Mark Cuban, Aggies Join Forces for Practice Facility, HQ Plans

Mark Cuban’s passions for the Dallas Mavericks and Shark Tank could be combined at his new practice facility.

Conceptual plans presented by architecture students at Texas A&M show a mixed-use facility with an NBA court, team offices, a team store, a restaurant and office space and conference rooms for startup technology companies, according to the Dallas Business Journal.

UNIQUE AMONG NBA FACILITIES

This is just what you’d expect from a billionaire who has his own startup companies and made a television show out of funding new ideas. It would certainly set it apart from any other NBA facility.

No site has been announced and Cuban hasn’t provided any official statement, yet.

It likely will be built near downtown Dallas, not far from the American Airlines Center, according to sources who talked to the Dallas Business Journal. The Mavericks currently practice in the basement of the AAC. The practice court is modeled after Cuban’s own high school gymnasium where he played.

MARK CUBAN MAY BE EMULATING JERRY JONES’ SUCCESS

Cuban likely sees the success that Jerry Jones is having building a separate practice facility in Frisco and wants to mimic that for himself.

The Aggies have until the end of the semester to finish their plans and several teams of students have competing designs. Of course, Cuban has also hired the professionals at HKS, who famously designed AT&T Stadium in Arlington and will design the new stadium for the newly relocated Los Angeles Rams.

The Dallas Morning News talked with architecture professor Michael O’Brien, who said he appreciated Cuban taking the time to talk to his students.

“It’s not like the students’ work will get built, but the client’s insights are invaluable to the students’ education.” _ architecture professor Michael O’Brien.

“It’s not like the students’ work will get built, but the client’s insights are invaluable to the students’ education,” O’Brien told The News.

Regardless, the students’ design gives us a glimpse of what Cuban wants in the facility.


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Photo: Flickr/Creative Commons/Keith Allison

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