A short second act ends
Rick Welts is leaving the Dallas Mavericks. The club announced that its CEO will step down at the end of the year, and that Ethan Casson will succeed him on January 1, 2027, according to Marc Stein.
Welts, 73, was lured out of retirement in December 2024 to lead the team’s new arena project. His résumé explains why Dallas wanted him. He is a 2018 Hall of Fame inductee who worked for the Warriors, Suns and Sonics and spent time in the league office dating back to the 1970s. At Golden State he was part of the group that delivered Chase Center, a $1.4 billion building.
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Why Casson is a natural successor
Casson is already inside the building. Dallas hired him in July 2025 as its first-ever team president. He spent nine years as CEO of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, and earlier worked for the San Francisco 49ers, where he rose to COO and helped develop Levi’s Stadium.
The handover lands in the middle of a project that is far from finished. Earlier this year, D Magazine reported that the Mavericks were aiming for an arena that opens for the 2031-32 season, with the club and the Dallas Stars locked in a legal dispute over the current building, whose leases run out in 2031. Moving the person who knows the stadium file best into the top job keeps that thread intact.
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