Major hiccups related to the planned Dallas Wings practice facility at Joey Georgusis Park have the city’s agreement with the WNBA team coming back before council members on Wednesday.
With the Mavericks-City Hall drama overshadowing so much other real estate news, we missed the Wings enduring significant city-involved complications in stride as they navigate their move to the Big D. And what better welcome to Dallas than project delays? So, let’s catch up on this little saga.
The franchise agreed in 2024 to relocate from Arlington to a renovated Dallas Memorial Auditorium with a new practice facility next door. The two-building, 15-year deal folded into the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center redevelopment. A year later, though, it was announced that the FIFA World Cup International Broadcast Center would be hosted by Dallas at the convention center, which obviously complicated construction and move-in timelines. Work on the arena won’t be completed until at least 2027.
Officials ended up deciding to build the new practice facility, which enjoyed a ceremonial groundbreaking last September, at Joey Georgusis Park in West Oak Cliff. At the event, City Manager Kimberly Tolbert promised the city would deliver the facility by the spring of 2026, telling the team, “We want you to hold us accountable.”
As it turns out, that project has also suffered from delays. It won’t open until next year either. The delays are coming with additional costs, pushing the bill $27 million over the roughly $54 million in taxpayer money budgeted for the practice facility and forcing the Wings to continue playing their home games at UT Arlington’s College Park Center this coming season and maybe the next.
Some of the reasons for the practice facility delays were scrutinized by council members last month, with officials acknowledging the ordeal has been a bad look for a city currently trying to keep its NBA and NHL franchises from moving out of town. Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) called it “another failed real estate project that we have not delivered on time or on budget.”…