The Dallas Wings are no longer a Dallas team in name only.
Wednesday, the city council voted to approve a multi-million dollar deal to move the team from Arlington to Dallas.
The 15-year, $19 million agreement makes the team the feature attraction at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium starting in 2026, moving them away from the College Park Center on the University of Texas at Arlington campus.
“For the last two years, we’ve been working with the Dallas Wings. It’s now on the record that it’s the Dallas Wings, our incredible WNBA team, and I have to say, our incredible partner,” said Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson during Wednesday’s council meeting.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
“It takes us to another place,” said Wings President and CEO Greg Bibb.
Bibb said moving a professional sports team from Arlington is no small undertaking; it’s a necessary reality they began exploring in recent years.
“When we started to think about how do we serve our fans, how do we meet the demand for our product, there’s a reality to College Park Center. There are 6,251 seats. If we want to continue to grow, we need more seats. We need a bigger building. We need facilities for our athletes to train at the level that they need to train,” he said.
The women’s basketball fever currently sweeping the nation is sweetening the deal for both parties.
“What a perfect time for the Wings and the City of Dallas to make this historic announcement," said Bibb.
"Whether it’s the NCAA women’s basketball ratings, the WNBA draft, which just concluded, or the fact that we sold out of our season tickets three weeks before we played our first home, now is a moment in time, and I think the fact that we’re creating another moment in time with the City of Dallas right now is special."
For city leaders, the announcement marks a win in a years-long campaign to recruit professional sports teams back to a city that others have left.
“We’re going to brag about a sports team that live, work, play, and have a job is in the city of Dallas, Texas, and our taxpayer money is going to a business that is in the city of Dallas,” said council member Tennell Atkins.
UTA responded to the news Wednesday with a statement:
“The Wings have been a wonderful partner for UTA since 2016, providing a national platform for our state-of-the-art, 7,000-seat College Park Center. The University and our arena staff remain focused on continuing to deliver an exceptional experience for the fans and the team for the upcoming 2024 and 2025 seasons.”
Bibb said the Wings hope to move into their new home in Dallas in the spring of 2026, just in time for training camp.
Dallas plans to renovate the nearly 10,000-seat auditorium as part of a larger redevelopment project anchored by a new convention center to replace the aging Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The city will pay the incentives over three years.
