Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has announced that he will chair a council committee to find innovative ways to attract more professional sports teams and events to the city.
Johnson unveiled the new Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Sports Recruitment and Retention in a memo to fellow city council members on May 17. He emphasized that the group’s goal is to make Dallas more competitive in attracting sports business, even though multiple teams bearing the city’s name are situated in other parts of the metroplex.
According to Mayor Johnson, Dallas is the best sports city in the U.S., and although Dallas has been too quiet when luring professional sports teams to the city, that may change soon. Johnson compared North Texas’ population increase to Chicago’s and said the region could support two NFL clubs better than either Los Angeles or New York.
Johnson also announced the creation of the sports panel on Twitter and got a mixed bag of reactions on the social media platform.
Prioritizing keeping the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars in the city, as well as assessing the effects of teams like MLS’s FC Dallas and the NBA’s Dallas Wings being located outside of Dallas, the committee will also examine whether the benefits outweigh any possible costs of new teams being brought in.
The American Airlines Center, where the Mavericks and Stars meet, is in the heart of downtown Dallas. They have lease agreements to play there expiring in 2031, and Mayor Johnson believes that talks about keeping the teams there should begin as soon as possible.