The Dallas Mavericks are moving arenas.
Following the conclusion of the 2030-2031 season — which marks the end of the team’s 30-year lease with the city of Dallas — the Mavericks will move north to where the old Valley View Mall used to be in northern Dallas to play their home games.
The Mavericks moved to the American Airlines Center in 2001 after leaving Reunion Arena for a “state of the art arena.” The team entered into a co-lease with the Dallas Stars to play their home games there for 30 seasons
with team options to extend throughout the agreement. The team informed the city today that it would not be renewing its lease and purchased 104 acres of land where the old mall used to be.
The Stars have been in talks in recent weeks to move to an arena in Plano as well, completely deserting downtown and leaving it with only one major sports team — the Dallas Wings. The Wings currently play home games in Arlington’s College Park Center but will reportedly move to downtown Dallas for the 2027 season.
There had been speculation over the last few months that Dallas City Hall could be a new location for an arena that would keep the team in downtown Dallas where it’s been since the team’s inception in 1980, but the City Council has dragged its feet in recent meetings over whether to demolish the building or invest in renovating the structure for City Council use.
The Mavericks were done waiting.
The move ends an era in downtown Dallas sports history. The Mavericks will have played their first 51 seasons of basketball in the area before moving north in 2031 to build an entertainment district and new arena that the Dallas Morning News estimates could impact the city’s sports landscape for decades.
The team plans to build a new corporate headquarters, training facility, a luxury hotel, and a separate 5,000-seat theater for concerts and smaller sporting events, DMN reported Monday.
