{"id":163427,"date":"2026-08-11T05:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/163427\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T05:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:52:10","slug":"arena-updates-stars-select-design-firm-for-plano-senators-reach-one-year-at-lebreton-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/163427\/","title":{"rendered":"Arena Updates: Stars Select Design Firm For Plano; Senators Reach One Year At LeBreton \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Stars moved a step closer toward a new home Monday, while in Ottawa the Senators\u2019 downtown arena plan passed its one-year mark with construction still well over the horizon.<\/p>\n

Dallas Stars<\/p>\n

The Stars announced<\/a> earlier today that they have selected HNTB as the lead design firm for a proposed new arena in Plano, Texas, the anchor of a planned mixed-use district west of the Dallas North Tollway. The project is being advanced with the ownership of The Shops at Willow Bend and is envisioned as a year-round destination pairing the arena with retail, dining and entertainment.<\/p>\n

Owner Tom Gaglardi said the firm\u2019s experience would allow the team to \u201ccreate the best arena in the NHL,\u201d pointing to HNTB\u2019s track record across professional and collegiate venues. HNTB corporate president Doug Mann and chief design officer Ryan Gedney also spoke to the firm\u2019s approach to the project.<\/p>\n

For now, this is a design-firm selection and a vision rather than an approved build. A new arena in Plano would move the Stars out of American Airlines Center, their downtown Dallas home since 2001, and into the northern suburbs.<\/p>\n

Ottawa Senators<\/p>\n

Monday marked one year since the Senators and the National Capital Commission reached their agreement for roughly 11 acres at LeBreton Flats, announced August 11, 2025, as told by Bruce Garrioch<\/a> with the Ottawa Citizen. A year on, the sale has yet to formally close, Senators president and CEO Cyril Leeder told the Ottawa Citizen the purchase is expected to be completed in the coming months, clearing the way for site work to begin in earnest.<\/p>\n

Per the Citizen\u2019s Bruce Garrioch, owner Michael Andlauer and his partners have agreed to pay $37MM for the parcel, with an option on four additional acres the team has not yet decided whether to exercise. Leeder said the club is meeting with stakeholders several times a week and described the behind-the-scenes pace as steady even if little has surfaced publicly. \u201cWe\u2019re making good progress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A firm construction timeline remains elusive. Leeder pointed to at least five more months of planning, covering site decontamination, the Algonquin partnership, design and financing, before the team can commit to a schedule, and said a clearer picture should emerge early in 2027. He estimated the event centre alone would take 30 to 36 months to build, putting completion three to four years out once ground is broken. In practical terms, that keeps the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, their home since 1996, for at least four more seasons.<\/p>\n

The site itself is the largest obstacle. Leeder said roughly 514,000 cubic metres of soil, most of it contaminated, must be removed \u2014 the equivalent of some 34,000 dump-truck loads, before work on the below-grade parking that will anchor the development. The Senators also continue to negotiate an economic partnership with the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation, a framework both sides confirmed was on track in March.<\/p>\n

On financing, Leeder reiterated that the team will not seek money from City of Ottawa taxpayers, and Andlauer has said publicly he does not need to own the building. The club has kept federal and provincial officials updated on programs the project may qualify for. For scale, the comparably sized arena set to open in Calgary in 2027-28 carries a price tag north of $1.2B. On design, the Senators are targeting an early-2027 reveal, with Leeder citing UBS Arena on Long Island and Detroit\u2019s Little Caesars Arena as the models they most want to draw from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Stars moved a step closer toward a new home Monday, while in Ottawa the Senators\u2019 downtown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[61,3062],"class_list":["post-163427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ottawa","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}