Mavericks ownership said no to the relocation rumor.
There was a report out of nowhere that the National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks franchise was moving to Las Vegas. The Mavericks general manager told employees the team has “no plans” to move to Las Vegas. The franchise is owned by Dr. Miriam Adelson who is based in Las Vegas. Then there was another statement put out by the franchise. “The Adelson and Dumont families have already started and are committed to investing and building in Dallas Fort Worth. The families have absolutely no plans to move the team out of North Texas.” In 2023, Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands company acquired a 108-acre parcel in Irving, near the stadiums that house the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys and Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers in Arlington. There is some speculation that land could be used for a casino and a Mavericks’ arena. The Las Vegas Sands lobbyists have been attempting to get Texas lawmakers to legalize casino gambling.
Las Vegas and Nevada business and political leaders have in the past decade shed the image of a gambling town that was unsuitable for major league sports franchises. The National Hockey League granted an expansion franchise to Bill Foley in 2016 and Foley got the Vegas Golden Knights franchise onto the ice in 2017. Mark Davis moved his National Football League franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020 after Nevada officials gave Davis one of the largest stadium subsidies ever although that has now been surpassed in western New York and in Nashville as funding for new facilities. Major League Baseball’s John Fisher is attempting to move to Las Vegas. Fisher has not been able to get private funding for the proposed Las Vegas baseball stadium. The National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver has said that the league is looking at expanding and that Las Vegas is a leading candidate for an expansion franchise.
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