DALLAS — Rick Welts has been the CEO of the Mavericks for less than a year, or more than enough time to hear that the city of Dallas made a mistake.

A mistake when city leaders made minimal attempt to keep, or bring back, the Cowboys to Dallas and instead allowed the most popular football team in America to head to Irving, and now Arlington.

“If I have to hear one more time about the scars of the Cowboys playing where they play now when they should be in Fair Park,” Welts said. “We have an opportunity to solidify the Mavericks as Dallas’ team that’s in Dallas.”

Of the major sports franchises in the area, the Mavericks are the only ones anchored in the city they’re named after. It was important to former Mavs owner Mark Cuban to be headquartered and to play in Dallas, and new owner Patrick Dumont has maintained that priority.

Welts was convinced by Dumont, who is the president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp., to come out of retirement to sell the Mavericks. Not actually sell the Mavericks to a new owner, but to sell them to a fan base, local businesses, its taxpayers, Dallas city leaders on not just the team, but to build a new arena.

The lease with the American Airlines Center expires in the summer of 2031.

The team is targeting potential locations in the downtown Dallas area to build an arena/hotel/nightlife destination on 35 to 40 acres. The area near the redevelopment of the Dallas Convention Center is thought to be a possibility, as well as land near the Dallas County Jail. The team prefers not to explore opportunities at the site of the old Texas Stadium in Irving.

The new arena would immediately become the area’s premier destination for games and concerts that are not big enough to justify opening the doors at AT&T Stadium.

Before the Mavs kicked off their season at the American Airlines Center, Welts talked with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about this process, and to dispel a popular conspiracy about the ultimate intentions of Dumont.

— Star-Telegram: Is there anything you can say that will convince somebody that the Dallas Mavericks are not moving to Las Vegas?

— Rick Welts: It’s called, ‘Follow the money.’ Two aspects. One, at some point Las Vegas may be an expansion for the NBA.

Two, the economic opportunity here is a multiple of what a franchise operating in Las Vegas will be. The thing that drives local team revenue is ticket sales; there is a loooottt of competition in Vegas.

There is such a great opportunity here. Sponsorship sales, are you kidding? Night and day. The Dallas market was like icing on the cake, and the icing is going to stay on the cake. If you want to break it down by economic opportunity, here it is so much greater than what it would be there.

And there is no business they [Dumont and Las Vegas Sands Corp.] have there in Las Vegas other than its headquarters.

— S-T: Do the Mavericks want public assistance for the construction of a new arena?

— RW: I‘m sure there will be a contribution of some type. This isn’t a dodge, but it depends on the location. Some of the sites that we’re talking about are much simpler than others. Some would definitely require the city to be involved in ways that only the city can be involved.

Transportation. People are very concerned how accessible this is going to be.

The one thing to get unanimously is, ‘Please keep it in the city audience of Dallas.’ OK, that’s what we’re trying to do, and we expect to do, but if we’re at a certain location, it depends on what infrastructure improvements need to happen there.

Our hope is that the end of the first quarter of ‘26, we can say, ‘Here’s where we want to be.’ It’s a very fair question of what that particular site would require, from our standpoint, to make it work. And some of those things may be only things that the city can deliver, because they control them.

— S-T: We are seeing instances of voters rejecting proposals to help with the construction of sports stadiums; it happened in Kansas City, and a project in Northern Virginia for the Capitals and Wizards died. Have you discussed as a staff how to be proactive to make sure that you have community support for this project?

— RW: It’s a community decision. I mean, it wouldn’t surprise you that if we decided to go somewhere other than the city of Dallas, there are still those communities who are very interested. That’s not what we want to do, OK?

So we hope we’ve taken that off the table. If it’s fairly done, I think we’re going to get there. One point I want to make, so far the engagement with the city is, ‘Let’s figure this out, because we want the Mavericks to be here.’ I think we’ll find a place.

— S-T: You were heavily involved with the building of the Chase Center in San Francisco for the Warriors. Is that a comp for what you want to do in Dallas?

— RW: One of the reasons I’m here is that Patrick [Dumont] loves the Chase Center. It’s really nice from an aesthetic standpoint, and everything is fan-facing and done first, first, first class. That’s what he loves about Chase when he goes to events there; he feels there’s a difference in the quality of fan experience.

It’s going to be that when you walk into that building. Our fans are going to say, ‘They get Dallas.’ When people go to Chase Center, they feel like these guys get San Francisco. It has to do with the food and beverage program we need. It has to do with who we align with in the community. Has to do with the art program that we did.

— S-T: Will this be a Las Vegas-style resort destination?

— RW: Yes, it has to be working 365 days a year. When I say ‘entertainment district,’ I’m talking about a ton of restaurant opportunities, at least a hotel, maybe even a smaller arena for smaller performances less than 18,000 seats. There has to be reasons to come down there other than a Mavericks game.

— S-T: As you draw up plans, do you dedicate any square footage if gambling is legalized in Texas?

— RW: It’s not in the picture. There is not going to be enough room for that to be a component. It wouldn’t even be a smart thing to us to design. There are more opportunities today that are not focused on casino gambling than hoping there’s a big empty lot where we could do something.

I don’t think there is enough to land to do what we want to do, and do that, too.

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