Mavericks box out Downtown Dallas, set to Move to Valley View

The Dallas Mavericks selected a location for their new sports-and-entertainment district: Valley View, 13 miles north of the American Airlines Center.

In an emailed statement to the Dallas Morning News, the team confirmed that they had executed a plan to buy a 104-acre tract of land on the site of the former Valley View Mall. The NBA team have played at the American Airlines Center for 46 years. While the team will technically remain in Dallas, city officials spent years attempting to keep the Mavericks close to their old operation downtown in Victory Park.

“The Valley View site meets most of the criteria established at the outset of our evaluation process,” the Mavericks said in the statement to the outlet. “It is our goal to stay in the city of Dallas and this is our best option to do so.”

The Mavericks’ lease at the American Airlines Center expires in July, 2031. They share the arena with the NHL team the Dallas Stars. In April, the Mavericks dropped damage claims against the Stars in a lawsuit centered around the arena. The controversy centered on an agreement in the late 1990s that forced both teams to have headquarters in the Dallas city limits. The Mavericks argued that the Stars broke the agreement by setting up shop in Frisco, a Dallas suburb.

The Mavericks were sold by billionaire owner Mark Cuban in 2023 to Miriam Adelson and the Dumont families. Entities tied to the Mavericks’ ownership have been ratcheting up the heat in Texas politics to legalize gambling in the state, and have eyes on building hybrid sports stadium casinos. Miriam Adelson is the majority owner of the Las Vegas Sands gambling giant, which she inherited after her husband, Sheldon, passed away in 2021. Before the casino czars purchased the Mavericks, they purchased land near the site of the demolished Texas Stadium in Irving.

— Hunter Cooke