DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks reopened their practice facility on Monday. After five months of offseason renovations, crews dedicated over 10,000 labor hours to overhaul 7,500 square feet of kitchen, dining, lounge, and wellness areas. This upgrade was completed ahead of the team’s return for the 2026-27 season.

The team also launched Champions Performance Kitchen on Monday. The dining program is built and operated by 50 Eggs Hospitality Group, and it cooks for Mavericks players, coaches, and staff out of the renovated kitchen.

Mavericks chief communications officer Gina Miller and Khalia Collier, the team’s vice president and chief of staff of basketball operations, led members of the media, including Dallas Sports Journal, through the renovated spaces Monday. Cumming Group, an international project management and cost consulting firm, managed the project with Manhattan Construction Group. The Mavericks and 50 Eggs provided design input.

The Adelson and Dumont families bought majority control of the franchise from Mark Cuban in late 2023, and Patrick Dumont took over as governor. Mavericks CEO Rick Welts credited Dumont and the ownership group for the project in a statement released by the team Monday.

“A great practice facility is essential to building a great basketball organization,” Welts said. “It’s where our players and staff spend so much of their time, and it should give them everything they need to prepare, recover, and perform at their best. Patrick Dumont and our ownership group understand that. This investment reflects their commitment to our people, to competing for championships, and to creating a world-class Mavericks organization.”

Rick Welts, Khalia Collier Tie Renovation To 2031 Arena Timeline

Welts spoke Monday before the tour started. The Mavericks hired him as CEO in January 2025, bringing him out of retirement after he had led the Golden State Warriors through their move from Oakland to Chase Center in San Francisco.

“I’ve got a big grin on my face,” Welts explained. “I feel like I’m in Disneyland with better food. I don’t know how else to describe it. The evolution of the player facilities has been something to watch over the last couple decades and to see what our players get to come and experience every single day, I think it’s five wins, don’t you? At least five wins.”

On June 1, the Mavericks entered option agreements for the potential purchase of about 104 acres at the former Valley View Mall site near Preston Road and Interstate 635 in North Dallas. The team said in a statement that day that the site “meets most of the criteria established at the outset of our evaluation process.” Earlier this month, the Mavericks filed a rezoning request covering roughly 112 acres there. Their lease at American Airlines Center expires in 2031.

“I don’t think all of our fans know that when we build our new arena we’re also going to be building a new Mavericks headquarters,” Welts said. “We’re also going to be building a brand new practice facility for the players and we’re planning to open in 2031. So this potentially is a building that could get knocked down in five years. So I think the commitment to do something of this scale, of this quality, five years before we move into a brand new building is kind of a one-of-a-kind ownership decision.”

In late March, Welts told Mavericks reporters the arena district would be “one of the biggest sports developments that’s ever taken place.” Plans for the site call for the team’s corporate headquarters and training facility, at least one luxury hotel, a separate 5,000-seat concert venue, and retail and dining.

Crews installed two 18-foot-by-5-foot insulated windows in the existing concrete wall panels along the practice court, allowing natural light to reach the floor for the first time. Reinforcing these panels required 18,000 pounds of structural steel. The new infrared sauna features eucalyptus hardwood panels and can attain temperatures of up to 170 degrees.

Collier walked reporters through rooms she first saw as renderings.

“The time is always now,” Collier said. “We know what the future looks like in 2031. We know what North Dallas is going to continue to build into, but I think ownership saw the opportunity into today, in the present future, to be able to create an environment that’s world class, to invest in our players, our coaches, and our staff, and put us in the best possible environment to be successful, and to know that we’re cared about, we’re valued, we’re appreciated, but we’re set up for success.”

“It’s amazing to be a part of a project like this, to actually see the renderings, but then see it come to fruition, and see the guys be wowed,” Collier continued. “To know that they’ve been so many places all across the world, and they know that they come into an environment every day that is world class, that sets the tone. It’s incredible.”

“Those type of things lead to us winning,” Collier added. “Everything, all these investments that we’re making off the court is going to help us continue to be competitive and operate and compete at the highest levels.”

The new players’ lounge is 50% larger than the old one. Players drove several of the design elements, including a vinyl-record wall, a player-edition sneaker display, and custom furniture scaled for the Mavericks’ average team height. A new hair-washing station went into the barbershop, which also got new tile, paint, and flooring.

The renovated rooms are finished in 18,000 square feet of white oak paneling and more than 4,000 square feet of European oak herringbone flooring. Over 7,000 square feet of wall coverings were installed on walls and ceilings, and a printed mural was added to the corridor to produce a mirage-like effect.

John Bauer, 50 Eggs Hospitality Group Run Champions Performance Kitchen

Culinary director John Bauer oversees the 50 Eggs program. He joined in June after nearly a decade with Chef Daniel Boulud’s Dinex Group. Bauer’s team runs the kitchen like a restaurant, not a team cafeteria, with seasonal menus aligned with what partner farms are harvesting.

Nearly all of the food is made in-house. That includes breads, pastries, sauces, dressings, condiments, marinades, fresh-pressed juices, and burger blends ground from selected cuts to a specified fat ratio. Proteins are hand-cut by the culinary team, and juices are cold-pressed daily from organic produce. Meals and smoothies are built to individual nutritional profiles in collaboration with the Mavericks’ strength coaches and nutrition staff.

Wagyu comes from Rosewood Ranches near Ennis; Reeves Family Farm in Princeton supplies produce; Roman Heritage Farms in Sunset provides pastured poultry. Seafood is supplied by Seafood Supply Company in Dallas. Anson Mills mills flour to order and delivers it weekly. Heirloom corn from Tamoa is ground into masa on-site, and the organic coffee comes from Groundwork.

The dining room seating increased by 300%. Crews cut a 100-square-foot, metal-framed skylight into the existing ceiling and installed an 11-foot Ficus tree from Shades of Green Nursery in Celina, featuring integrated irrigation and drainage in the planter. A 140-square-foot preserved-moss wall mural by Miami-based design group Plant the Future anchors the room, with the custom-made banquette seating assembled on-site. The kitchen now features over 70 pieces of restaurant-grade food service equipment.

The Ficus tree and the moss wall put living green inside a room players walk into straight from practice, and Bauer said the idea behind bringing that indoors is to make the space calming.

“For us I think there’s this trend in hospitality design where you kind of it’s indoor and outdoor this seamless transition between the two spaces, bringing green and organic biophilia inside,” Bauer said. “I think it’s calming, it brings a sense of comfort. Light and bright spaces I think are great for coming off the practice court. You’re not going into this dark, cold space. You’re going to something that feels comfortable, warm, relaxing, somewhere you want to hang out longer. We felt that was more appropriate.”

During road trips, 50 Eggs caters the team’s flights and coordinates meals with hotels. The same staff manages pre- and post-game meals throughout the season and works with players’ personal chefs to keep each player’s nutrition consistent at home. Visiting chefs from Dallas and around the country will cook alongside Bauer’s staff during the season.

John Kunkel founded 50 Eggs in 2001 and continues as CEO. It began as a single sandwich shop in Miami Beach and has grown to 44 restaurants across nine states and two continents. Its brands include WAKUDA, developed with Chef Tetsuya Wakuda at Marina Bay Sands and The Venetian, along with CHICA and Spring Chicken. 50 Eggs has built and sold Yardbird, a James Beard Award nominee, to private equity, and Lime Fresh Mexican Grill to Ruby Tuesday. A new WAKUDA will open in Dallas.

The Mavericks hold media day Friday at 10 a.m. CT, and training camp practices begin Saturday. They face the Houston Rockets twice at The Venetian Arena in Macao, on Oct. 9 and Oct. 11. The regular-season opener is Oct. 21 in Houston, with tip-off at 7:30 p.m. CT.