Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Apr 28, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; A view of the Dallas Stars ice girls and logos and the arena as center Wyatt Johnston (53) and goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) and the Stars take the ice to face the Colorado Avalanche in game five of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at American Airlines Center.
The Dallas Stars are set to leave their current home in the American Airlines Center and move to a brand new, billion-dollar arena in Plano, Texas, starting in the 2031-32 season.
But questions are beginning to arise around the funding for the new stadium. In particular, those questions surround a recent report that the Plano Independent School District is expected to contribute up to $250 million to the project.
Where will that money come from? Why is a public school district contributing to a privately owned arena? And what would the funds be used for otherwise?
All of those questions are starting to get answered. But the answers are pretty unsettling.
Plano public schools plan to contribute $250M in tax revenue to the Dallas Stars’ future billion-dollar arena.
The funds would come from recapture, which is money property-rich school districts give back to the state to be distributed to poorer schools. https://t.co/fI8g7RlFd7
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) October 14, 2026
Dallas Stars New Arena Set To Be Funded By Money Intended For Poorer Schools
Traditionally, Texas law requires that the tax dollars earned from Plano, one of the wealthier areas in the state, are paid to the state through a program called recapture.
That money is then redistributed to underprivileged districts across the rest of the state. However, under the new plan, the district said those dollars will instead remain in the area. They will be used to help fund the Stars’ arena project, rather than local schooling.
This is where we point out that Dallas Stars owner Tom Gagliardi has an estimated net worth of $5.5 billion.
As you can imagine, the general public wasn’t overly happy with the new plan.
Taking money from the education system to fund a sports team is so unbelievably stupid.
#TexasHockey— DailyDallasHockey (@DallasStarsDDH) October 15, 2026
Heinous look for the NHL, forget just Dallas
— Travis Yost (@travisyost) October 15, 2026
This is a bad-guy rich dude scene out of a cartoon
— Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) October 15, 2026
Stars fans were already mad about the team leaving downtown Dallas for Plano. Now, they have even more reason to be angry over the move.