The Las Vegas Sands wants to spend billions of dollars to put something like the Marina Bay Sands in North Texas. It brings up an important question: if they’re successful, will it have an arena included to house the Dallas Mavericks?
Dr. Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, own and run both Las Vegas Sands and the Dallas Mavericks as a family. Right now, they, along with leaders in the city of Dallas, are trying to put a puzzle together for the future home of the basketball team. If a destination resort is successful in North Texas, they said it could “possibly” be the next home for the Mavericks.
Not only do they build destination resorts, but Las Vegas Sands is also in the arena-building business. The Mavericks are scheduled to play the Houston Rockets in the 2026 preseason inside the company’s arena across the Pacific in Macau. Construction of a 15,000-seat arena is underway in an expansion of the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. In Dallas, the contract at the American Airlines Center ends in 2031. So the obvious question is: If the Las Vegas Sands is looking for 30 to 50 acres of land for a destination resort, will it include an arena?
Andy Abboud, Vice President with the Las Vegas Sands, says – maybe.
“I think that as much as our company is committed to building a fantastic destination resort in Texas and Dallas, or maybe another location, the family is committed to maintaining the incredible level of competition that the Dallas Mavericks have always enjoyed. But they’re equally passionate about both. They’re separate entities with separate goals and separate forces. So the goal is to have both of them there and both be great,” said Abboud.
The two different legal entities are on separate paths in the next few years, but if there’s an opportunity to combine in the future, they will take a look then, said Abboud.
“It’s a possibility. But the focus right now for the family is on the Mavericks, and then we have a separate focus on destination resorts.”
The new CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, Rick Welts, told NBC 5 that it’s a possibility as well. In an interview with NBC 5’s Deborah Ferguson earlier this fall, he called the Las Vegas Sands and their quest for a destination resort their “secret weapon.”
“It’s an unbelievable advantage we have. They built the arena where the preseason games were played in Macau, which was built by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. So they’ve even built arenas before,” said Welts.
He told NBC 5 they aim to “reinvent the fan experience” and are looking for a 50 or 60-acre site themselves. The American Airlines Center sits on roughly four acres.
“So multiply that times ten. Multiple hotels, again, a ton of retail, big gathering spaces. We want people to be able to come and watch World Cup games on our big outdoor screen at our arenas as another gathering place in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” said Welts.
In City Hall, Councilman Chad West chairs two vital committees in this puzzle: the Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Sport Recruitment and Retention, along with the Finance Committee, the panel overseeing 50,000 acres owned by the City of Dallas.
“And to me, it’s mission critical to keep the Mavericks here in Dallas,” said West.
While he says the puzzle is far from complete— including a state ban on casino gaming—he wants to lay the groundwork for Dallas to be an option for the Mavericks and a destination resort in the years ahead.
“What I think would be a huge miss for Dallas, the city, is if Irving, Grand Prairie, or Arlington land the resort. They get the tax benefits, they get the jobs, they get the hotel rooms, and then Dallas gets the spillover effect, the public safety issues, the traffic, but none of the benefits,” said West.
So in the years ahead, this is a giant puzzle piece between the state, the city, the Mavericks, and the Las Vegas Sands that will emerge.
There is no concrete plan as of now for a location, but people in City Hall and with the companies told NBC 5 there are a lot of options to explore. There’s the former site of Texas Stadium in Irving, Trinity Groves south of the river, where the county jail and courthouse are located, the Design District, where the Dallas Mavericks practice arena is, and Fair Park.
Another recent proposal appeared in the last few weeks.
Dallas City Council and the mayor are looking at whether Dallas City Hall has too much deferred maintenance to salvage. That sits on 16 acres right downtown. In an interview with Councilman Chad West, he told me that in the coming months, they will decide—yes or no—whether to move out of that building for their own reasons.
But if they do, that would create another site the city may develop into a future home for the Dallas Mavericks.
