DALLAS _ Before Wednesday night's Dallas-New York game at American Airlines Center, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban expanded his emailed remarks made earlier in the day, after the City Council voted to create a subdistrict within the Design District that could pave the way for Cuban to build an arena on the current site of the team's new practice facility.
"It's really disappointing that every year we lose parking spaces and it becomes more difficult for AAC attendees to come to events," Cuban said. "If the [American Airlines Center] lease were shorter, we'd be gone sooner just because we need to put our fans first. And our neighbors certainly aren't doing that for us."
The Mavericks' American Airlines Center lease expires on July 28, 2031. Cuban, however, wonders if actions by developers of the surrounding AAC property might give the franchise legal recourse.
"Some of the companies that were originally involved with the development of the AAC are some of the neighbors that are creating difficulties for us," he said. "I don't know if there are any caveats in the agreements that allow us to contest the lease. I don't expect to find anything, but we'll look at it."
The parking issues around AAC are irreversible, Cuban said, because "Once the lots are gone, they're gone.
"It just makes life more difficult for all fans going to the AAC. And that's not a positive," he said. "If there would have been more respect for our fans, it's probably not something I would even look at for 10 years. But that's not the case, and it continues to get worse, despite our protests."
