Basketball news
Dallas signs deal to lure WNBA's Dallas Wings to relocate from Arlington
WNBA Dallas Wings
The Dallas City Council has approved an agreement for the WNBA's Dallas Wings to relocate from their current headquarters in Arlington and move to Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas Memorial Arena.
The Dallas Wings are a professional basketball team based in Arlington, who play in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association.
According to a release, the city council approved an agreement on April 24 that would pay the team $19 million in incentives. The 15-year agreement is still pending WNBA league approval and wouldn’t take effect until after the 2025 season.
“This deal has been a top priority for us because we know the Dallas Wings will soar in the city they represent,” Mayor Eric Johnson says in the release. “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. Now is the right time to provide our world class athletes with a world class venue to train and play and our fans with a best-of-class arena to call home.”
The Wings have played at the College Park Center arena on UT-Arlington’s campus since 2016. The arena seats about 7,000, compared to the 10,000-seat capacity at the Downtown Dallas auditorium.
The proposed deal comes as women’s basketball has grown exponentially in popularity, thanks in part to star players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, who have now entered the WNBA after rising to super stardom as collegiate players. A record 2.45 million viewers watched the WNBA draft (headlined by No. 1 pick Clark), shattering the previous record of 600,000 viewers.
Following the surge in popularity, the Wings recently announced that their season tickets have sold out, for the first time in franchise history.
“This proposed deal comes at a time when interest in women’s sports, the WNBA, and the Wings is at record levels, bringing a valuable community asset to a historic city venue,” Wings President & CEO Greg Bibb says. “The Wings saw record attendance in 2023, and virtually every business metric record has been, or will soon be, broken during the 2024 season.”
Once the deal is approved, the auditorium will be renovated as part of a larger development/expansion plan for the convention center.
The auditorium, which was designed by Dallas architect George Dahl, has hosted acts such as The Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin.
