The Dallas Wings’ move from Arlington to the downtown convention center arena in its namesake city started with a phone call in November 2022.
Rosa Fleming, who leads the city department that oversees the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, said she got a call from Mayor Eric Johnson’s office asking if she could set up a tour of the Dallas Memorial Auditorium for representatives from the WNBA team.
The tour was set for Nov. 16. Just eight days earlier, city voters had approved a hotel tax increase to pay for a new convention center and related projects, such as renovating the more than 60-year-old arena that’s attached to the center. The tax increase was expected to raise $1.2 billion to help pay for a new convention center, and another $300 million for renovations at the city’s iconic Fair Park.
Bringing the Wings downtown marks the latest chapter in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center’s evolution and the city’s plan to create a new sports and entertainment district around it.
The women’s basketball franchise had been on the mayor’s radar. Also in 2022, Johnson assembled a council committee focused on attracting and retaining pro sports teams. Meanwhile, a refurbished arena would sooner or later need a new main tenant.
The city planned a full court press for the Wings right from the start.
Fleming said the city planned to pitch a possible relocation as a financial opportunity for both the Wings and the city, billing the team as a major part of the plan to revitalize downtown Dallas.
“We knew that they were anchored in Arlington and that it was going to be a heavy lift to get a franchise to move to another city,” Fleming said after the City Council approved a proposal this week to pay the Wings $19 million to relocate to the Dallas Memorial Auditorium for at least 15 years. “It’s a huge lift to get someone to leave where they’ve been since the onset.”
Dallas Wings’ President and CEO Greg Bibb said Johnson was the one who first pitched him on visiting the arena. He said it was important for the team to literally call Dallas home.
Bibb believed the tour would be low-key and introductory, he said. Bibb expected to be guided by Mayor Johnson and at least one of his staff members, not by Johnson, Fleming and about 30 other city representatives, he said.
“It was a big and comprehensive group of people and everyone had a representative who kind of spoke to what the project could be for us from their perspective,” Bibb told The Dallas Morning News. “And I was, candidly, blown away. That’s not what I was expecting going to a first exploratory meeting.”
Tours and cold calls
Fleming said the group for the first tour in November 2022 included Johnson, council member Omar Narvaez and at least one member of each of their staffs, along with other convention and event services workers. Representatives from VisitDallas, a nonprofit contracted as the city’s tourism bureau, and Oak View Group, the convention center’s management company, were there as well.
They walked Bibb and another team executive around the arena, sat in the seats, and tried to paint a picture of the Wings as a regular fixture at the venue, Fleming said. Narvaez told The News concept drawings of a revamped arena with the Wings’ logo were shown.
“We made it clear that they were wanted,” Narvaez said.
Fleming said the first tour led to a second in December 2022, this time for the Wings to take some measurements of the arena.
Fleming didn’t stop with that first tour.
“I just started to put the bug in his ear about Dallas,” she said.
Fleming asked about his impression of the tour, and gave another call to ask if he knew that a significant number of ticket sales came from Dallas residents.
“In each call, we added a different layer,” Fleming said. “I liked the Wings and that was that but I had to make it about economics and what was best for the city.”
The right time
While wooing the Wings in 2022, city officials also were working on a master plan for the convention center and the area.
The City Council voted that February to tear down the convention center and build a new, larger one nearby, estimated to cost nearly $3 billion. The project anchors the city’s redevelopment plans for a huge swath of downtown stretching from the Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station at the southwest end of the central Business District to the Dallas Farmers Market.
The demolition of the current building is expected to free up around 30 acres and clear the way for new restaurants, retail, hotels, parks and housing. The city plans to use bond money to pay for the project and pay off those bonds through revenue generated from two new sources, including the November 2022 voter-approved increase in taxes collected from Dallas room rentals. The second source derives money from a project financing zone, where the city gets to keep a portion of the state’s percentage of sales and occupancy taxes collected from businesses within a 3-mile radius of the convention center.
The two funding methods to pay for the convention center and related projects are expected to bring in almost $4 billion over 30 years.
The nearly 10,000-seat Memorial Auditorium that is currently used about 12 times a year and isn’t compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, was envisioned as a revamped, multipurpose facility, Fleming said.
By the time she got the call from the mayor’s office to set up the first tour, she said she already had data examining the viability of hosting different sports and cultural events there.
The Wings’ agreement with the University of Texas at Arlington expires at the end of the 2025 season. Bibb said by 2022 the team was already considering its future and looking to expand. He said they have around 60 employees and at least another 100 part-time and seasonal workers during game days.
“Our business had gotten to the point where we needed to start to think in terms of the future, in terms of capacity, in terms of the offerings we can provide for our fans, in terms of the facilities that we can provide to our players to work and train,” Bibb said. “We had just started conversations with our current partners in Arlington. And therefore, the timing from the (Dallas) perspective was good.”
The Wings share the College Park Center and two practice courts with student athletes. Increased demand from fans also made a bigger space a priority, he said. Campus arena seats 6,200 viewers when configured for basketball games. The final capacity for games at the Dallas arena still is being determined, Bibb said, but the team is expecting an increase of at least 2,000 seats for its 20 home games which “can mean a significant amount of additional revenue.”
“That building was built by the University of Texas at Arlington, first and foremost, for the student athletes who attend the University of Texas Arlington, and rightly so,” Bibb said. “We are a guest in that space, and they’ve been very accommodating hosts, but at the end of the day, we are still a guest.”
The turning point
Fleming said the turning point in the negotiations came last spring, when Bibb and city officials began discussing performance records and ticket sales. She said the $19 million incentive package was necessary in part to compensate the team for the relocation.
“Basically, the mayor approached them to move, they weren’t necessarily thinking of moving,” Fleming said. “So you have to incentivize them to want to leave the city where they have a long relationship and their offices are there, everything is there. So that incentive partially pays for them to move to Dallas.”
Ahead of the April 24 city council vote, Bibb said he was both confident and nervous about whether the city would approve the deal.
“I’ve been around long enough to know that in a process such as this, you never know until that vote was formally cast,” Bibb said.
Before the city council vote, Fleming and Bibb appeared side-by-side to address council members about plans for the team and the city. After the vote passed, Fleming and Bibb stood up and hugged as the chamber erupted in applause.
The deal still needs approval from the WNBA’s Board of Governors, who were informed of the green light from the city the same day. The board will review more definitive plans from Dallas before signing off, Bibb said. The team is planning to play the upcoming 2024 and 2025 WNBA seasons at the College Park Center before moving to Dallas in 2026.
“It’s safe to say that we’re in a good position with the league,” Bibb told The News. “I think the City Council vote was the biggest, latest hurdle in this whole process.”
Bibb credited Johnson and Fleming for bringing the Dallas Wings to Dallas.
“This was the vision of the mayor and he has been involved every step of the way,” Bibb said. “But Rosa Fleming is the one who kept the train on the tracks and moving down the tracks … And she is really the one, in my mind, who delivered us to that council session and put us in front of the council for a successful vote.”
Johnson didn’t respond to requests for comment. In a statement after the City Council’s vote, Johnson expressed excitement over what the deal could mean for the city.
“This deal has been a top priority for us because we know the Dallas Wings will soar in the city they represent,” Johnson said. “We will be thrilled to welcome the Wings to the heart of our city — and we are even more excited to see this franchise anchor our new convention center district that will transform downtown Dallas for decades to come.”