Adelson snaps up land, stake in the Mavericks as casino industry eyes Texas
Rumors fly about new development anchored to a potential casino-arena
The Dallas Mavericks’ lease at American Airlines Center doesn’t expire until 2031, but for the better part of the past decade, billionaire owner Mark Cuban has teased a transfer to a new venue.
After news broke in November of Cuban’s plans to sell his majority stake in the Mavs to Las Vegas Sands’ billionaire owner Miriam Adelson, that venue started to take shape: a development anchored by a basketball arena and a casino, preferably a Las Vegas Sands casino.
“The scope and scale of this project is limited only by one’s imagination,” said Joe Weinert, executive vice president at gambling consultancy Spectrum Gaming Group.
The Cuban-Adelson alliance may be singular, but Cuban’s casino dream is the bigger-in-Texas version of a now common trend in which sports franchises across the country use their stadiums and arenas as anchors of tiny cities filled with restaurants, retail, parks and apartments. The Star in Frisco, for example, is a 91-acre mixed-use project anchored by the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility that opened in 2016; Fiserv Forum, located in the 30-acre Deer District, has been home to the Milwaukee Bucks since 2018.
A Dallas model could be the biggest of all given the Metroplex’s booming population and the suggestion of a casino addition.
But Cuban’s Dallas version has a catch: Despite the Adelson family’s best efforts, gambling isn’t legal in Texas.
Adelson, 78, managing partner of Las Vegas Sands and widow of casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, is the 44th richest person in the world, worth more than $32 billion. In the 2023 legislative session, Las Vegas Sands pledged nearly $6 million to lobbyists for the purpose of bringing Las Vegas-style commercial gambling to Texas. The bill fell short of the 100 votes needed to move on to the Senate.
Local leaders — from the Dallas Regional Chamber to the city of Dallas’ economic development arm — won’t go on the record about the development that would radically change the Metroplex and its economy, citing “pending legislation.”
Because the Texas market is a top prize for the casino industry, experts agree that Cuban’s casino-arena vision could open a new frontier at the intersection of gaming, sports and development. It could make Dallas-Fort Worth a Vegas-level tourist destination and dramatically raises the stakes of the question, “Where will the Mavs play in 10 years?”
The Irving Mavericks?
Cuban bought the Mavericks in 2000. He vowed the team would honor its name and remain in Dallas.
A recent land purchase connected to Las Vegas Sands has cast doubt on that promise.
Four months before news about Adelson buying the Mavericks stake broke, an LLC with ties to Las Vegas Sands purchased the Irving site of Texas Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys used to play, D Magazine reported. Formed in July, the LLC owns no other land in the counties that make up the metro area, according to property records.
The purchase included eight parcels spanning 259 acres. (The stadium was razed in 2010.) Dallas Central Appraisal District valued the land at $36 million in 2023.
“It’s a jewel…ripe for development and has been for a number of years now.”
“It’s a jewel,” said Rep. Beth Van Duyne, former mayor of Irving, of the site. Van Duyne has long been a proponent of the site’s potential. “It is ripe for development and has been for a number of years now,” she said.
The site, a rough triangle bordered by Highway 114, State Highway 183 and Loop 12, is fewer than 10 miles from downtown Dallas and close to Dallas-Fort Worth International and Dallas Love Field airports. It is both one of the area’s last large plots of undeveloped land and the recent recipient of critical infrastructure updates that connected the area to North and South Dallas and to a new Dallas Area Rapid Transit station.
Developing the site could have a substantial impact on the economy of Irving, and all of North Texas, Van Duyne believes.
The Irving-Las Colinas Regional Chamber is also on board. Beth Bowman, its CEO, said in a statement that she’s “committed to unlocking its vast potential with a transformational project.”
A spokesperson for Las Vegas Sands told the Dallas Morning News that the land purchase is not related to the Mavericks sale.
If that’s the case, the rumor mill has ground out a few other sites where Cuban could keep his word, including the old Reunion Arena, the Dallas Convention Center and the Design District location of the Mavs’ training center.
The first casino-arena
When it comes to mixed-use developments with stadiums, the future Mavs entertainment complex would not be the first casino- and-arena-anchored development to cross the finish line.
About 2,000 miles northwest of Dallas, a casino-slash-arena development is already flourishing in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, Canada. The city of Edmonton partnered with developer Katz Group to build the $2.5 billion Ice District after founder Daryl Katz purchased the Edmonton Oilers in 2008; Rogers Place, home of the Oilers, opened in 2016.
The Ice District spans 25 acres and features retail and office space, a 346-room JW Marriott, at least a dozen restaurants and the Stantec Tower, a 66-story mixed-use skyscraper with 315 condos and 168 rentals.
It has been good for downtown. “More people use the services, or make them part of the event they are attending,” said a spokesperson for the city of Edmonton.
Los Angeles-based Oak View Group is developing a similar 66-acre, $10 billion complex on the south Strip in Las Vegas. The entertainment complex, which will include an arena and casino, could open as early as 2026, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which, incidentally, is owned by the Adelson family.
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen wants to add a casino-anchored development to Citi Field in Queens. Cohen is vying for one of three new state casino licenses. If it’s approved, he plans to partner with Hard Rock International on the $8 billion project, which would also include a live music venue, 20 acres of park space and a food hall.
These kinds of developments are especially lucrative, because “casinos are incredible generators of foot traffic,” said Weinert. “So there will be considerable synergies with the many other attractions at a gaming, sports, retail, dining and entertainment complex.”
Roll of the dice
Similar developments offer insight into how Cuban’s dream could come to fruition, but expanding from sports to the untapped (and not yet legal) world of casinos and gambling in Texas will be a whole new ball game.
The next opportunity to legalize gambling will come up in Texas’ 2025 legislative session. Changing the law requires two-thirds approval from both chambers as well as a voter-approved constitutional amendment.
“It will be a long time before people will be going to a basketball game and gambling at the casino next door,” said Weinert.