Owners of the Mavericks said yesterday that they were
"blindsided" by Stars Owner Tom Hicks' demand for equal
control of a new arena, according to Todd Gillman of the
DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Minority Owner Donald Carter, who sold
most of the Mavs last year to Ross Perot Jr., but retains a
16.5% interest in the team, said Hicks agreed "long ago" to
take a secondary role in the arena. In return, he said, the
Mavs would guarantee the Stars' revenue would put them among
the top 10 NHL teams. The deal "was never put in writing,"
Carter said, and Hicks said the oral agreement was valid
only if Carter paid for the arena. Meanwhile, Dallas Mayor
Ron Kirk and City Manager John Ware "expressed skepticism"
about the Stars' $378M arena project. Kirk: "I will get
more excited about any of these proposals once they have
dollar signs attached to them. I'm much more interested in
how we're going to pay for them" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS,
1/23). In Ft. Worth, David Markiewicz reports that Perot
Jr. said a letter Hicks sent to Dallas officials Tuesday
"completely misrepresents my position." Perot said his
Hillwood Development Corp. would privately finance
approximately $750M in arena-related development, such as
hotels, restaurants, shops and parking, while the
approximately $200M arena "would be a traditional public-
private partnership" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 1/23).
