Tag: American Airlines Center

The surprising decline of downtown in ‘Big D’

American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas


In case you haven’t been scoring at home, the city of Dallas is reeling from some pretty big blows to its self-image. Big D’s downtown is losing the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, the NHL’s Dallas Stars, AT&T’s corporate headquarters, as well as Comerica bank and the iconic Neiman Marcus store.

Whew!

That’s a huge hit, even for a city as big as Dallas, with 1.3 million residents and a DFW metro area population of more than 8 million people.

Here’s what has gone down:

First, AT&T announced it was moving its corporate headquarters out of downtown Dallas and relocating to the northern suburb of Plano. Plano! Let someone in, say, Bend, Oregon, try to figure out where Plano, Texas, is when they see it in the dateline of future AT&T news releases.

Then, in the wake of its February acquisition of Dallas-based Comerica financial services company, Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp announced it was moving Comerica employees out of the 60-story Comerica Tower to Preston Center, far north of its current downtown location.

The next blow to its image was the announcement last week that the famous Neiman Marcus downtown Dallas store that has been in operation since 1907 will close down in September. The retailer’s corporate owner, cited a “changing environment and declining foot traffic” in downtown Dallas.

Then Dallas was hit by what may be the two biggest blows, at least for sports fans like me. The Mavericks and the Stars announced this past week that they are abandoning American Airlines Center for yet-to-be built arenas in North Dallas and in the suburb of Plano.

Both franchises claim that the 25-year old American Airlines Center was not built for the ‘modern fans’ who demand more amenities like upscale dining and beverage options, as well as “social areas” that allow fans to mingle during the game.

But it goes beyond the arena experience. Each franchise envisions an ‘entertainment district’ built around their arena that features restaurants, bars and other business to draw people to the venue.

Similar stadium-and-entertainment districts are popping up in other cities with professional sports franchises, including OKC where the OKC Thunder is expected to demolish Paycom Center and create an entertainment district after its new arena opens. (Don’t we already have a downtown entertainment district in Bricktown?)

Here’s what I’ve read about the Mavericks move: The team plans to build a multi-billion dollar arena and entertainment complex on the 104-acre site of the former Valley View Mall, approximately 10 miles north of downtown along the Dallas North Tollway and I-635. Unlike the American Airlines Center, located along the Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail line, the new site offers little public transportation options. So fans likely will have to negotiate crowded freeways before enjoying NBA games and the entertainment options. Read more about the move at ESPN.

The Mavs made no mention of operating a casino in their news release, for which the team’s ownership had been advocating. Mavericks CEO Rick Welts was quoted in a Dallas Morning News article: “I think if Dallas had it all to go over again, I think there might have been a little bit of a different approach on American Airlines Center. It does not serve … the needs or the expectations of a sports fan in 2026 who goes to a professional sporting event. We don’t have any of the hospitality amenities that one would expect in other markets, and I think we’re really looking forward to that.”

As for the Stars, here’s what I’ve found: The NHL franchise has signed an agreement with the city of Plano to move to what is now known as the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, a retail center that is on the decline. The Stars envision a new arena and entertainment districts, similar to what the Mavericks plan on the Valley View Mall site a few miles to the south. Read more at ESPN.

Dallas residents vented their frustrations on the spate of exits from downtown at a recent city council meeting.

“The Valley View Mavs, the Plano Stars, Fox 4 gone, AT&T gone, Neiman gone,” said Sana Syed, the President of the Dallas Farmers Market Stakeholders Association. “What an embarrassing and painful city this week.”

Meanwhile, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram seemed to be enjoying some schadenfreude over the plight of Fort Worth’s big brother city 30 miles to the east. The headline on an article about the downtown departures reads “Mavericks’ site for new arena would turn downtown Dallas into a ghost town.”

Said Star-Telegram columnist Mac Engel: “Both the Mavericks and Dallas Star have stated their intentions to leave the American Airlines Center after their respective leases end with the facility in the spring of 2032. If they both leave, it would turn downtown Dallas into an evacuation site almost every night at 5 p.m.”

So, what’s behind the mass exodus from downtown Dallas. I asked a friend I’ll call “Andy” who lives in the DFW metro to share his perspective. Parking challenges for employees and the large number of homeless people inhabiting the area play a role, he said.

Workers have to park blocks from their offices and then are harassed by the homeless as they walk in, Andy told me.

So, employers are choosing to locate elsewhere like suburban communities far removed from downtown and the challenges it presents in 2026.

The decline of downtown Dallas brings to mind OKC’s downtown when I first came to town in 1983 to work for The Daily Oklahoman at its then-downtown newsroom. Downtown was dark and mostly abandoned after 5 p.m., with few restaurants, only one hotel — the Sheraton.

Fast forward to 2026 and we can see the renaissance brought to OKC by passage of the original MAPS program in 1992. Today, our downtown thrives with a busy entertainment area in Bricktown, multiple hotels and restaurants scattered throughout. Yay for investing in ourselves.

We have our own issues with homelessness, but there are organizations like Curbside Enterprises and SidexSide OKC that offer a path to housing and employment. We’re not running away from the problem.

So, while downtown Dallas declines, downtown OKC continues to rise up with new sports venues, an awesome park and convention center that give people a reason to come on down. (I’m not counting the exodus of Devon Energy because I see that as related to a corporate merger)

Can Dallas reverse the exodus and have a downtown worthy of its ‘Big D’ image? Stay tuned.

The opportunity cost of a new OKC Thunder arena

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A wide shot of Paycom Center during a Thunder game early this past season.

I admit that I was caught off guard when Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt alerted us to impending negotiations with the NBA Thunder about a new arena.

I shouldn’t have been.

The NBA and its franchises can be incredibly demanding of hosts cities as far as facilities they use. Here’s a list of every NBA arena and the years they were built. 

In Holt’s book, “Big League City,” written in the afterglow of the Thunder franchise relocating to OKC, he talks about how critical a $120 million arena improvement special tax package was to that decision.

But that was 14 years ago, and there’s been a lot of Thunder games under the bridge, so to speak. I never gave the length of their lease agreement a second thought.

So, last week’s announcement came as both a surprise and a disappointment. Seems like Paycom Center was built only yesterday, but turns out it is already 20 years old.  Arenas must age in dog years.

After my initial anger subsided, I’ve come to accept the reality that OKC — and Thunder fans like me — find themselves in.

For all sorts of reasons — amenities, size, not built specifically for the NBA, perceived second-rateness — the city must build the Thunder a new arena within the next decade.

A new showcase arena will set us back at least a half billion dollars, if not much more.

Consider that American Airlines Arena in Dallas was built in 2001 at a cost of $420 million (and the Mavericks already are pushing for a new arena). How high will inflation drive the cost past that?

Holt’s job now becomes that of selling OKC residents on another special financing package, whether it’s part of a new MAPS deal or a special sales tax like that passed in 2008. I hope the city can negotiate a deal that requires the Thunder to share some of that cost.

But I’m not holding my breath.

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Paycom Center exterior (Oklahoman photo)

It’s not a scenario I’m rushing out to embrace, but I do see the reality of the OKC’s situation. Remember what happened to Seattle when that city refused to build a new arena to the Sonics’ specifications?

Thank you very much, Seattle.

And you know there are cities all over the nation that would jump at the chance to claim our franchise as their own and build it a billion dollar Taj Mahal.

Find out more about the perceived need for a new arena from this column by Berry Tramel published in Sunday’s Oklahoman.  Berry, like some other folks I know, speaks of Paycom Center as if it’s a tarpaper shack.

Anyway, I got a glimpse this morning of what Holt is up against in convincing voters to accept a new arena. I was at church chopping up the arena prospects with a friend when someone overheard us and wanted to know the topic.

We told him we were discussing the prospects of a new arena for the OKC Thunder.

“What?” he asked. “No way. Paycom is how many years old? No way will that happen.”

And this guy is the former CEO of an OKC-based company with two college-age kids. He’s not even in the demographic that I see as most opposed to a new arena.

So that brings me to the real purpose of this blog post. Who will be most opposed and who will support the new arena? I’m weighing in with my totally non-scientific observations.

I’ll start with those I see as most likely to oppose a new arena built by OKC for the Thunder:

First, it’s people in my demographic who are over the age of 65. Or what I call the get-off-my-lawn crowd. That includes many people who live in suburban areas of the city and have never attended a Thunder game. These folks poo-poo’d the whole MAPS initiative beginning back in the early ’90s and continue to disparage it today. Apparently, they were fine with our downtown the way it was in 1989 because they never went down there. And remember, statistics show that older citizens are far more likely to show up at the voting booth whenever a new arena hits the ballot.

Second, up-and-coming young people from the urban core who are focused on social issues. They are asking ‘why would we spend half a billion dollars or more on an arena for a professional sports team while we ignore the plight of hundreds of our citizens who are without shelter, food, sanitation and health care?’ That’s a legitimate and tough question to answer .

Third, people who recognize the opportunity costs of building a new arena. If we pour half a billion dollars (or more) into a new arena, we’re limiting the potential of other legitimate economic development drivers in our community. On Facebook, one pundit cited articles that show publicly built sports arenas don’t return the promised economic impact. Another example I saw: If we tear down the old Cox Center to build a new arena, our best facility as a set location for the film industry disappears. And that’s an industry just now gaining some real momentum in Oklahoma.

So, who supports a new arena?

The first group is pretty easy. They’re the 30-year-old Thunder fans who obsess over the team’s tanking philosophy, where the Thunder will end up in the draft lottery each year and over-analyze who will be the team’s next pick. Naturally, they will support a new arena because they are offended that our players have to play home games in an obvious shanty like Paycom Center. HAVE YOU NOT SEEN CHASE CENTER IN SAN FRANCISCO? But this is a pretty small voting block, all in all.

I see the second group as led by Oklahoma City business and community leaders who endured the OKC of the 1980s and enjoy what the city has become in 2022. They can point to both the MAPS projects and the arrival of the Thunder as critical elements to turning our city from eyesore into a showcase. If we refuse to build a new arena, there’s a risk that the team could be sold and relocated to one of dozens of cities salivating for the opportunity to become their own Big League City. And we turn back the clock on two decades of economic development. I believe this is a sizable, influential voting block.

Finally, I see the third group of supporters as being that large block of Thunder fans and season ticket holders. The NBA season has become as much a part of their lives as going to church on a Sunday or taking the kids to school. It’s what they do. They schedule their lives around the Thunder season, whether it’s watching the games on TV or driving down to Paycom Center 41 times a season. There’s a legion of loyal Thunder fans whom I believe will be a major source of support for a new arena.

Mayor David Holt and OKC civic leaders have a big job ahead to gain majority support of a new arena. I don’t envy you.

But as I told my friend Steve Buck last week, I’ll grit my teeth and support a new arena, because that’s our only real option.

Let’s not risk taking OKC back to the 1980s.

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