball-specific arena as part of an entertainment district.
Before matters took a turn for the worse, months of negotiations were underway for $300 million to renovate the AAC. Records from city and Mavericks officials said the hockey team had agreed to stay in Victory Park until 2061, with the city and the basketball team agreeing to share the costs of renovating the arena.
The Stars, however, said they were not a party to these plans and were kept in the dark. Instead, they had agreed to keep both teams at the AAC through 2035. More back-and-forth ensued, with no resolution in sight.
Documents reveal the Stars later suggested deal terms that would require the city to waive its annual rent, which is currently split evenly between both teams, and to commit to $400 million to $500 million in AAC renovations without financial obligation from the team. Tolbert described them as “unreasonable” requests.
The Mavericks then cited the breach in the franchise agreement. Tolbert then sent a legal notice to the Stars, citing the exact same breach.