I don’t know how you received the news Tuesday that the Dallas Mavericks are suing the Dallas Stars. It’s a bit like the Cowboys suing the Rangers over some shared parking lots in Arlington, and I hope I didn’t just give Jerry Jones another idea for increased revenues.
Honestly, though, Jerry has a much better handle on how to deal with people in the D-FW area than the new Mavericks owners, who seem determined, along with their general manager, to prove that none of the rubes around here had any idea how to run a sports franchise until they dropped in from Vegas.
I won’t even try to go into most of the details involved, but the Mavericks are suing the Stars for breach of contract. Somehow, Patrick Dumont or city officials came to the realization that the Stars’ headquarters are in Frisco. Been there for 22 years, in fact. At least it was news to some, and there’s a clause in the contract that says those headquarters are supposed to be in Dallas. Our beloved city leaders let it slide two decades before bringing it up.
Using that as a comfortable way to engage a whole bunch of lawyers on both sides, the Mavs, with the city’s blessing, are withholding Stars’ revenues from their partnership and the Stars are countersuing to try to get things back on course. From a fan’s standpoint and the question of “What does this mean to me?” I’m afraid the answer is a lot.
Mavericks
It’s hard for me to believe it was 27 years ago that I was called into the office of Ross Perot Jr. where he showed me the mockup for this brand new arena that voters had just approved for the Mavericks and Stars. The whole area was to be called Victory, which I found somewhat misleading at least from the Mavs’ part, given that the ‘90s were not exactly the salad days for the franchise.
“Now here is where we’ll have a plaza two football fields in length,” Perot said. “This is where Nellie will come out on the balcony to greet 40,000 people after the Mavericks have won the championship, and Stern is handing the MVP trophy to Finley.”
Actually, Ross was off by two coaching changes, and it was Dirk, not Finley, who was the star on that balcony in 2011, but he had the right idea. This all still seems fairly fresh in my mind, as those things go, and to think that neither the Mavericks nor the Stars are likely to be playing in the AAC in six years is frustrating. Who made the determination that arenas are only good for 30 years then we have to build more?
We have known for years that first Mark Cuban, then the new owners, wanted their own basketball arena. Once that decision was made, the hockey team was basically screwed. If the Mavericks build something new and it’s either two miles away at the convention center site or even over in Irving, that arena is going to be bringing in most of the concerts, not the AAC. And the Mavericks would be getting all the revenues from the new building and still maintaining a stake in the AAC from their partnership with the Stars. Economically, being the Mavs’ tenant does not work for the Stars.
“It’s not an ideal situation,” Stars CEO Brad Alberts said Friday, mastering the art of understatement.
The Stars would not mind staying in the AAC if the Mavericks leave, but it’s not great. A hockey team does not need and cannot sell 100 suites on its own without a basketball partner. On top of that, Cuban wasn’t the experienced shark of a businessman that he is now when he bought the Mavericks in 2000. He got the team and his portion of the arena, but Perot kept all the surrounding land. That’s how places that should be event parking lots turned into apartments. That’s how the Mavericks and Stars get none of your pregame or postgame dollars spent in any of the restaurants and bars in Victory Plaza.
The Mavs and the city want the Stars to extend their lease to 2061. Good grief, who knows what the hockey world will look like 36 years from now? Beyond that, NBA teams get roughly $200 million per season from their national TV deals. Take away a zero and that’s what NHL teams get. It’s a wildly different economic scale where hockey teams, true to their sport, have to scratch and claw in the corners to make ends meet.
The sports arena and stadium world has become a land war. The Stars look at what the Atlanta Braves have done with The Battery for what they would love to accomplish somewhere, anywhere, in the D-FW area. Eight cities in the area have reached out to the Stars. There aren’t enough nights to fill your building if it’s a one-team arena, so you’ve got to make it a real estate play.
I don’t know what these suits accomplish beyond keeping hundreds of lawyers busy, but I do know the time that the downtown or Uptown area has enjoyed this run with the Stars and Mavericks in Victory Plaza … those days are numbered. It’s sad because I think Victory is something that works. I see the scores of fans coming out of the DART stop before every game, something I never expected to see in drive-your-own-car Dallas.
Lots of causes for this dispute, lots of moving parts, two ownership groups with radically different interests and ideas on how to do business. I’ll say it again.
It’s not an ideal situation.
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