Receipts: Data shows the impact the Stars, Mavs have on restaurants and bars near the AAC

Within a 24-hour span, Dallas sports fans felt the ground shift twice. The Stars announced their departure from the American Airlines Center (AAC) to Plano’s Willow Bend just one day after the Mavs said they’re headed to the former Valley View Mall site. It was another blow in a long line of local sports gut-punches.

For many fans, going to a game at the AAC was a night out: dinner and drinks before or after a game in Victory Park. There are dozens of restaurants all within walking distance. One of my best nights ever was watching a Stars game at the AAC, then walking to Harwood Arms to watch the end of a Mavs playoff game (Luka hit that drop-back three-pointer and the place went wild). Peak Dallas sports day.

Don’t stop believing

Most of the businesses around the AAC didn’t want to talk about the move. We get it. Too soon. Taryn Anderson is a co-owner of Billy Can Can, a great steakhouse in Victory Park, and she’s optimistic, citing “Y’all Street” and 7,000 workers Goldman Sachs will bring to the area (they probably eat a lot of steak). She still believes in the AAC.

“Dave Ireland [vice president of marketing and event programming at the AAC] and his team have done a tremendous job diversifying the event calendar — concerts, shows, programming that bring people to Victory Park regardless of who’s playing,” she says, adding that the Dallas Wings are committed to playing there.

“For our foodie guests who’ve avoided us on heavy game nights, the teams moving is actually good news. The parking and traffic concerns that kept some people away won’t be a factor,” she says. Billy Can Can has that going for it — it is a legitimate dining destination in its own right.

Checking the receipts

For numbers, we can look at liquor receipts (specifically, the Mixed Beverage Gross Receipts as reported by the Texas Comptroller’s Office) for bars and restaurants surrounding the AAC by ZIP code. The state collects and publishes liquor sales each month, offering a little insight into the potential impact of the teams’ departure.

Both the Stars and Mavs roll through the AAC regularly in November through March, when both seasons are in full swing. Neither team plays during June, July and August, the offseason, if you will. So, let’s compare the AAC’s two “seasons.”

75219: Uptown, Victory Plaza

Trying to pick each bar and restaurant would be tedious and leave a lot of room for error. Plus, it’s not a stretch to say that many of the areas around the AAC benefit from people eating and drinking before a game. The AAC and Victory Park sit on a sliver of 75219, a ZIP code that also includes a large part of Uptown. For these numbers, we need to subtract the alcohol sales at the AAC — we did all the math.

For the past season, 75219 (minus the AAC) pulled in an average of $6.7 million in liquor sales per month from November to March.

During the AAC’s offseason (June-August), 75219 averaged $5.6 million per month.

That’s a 16.3% decrease in the offseason.

75201: Harwood District

Another ZIP code, 75201, skirts the AAC and includes all of the Harwood District, which is rife with bars like Happiest Hour and Harwood Arms.

When both teams are playing, 75201 averages $15.6 million a month. When neither team is playing, the average falls to $13.2 million per month, a 15.4% drop in the offseason.

75202: The West End

The West End sees some uptick in business on game days — folks who ride DART stop there for dinner. The historical district saw a 17.4% drop in average monthly sales when the teams weren’t playing ($4 million versus $3.3 million).

Collectively, across all ZIP codes, there’s a 16% average drop during the off months.

Is that just seasonal, though?

We often hear that business at bars and restaurants is down in the summer. “It’s too hot.” So, we plucked data for the Star District in Frisco (ZIP code 75034), another entertainment area with many bars and restaurants. Yes, they, too, see a drop in the summer months, but their slump averages 6.5%. Not 16%.

Is an almost 10% drop — at best (concerts could move too) — over most of the year enough to kill an entertainment district? Will Y’all Street buoy it? What is Y’all Street? Why do bad things keep happening to Dallas sports fans? Should we hire a witch off Etsy to un-vex this space? Is that what GoFundMe is for (vexes cost a LOT)? Or do we call our senator? Let’s go with witches.

Let’s hope, by some miracle, both teams just decide to stay.