American Airlines Center

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  American Airlines Center opened its doors on the 17th of July, 2001, and within two nights it had hosted an Eagles concert, the final show of Michael Flatley's Feet of Flames tour, and the beginning of something Dallas had been waiting years to build. The price tag was $420 million. The location was a former power plant site just north of Woodall Rodgers Freeway. And the name came with a $195 million deal from an airline headquartered just up the road in Fort Worth.

  Why does a city build a new arena from the ground up? What happens when two major sports franchises, a real estate vision, and a neighborhood's buried history all converge on the same patch of downtown land? And how does a building become the stage for some of the most memorable nights in American sports? Those are the threads this story follows.

• 2. A City Outgrows Its Arena

  ›

  By 1998, both the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars were making clear they had outgrown Reunion Arena, which the source describes as aging and undersized. The Mavericks were then owned by H. Ross Perot Jr., and along with the Stars ownership, the teams signaled they needed something new.

  Dallas taxpayers backed the project by approving a new hotel tax and a rental car tax to fund a portion of the construction. The two teams agreed to cover the remaining costs, including any overruns. That shared funding arrangement placed the financial burden across a broad base rather than concentrating it entirely on public coffers.

  The chosen site carried its own history. The arena rose on land that had formerly housed a power plant, and it sits in the shadows of what was once the neighborhood of Little Mexico, the early home of the Mexican American population in the Dallas area. That layer of the city's past now lies beneath the footprint of a $420 million sports complex.

• 3. The Naming Rights Deal

  ›

  On the 18th of March, 1999, American Airlines announced it would acquire the naming rights to the new arena for $195 million. The airline operates out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and maintains its headquarters in nearby Fort Worth, making the partnership a local one in a meaningful sense.

  The visual identity of the arena shifted once over the years. From the building's 2001 opening through 2013, the exterior and signage carried the then-current AA logo. After 2013, the arena updated to the airline's current logo design. The nickname that stuck among some fans reflects the architecture as much as the sponsor. The roof's Quonset hut-like silhouette, combined with the airline connection, led people to start calling it "The Hangar."

• 4. Design and the Victory Park Vision

  ›

  David M. Schwarz, a Washington D.C.-based architect and winner of the Driehaus Prize, led the principal design work. Schwarz works in the New Classical tradition, and that sensibility shows in the building's sweeping brick facades and smooth arches. The interior pairs retractable seating with public art and what the source describes as a technological arena.

  The arena was conceived as the anchor of Victory Park, a planned urban and commercial district intended to reinvigorate downtown Dallas. On the arena's south side, the principal entrance opens onto PNC Plaza, which has also carried the names Victory Plaza and AT&T Plaza. Artist Athena Tacha designed the plaza in 2000. It features fountains flanked by retail and office buildings, along with several Daktronics HD video displays mounted on the arena and surrounding structures. The outdoor space regularly hosts movie showings and events.

  PNC Plaza is also where visitors find the Dirk Nowitzki statue, which captures the former Mavericks star in his signature one-legged fadeaway jump shot.

• 5. The NBA Finals at AAC

  ›

  American Airlines Center has hosted three NBA Finals series, and two of them carried an unusual twist. In both 2006 and 2011, the Dallas Mavericks faced the Miami Heat. At that time, the Heat played their home games in the then-named American Airlines Arena in Miami, now known as Kaseya Center. With the same airline holding naming rights to both venues, some observers nicknamed those matchups the "American Airlines series."

  The outcomes diverged sharply. Miami won the 2006 series 4-2, closing out in Dallas. Five years later, Dallas reversed the result, winning the 2011 series 4-2 and closing it out in Miami. Both franchises were appearing in their first two Finals in each respective year.

  The arena's third Finals appearance came in 2024, when the Boston Celtics visited Dallas. Boston split the two games played at American Airlines Center but won all of its games at TD Garden, claiming the championship in five games total.

• 6. Hockey, Martial Arts, and More

  ›

  On the 24th of January, 2007, American Airlines Center hosted the 55th NHL All-Star Game. Three years earlier, the arena had become a recurring stop for the PBR's Built Ford Tough Series bull riding event, which ran there annually between 2005 and 2009. The Big 12 Basketball tournament came to the arena in 2003, 2004, and 2006.

  The UFC has staged six events at the arena across multiple years. Franklin versus Belfort took place on the 19th of September, 2009. Hendricks versus Lawler followed on the 15th of March, 2014. Pettis versus dos Anjos ran on the 14th of March, 2015. Miocic versus dos Santos 2 was held on the 13th of May, 2017. Woodley versus Till came on the 8th of September, 2018. And Pena versus Nunes 2 closed the run on the 30th of July, 2022. Strikeforce: Overeem versus Werdum also took place there on the 18th of June, 2011.

  On the 6th of July, 2019, the arena hosted the opening round of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax series, bringing one of professional wrestling's most prestigious tournaments to Dallas for the first time.

• 7. Unexpected Nights and Odd Details

  ›

  A few weeks after American Airlines Center opened, workers discovered a problem with the glass installed in the bathrooms. The glass was not the type originally specified, and people driving past the arena found they had a clear view into the restrooms. The correct glass was installed the following week.

  In early 2022, a roof leak forced delays to two Mavericks games: one against the Timberwolves on the 21st of March, and a playoff game against the Golden State Warriors on the 24th of May. The arena also turned up on screen in The Simpsons episode "The Burns and the Bees," where it appeared as "Dallas Arena."

  On the 28th of December, 2025, the Professional Women's Hockey League brought its Seattle Torrent and New York Sirens to Dallas for a PWHL Takeover Tour game, the first PWHL game ever played in the city. The Sirens won 4-3 in front of 8,514 fans. The Mavericks' current lease on the arena runs through 2031, after which the team could relocate to a proposed integrated resort in Irving being developed by Las Vegas Sands.