The Stars are closer to having a new arena in the Dallas suburb of Plano after the city council there approved a letter of intent Monday for a potential sports and entertainment district.
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, according to local media reports.
"I'd like to thank Mayor [John] Muns and the entire Plano City Council for their support, and their approval of our letter of intent and several other items connected to the redevelopment of The Shops at Willow Bend," Stars owner Tom Gaglardi said in a statement. "We look forward to taking the next steps in the journey toward making Plano our new home in 2031."
The city of Plano said in a release that as part of the approval of the 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 state law for the City of Plano to call a special venue tax election.
The 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 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's 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 AAC concludes.
Figuring out where both 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 Stars has raised questions about the future of downtown along with how fans in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex must adjust to having two more of their teams play in the suburbs.
The Dallas Cowboys (NFL), the Dallas Wings (WNBA) and the Texas Rangers (MLB) 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. FC Dallas (MLS) plays its games in Frisco, which is 29 miles north of downtown.
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 6-mile commute from their facility to their game arena compared with their current distance of nearly 23 miles to the AAC.
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 1993-94 season, the Stars played at Reunion Arena in downtown Dallas until 2001, when they moved to the AAC.