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Dallas City Council members will consider an agreement to give the Dallas Wings control of developing a planned practice facility in west Oak Cliff at a meeting Wednesday.
The agreement will cap the city’s contribution to the project at $57 million and reimburse the Wings hundreds of thousands of dollars for construction delays. Those delays have pushed the Wings’ planned move into the facility back by up to two years and have resulted in $27 million in unforeseen costs, which the team will be responsible for as the main developer of the 70,000-square-foot facility.
Under the agreement, the Wings will receive $54 million in economic development grants, $3.2 million in developer fees and $653,000 in delay reimbursements. The reimbursement also prevents the Wings from suing the city for development delays.
Dallas originally signed a $14 million agreement with the Wings in 2024 to move the team into a renovated Memorial Arena near the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center. Under that agreement, the team was to move into the arena by spring 2026. However, issues with the project’s development and reconstruction delays at the convention center have pushed the completion date to at least late 2027, meaning the team may have to wait until 2028 to move into the arena.
Plans for a $55 million practice facility at Joey Georgusis Park in Oak Cliff were announced in 2025. Like the arena project, the practice facility has also been delayed under the city’s watch. The team was supposed to occupy the facility in 2026, but construction has not yet begun, so the team will likely have to wait until 2027 for the facility that the city promised.
The Wings have expressed concern over the delays. CEO Greg Bibb said the delays have left him “disappointed” in an interview with the Dallas Morning News, but also said his organization still has faith in the city in a separate article.
“I’m confident the City of Dallas will do the right thing and honor the agreement signed with the Wings nearly two years ago,” Bibb said.
Council members have also raised concerns about the project’s development and its cost to the city. In an effort to mitigate costs to the city, some council members recently proposed moving the team to the American Airlines Center, either as a short-term consolation prize or a long-term home. Bibb said the proposal was not a “viable option” in an early March interview with the Morning News.
At a Feb. 24 meeting, Council member Cara Mendelsohn called for answers as to why the project hasn’t made meaningful progress.
“I think the question for the city manager is also who’s being held accountable on the city side, because this is not the kind of performance that we expect, and it looks terrible for us. It’s causing problems for the team,” Mendelsohn said. “And really, it’s just another notch in the belt of another failed real estate project that we have not delivered on time or on budget.”
Dallas has had its fair share of real estate mishaps in recent years. None more, perhaps, than the infamous debacle that saw the city spend over $20 million renovating a permit office that city inspectors ultimately decided wasn’t up to code.
At the Feb. 24 council meeting, Rosa Fleming, director of Dallas Convention and Event Services, told council members that the Wings would be able to accelerate the project’s development by taking control, and that oversights by city staff had contributed to the delay. She also pointed to changes to practice facility requirements by the WNBA and issues with the project management firm hired to oversee the project as contributing to the delay.
“We were not satisfied with the project manager’s work on this particular project,” Fleming told council members.
The agreement to be considered Wednesday would reduce the amount awarded to the project manager, McKissack and McKissack, by just under $2 million. The reduction would take oversight of the project away from the firm and give control to the Wings, who are still playing games at College Park Center in Arlington. The firm will still oversee the arena project.
Dallas is also trying to convince the Stars and Mavericks to remain within city limits, as both teams’ leases at the American Airlines Center are set to expire. While debate rages on about a potential new home for the Mavericks, the Wings’ CEO has made statements suggesting his team’s struggles won’t happen in a vacuum.
“How our situation plays out will help other businesses — whether sports teams, for-profit enterprises, or charitable organizations — better understand what it means to do long-term mutually beneficial partnerships with the city,” Bibb recently told the Dallas Morning News.
