The National Hockey League (NHL) team Dallas Stars are closer to having a new arena in the Dallas suburb of Plano (city in Texas, US) after the City Council there approved a Letter of Intent (LOI) on June 8th for a potential sports and entertainment district.
‘ESPN’ stated that the Plano City Council approved using $700 million in public money toward building what is a roughly $1 billion project at The Shops of Willow Bend (an upscale shopping mall).
The Dallas Stars plan to make Plano their new home by 2031.
Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone
The Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) will include a sports and entertainment district that would comprise the Stars’ new arena along with other sports and entertainment venues, retail, restaurants, residential development, public spaces, and other infrastructure-related developments.
The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas (US). The Stars compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference.
The 19,323-seat American Airlines Center (AAC) is a multipurpose indoor arena located in the Victory Park neighborhood in downtown Dallas, Texas (US). The arena serves as the home of the National Hockey League (NHL) team Dallas Stars and the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Dallas Mavericks. The arena is also used for concerts and other live entertainment. It opened on July 17th, 2001, at a cost of $420 million.
Letter of Intent
The Dallas Stars Owner Tom Gaglardi said in a statement, “I’d like to thank the city of Plano Mayor [John] Muns and the entire Plano City Council for their support and their approval of our Letter of Intent (LOI) and several other items connected to the redevelopment of The Shops at Willow Bend. We look forward to taking the next steps in the journey toward making Plano our new home in 2031.”
A Letter of Intent (LOI) is a formal document that outlines the preliminary terms and framework of a prospective deal or agreement between two parties.
Special Venue Tax
The city of Plano said in a release that as part of the approval of the Letter of Intent (LOI) a tax increment reinvestment zone will be established for The Shops at Willow Bend and the surrounding development area along the Dallas North Tollway. There also will be a venue project resolution for submission to the State Comptroller’s Office as required by the State law for the city of Plano to call a special venue tax election.
The LOI approval came less than a week after the Stars announced they were trying to press ahead in their plans to potentially leave the American Airlines Center in Dallas with their lease set to expire in 2031.
That announcement came a day after the NBA team Dallas Mavericks said they had a preliminary agreement in place for a new arena site that was about 10 miles North of downtown that would see them leave by 2031 which is also when their lease with the American Airlines Center concludes.
Legal Dispute
‘ESPN’ further stated that figuring out where both the teams would call their future homes became a topic of conversation as they remain involved in a legal dispute relating to arena relocations.
Losing both the Mavericks and the Dallas Stars has raised questions about the future of downtown along with how the fans in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex (a massive, sprawling Metropolitan area in North Central Texas) must adjust to having two more of their teams play in the suburbs.
The National Football League (NFL) team Dallas Cowboys, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team Dallas Wings and the Major League Baseball (MLB) team Texas Rangers play in Arlington, which is 20 miles West of Dallas. The Wings are building a new arena in downtown Dallas that is expected to be completed in time for the 2027 season. The Major League Soccer (MLS) team FC Dallas plays its games in Frisco (city in Texas), which is 29 miles North of downtown.
Advantage Plano
Frisco is also the home of the Stars’ training facility and executive offices. The proposed move to Plano would see the team have less than a six-mile commute from their facility to their game arena compared with their current distance of nearly 23 miles to the American Airlines Center.
With Gaglardi stating the team’s desire to be in Plano by 2031 the Stars hypothetically have five more seasons left in downtown Dallas.
After relocating from Minneapolis ahead of the 1993-1994 seasons the Stars played at the now-demolished 18,190-capacity Reunion Arena in downtown Dallas until 2001 when they moved to the American Airlines Center.
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