Dallas leaders say there’s room for the Mavericks and the Stars, and they hope the city intervenes as a legal battle over the American Airlines Center escalates and both franchises consider relocating.
Council members Paula Blackmon, Jesse Moreno, and Chad West told The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday that retaining both teams is vital for the city’s economic future and that they are united in urging cooperation rather than conflict.
“Both the Stars and the Mavericks have Dallas in front of their names, and I want to make sure that the city is doing everything that we can to ensure that we have both teams staying in Dallas,” said Moreno, the council’s mayor pro tem and representative for Victory Park, where the American Airlines Center is based. “I’m committed to doing everything that’s necessary in order to keep them both here in Dallas.”
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Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and his office didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to email and text requests for comment. City manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert didn’t immediately have a comment when reached by text Wednesday.
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“I have alerted my team with my response,” she said via text, adding that a city spokesman would send it to a reporter. Tolbert is in Tampa for the 2025 International City/Council Management Association annual conference. As of 5:15 p.m., Tolbert’s response had not been released publicly.
However, council member Paul Ridley said the city manager had emailed the City Council stating that the dispute was between the two teams and that the city was not involved.
“I think the city needs to stay out of it,” Ridley said.
The Stars and Mavericks are locked in a legal battle related to their shared home, the American Airlines Center, as both teams consider relocating their operations. The Stars filed a petition late Tuesday, accusing the Mavericks of attempting a “hostile takeover” of the arena, according to a statement from Stars’ attorney Joshua M. Sandler.
The dispute centers on a 1998 franchise agreement that the Mavericks claim the Stars breached by locating their corporate headquarters in Frisco rather than Dallas. But the Stars argue that only the City of Dallas can determine if a breach occurred, and they have operated in Frisco since 2003 without issue, according to the Stars’ legal filing.
The Mavericks, who are exploring a new basketball-only arena, have withheld tens of millions of dollars in quarterly arena proceeds from the Stars, according to the Stars’ legal filing.
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The Stars also maintain they never agreed to a $300 million renovation deal that would have extended their lease to 2061, while the Mavericks and the city claim the Stars backed out of the agreement, according to interviews and documents obtained by The News. Meanwhile, The News reported this week that the Stars are considering a new billion-dollar arena in Plano.
The legal battle is now in the Texas Business Court.
Council member Paula Blackmon called the situation “a mess” and expressed surprise at the severity of the conflict between the two teams.
“I was not aware that the friction between the two teams was so bad that it would result in legal fights,” she said.
Blackmon, who learned of the dispute through reports by The News, questioned whether the city’s actions appeared one-sided in favor of the Mavericks, citing a letter from Tolbert that referenced a breach in the Stars’ franchise agreement.
“I do hope both teams see the value of staying,” Blackmon said. “It’s not a Sophie’s choice — we want both teams to stay in Dallas.”
West, chair of the City Council’s ad hoc professional sports retention and recruitment committee, said he expects the city to play a key role in resolving the dispute.
“The city is [the] logical broker for a pathway forward for everyone out here,” West said.
While he acknowledged he was not fully briefed on the city’s negotiations with the teams, he urged Tolbert and her team to facilitate a meeting between the Stars and Mavericks.
“Knowing what I know now, I hope the city manager and her team will call a meeting with the two teams,” West said, emphasizing the advantages of staying in Dallas over suburban alternatives. “Dallas is where you want to be.”
Moreno pointed to the economic benefits of keeping the teams, including workforce development, sales tax revenue, and overall investment in the city.
“We know the investment that sports and entertainment bring back to a city,” he said. “I don’t want us to be the obstacle or the reason that they’re not staying in Dallas.”
He declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuits, but stressed that City Hall should not be a barrier to retaining the teams.