American Airlines Arena - Home of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars. Adobe Stock
For decades, the Dallas Stars and the Dallas Mavericks have faced off against other teams while sharing the American Airlines Center. Now, the teams are facing off against one another over the arena.
On Tuesday, the Mavericks, seeking injunctive relief, sued the Stars for wrongful interference with arena operations and finances while claiming full ownership and control over the arena the teams have shared since 2001. The more than 250-page filing includes accusations that the Stars have blocked bonuses for arena staff and prevented necessary upgrades and repairs to the arena, among other complaints.
Just 12 hours after the Mavericks’ suit, according to the Dallas Morning News, the Stars filed a countersuit “seeking to ‘restore normal operations at the [American Airlines Center] and prevent the Mavericks’ attempted hostile takeover,’ according to a statement from Stars’ counsel Joshua M. Sandler.”
In a region where off-field scandal is often more entertaining than the on-field product (see: just about any recent Dallas Cowboys season), this face-off between Dallas’ NBA and NHL teams has already heated up more than a Stars vs. Avalanche playoff series. The aforementioned bullet points from the suits are merely where the drama begins.
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Indeed, the Mavericks and Stars are at odds over the future of the AAC, which also means their respective futures. The Mavericks allege the Stars broke an agreement involving a combined $300 million from the city and the Mavericks to renovate the AAC, contingent on the Stars signing a new lease through 2061.
However, the Stars claim they only agreed to a five-year extension of their AAC term, with both teams sharing renovation costs. Now, the Mavericks assert the Stars are “holding the American Airlines Center hostage.”
As we’re only at the start of what is likely to be a lengthy legal soap opera, here are the things from this week’s lawsuit that most caught our attention.
The Timing of It All
For those who follow news coming out of Dallas City Hall, this story likely means something a bit different than it may to the casual sports fan worried only about how a team looks in the standings. The renovation proposal that would’ve kept the Stars in the AAC for another 30 years would have allowed the Mavericks to construct a basketball-specific arena elsewhere, like, perhaps, the site of where the very much in need of renovations City Hall currently sits.
Following a report that the I.M. Pei building could need more than $300 million in repairs and updates, the city council has begun the already contentious discussions on how to move forward. Selling the property to the Mavericks for a new stadium has already been introduced and has gotten the attention of council members.
The idea of the Mavericks having their own arena has been getting more attention recently, although former majority owner Mark Cuban has been discussing the idea for many years. But now that resort and casino magnate Miriam Adelson controls the team following her 2023 purchase of a majority share in the club, a basketball-specific arena paired with a gambling resort, possibly in another city, has made headlines.
Cohabitating Combatants
Pro sports teams entering into legal battles with outside parties, such as the cities they reside in, or even the league they participate in, isn’t a new concept by any stretch, but two American pro teams going at it in court against one another while they share an arena home seems to be more than rare. Even in a country where NBA and NHL teams in major cities have commonly shared an arena for many decades, we can’t find any other examples of this sort of litigation, at least not of this variety.
In this century alone, hockey and basketball teams in Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Denver, to name a few, have cohabitated season after season and have not duked it out in court to the extent the two Dallas clubs are doing now.
Why Now and How Much Exactly?
The element of the Mavericks’ suit getting arguably the most attention online is that the Mavericks say the Stars violated their arena agreement when the hockey team moved its headquarters to Frisco. This is interesting for a few reasons. The Stars relocated their headquarters up north in 2003, so this isn’t exactly a recent development. And even back then, the team wasn’t headquartered in Big D but in Irving’s Valley Ranch.
According to the filing, the Stars were to have their HQ in Dallas; therefore, this alleged breach of contract triggered a clause that enabled the Mavericks to purchase the Stars’ share of the AAC and its related entities for, get this, only $110. In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Stars CEO Brad Alberts says his club opened a Dallas office after the Mavericks informed the Stars about their intention to buy them out of the AAC in 2024, but that was not enough to keep his team’s arena mates from lobbing this week’s legal bomb.