City Council approves contract extension, unveils $48.6M Dallas Wings practice facility renderings
By
Victoria Hernandez|September 24th, 2025
Screenshot from the Advanced Schematic Drawings: Dallas Wings Secondary Facility presentation.
The Dallas City Council voted in favor of authorizing the services agreement with McKissack & McKissack, Inc. for the one year contract extension for the completion of the Dallas Memorial Arena.
The construction of the secondary facility was originally going to be a part of or adjacent to the current Dallas Memorial Auditorium (Arena). However, due to ongoing negotiations with FIFA at the time to finalize the location for FIFA’s International Broadcast Center, the practice facility was moved to Oak Cliff, director of Dallas Convention and Event Services Rosa Fleming said during a council committee meeting Tuesday afternoon.
During that meeting, Fleming presented the need to update the scope of the agreement with McKissack to extend the services for the arena. Previously the facility was expected to be completed by 2026.
“The Wings agreed and that was always an option in their original contract to extend the year, so we did extend the year,” Fleming said.
Earlier this month, the council
voted in favor of rezoning part of the Joey Georgusis Park to accommodate the then estimated $55 million practice facility. The practice facility is now expected to cost $48.6 million.
Now that the new location has been finalized and due to McKissack having involvement with the project since February 2024, it was presented to the council to continue their partnership with the project management group because of their experience and expertise on the project. Additionally,
Gensler was brought on for design in June following the decision to move the practice facility to West Oak Cliff.
“They did some early design work. They brought it, what Gensler inherited once we provided was something that had been and was being worked on by the McKissack team and will be continued on by the McKissack team. So they’re working in coordination.”
In addition to discussing the agreement with McKissack at yesterday’s meeting, Gensler’s Pheba Thomas, the design architect and architect of record for the project,
presented the advanced schematic drawings of the practice facility at the new location.
The design will now use a pre-engineered metal building to make it faster and cheaper to erect the space rather than the traditional built in place steel structure originally proposed, she said.
The project has two components to allow for public use of the facility as well.
“The site is organized based on the community access to the site, as well as the player access to the site,” Thomas said.
The community component will include the south side with a public lobby, meetings rooms, flexible meeting rooms and locker facilities.
“The intention of the space is for planned activities, community events, youth clinics, educational programs hosted by both the Wings, as well as the City and the park and trail,” Thomas said.
The larger mass in the middle holds the athletic facilities, such as courts, strength and recovery training facilities, coaching, and basketball ops. There are also dining facilities and dedicated player and staff entry to the space on the north side of the project site.
The breakdown of the funding for the project includes five sources, including $3.1 million from the Dallas Wings.
The Convention Center Capital Construction Fund is about $25 million, the Economic Development Funding is about $10 million, the Dallas Wings will contribute $3.1 million and private funds will add another $10 million, Fleming said. She added that the State Funding covers the closing funding of the project.
“It’s purposeful in its organization,” Thomas said. “An it is really just meeting the needs and giving them a state of the art facility, but also making sure that we are being mindful of the city’s funds and budgets.”
The practice facility is expected to be open in Fall of 2026, with the official ground breaking Friday, Sept. 26 at 10 a.m.
Joey Georgusis Park is located at 1200 Stone Mesa Drive.
