The Dallas Mavericks are planning a new home in far North Dallas, but not the casino-style resort some fans once imagined. Instead, team president of business operations Ethan Casson says the project will be centered on basketball and a much larger mixed-use development.
Casson called it “a transformative project” and said, “It will be not only the best basketball arena in the world, it will change the North Dallas community for 50 years.”
Casson and Mavs special advisor Mark Boekenheide spoke Wednesday afternoon at the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce about the team’s move when its American Airlines Center lease expires on July 28, 2031. The Mavs say they plan to open their first game in the new arena in October 2031.
The arena is set to be the centerpiece of a 112-acre, multi-billion dollar development. Boekenheide said the company does not intend to include gaming in the project, even with Miriam Adelson now the majority owner’s family behind the team and a long-standing expectation from some fans that casino plans might follow.
“It’s church and state,” Casson says. “A casino is not part of our vision. It’s a basketball arena development project, period.”
Boekenheide was even firmer when asked about gaming. “Gaming isn’t legal in Texas now and there’s no promise that it ever will be,” he said. “We can’t afford to wait around.”
He added: “We don’t want there to be even an inkling that gaming could be thought of on this project,” said Boekenheide, who is also Las Vegas Sands’ Senior Vice President of Global Development. “We want approval on what our master plan is for, which is sports arena-centric.
No gaming. Not happening.”
The casino angle had hovered over the franchise since 2023, when Mark Cuban sold his majority stake to Las Vegas casino magnate Miriam Adelson. Her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, became the new “hands-on” owner. Before that sale closed, a group from Adelson’s Sands company bought 108 acres across from the old Texas Stadium site in Irving.
Cuban had publicly floated the idea of a resort-style home for the franchise that included a casino, but the Mavs now say that is not part of the plan.
Without that piece, the team is pushing a more traditional arena district built around the old Valley View mall site, bordered by LBJ Freeway, Alpha Road, Montfort Road and Preston Road. The area today is described as an eyesore, with leaning chain-link fences, rusty signs, overgrown weeds, scraggly trees and cracked pavement.
Casson says the plan is to turn it into “a 365-days-a-year destination,” adding, “You won’t have to be a Mavs fan, or even a basketball fan, to enjoy it.”
The development includes a 5-star anchor hotel, a 7-acre park, and a residential and retail vision shaped by places such as Highland Park Village, Miami’s Design District, New York’s Bryant Park and Plano’s Legacy West entertainment strip. The design also calls for an ice skating rink for Christmas tree lighting, a place on the lawn for yoga, and residential lofts up to 10 stories.
The team says it toured the 15 newest arenas in America before settling on its concept.
For fans, the pitch may sound a lot more polished than rugged. But the Mavericks are betting the new district will be more than an arena - and more than a basketball stop.
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