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Since Mark Cuban’s surprise sale of a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks to Miriam Adelson’s Las Vegas power family last week, much has been made of the team’s interest in bringing gambling to Texas and NBA action to the friendly confines of a casino resort-to-be. But Cuban’s move was as much about his franchise’s broadcasting present as its potential betting future.
Why did Cuban, 65, sell the team? “To put the Mavs in a better position to compete,” he recently told Dallas TV reporter Jonah Javad via email. “Media has always been our biggest source of revenue. You know what is happening there.”
And what is “happening there?” In a world, turmoil.
The Mavericks are one of many teams caught up in Diamond Sports Group’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. Diamond lawyers have discussed the possibility of the company shutting down next year, jeopardizing the roughly $50 million annual licensing fee Dallas reportedly gets to put its games on Bally Sports. The team is already facing up to a 20% cut there following recent renegotiations. The Dallas Morning News reported that the partnership is now expected to end after this season, especially given that the Adelsons’ Las Vegas Sands is a competitor to Bally’s.
Based on previous comments, Cuban is likely to advocate for moving the games to over-the-air channels and digital platforms. “If we could, we’d make the streams available for free and make the broadcast available for free right now,” he said just a month ago, “but we can’t—we have a contract.”
The Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights have already made that leap, looking to maximize attention share on more accessible outlets (though even they are charging for the streaming versions) with hopes of making additional revenue from advertising, licensing and general fan affinity soon after.
For Cuban and the Mavs, related businesses in and around a future venue would play a big role in that equation. “I think a new arena, real estate area and hopefully a future resort casino can replace what we lose in media and fund current and future Mavs,” Cuban wrote in his email. The team’s lease with American Airlines Center, which was already being developed before Cuban bought the team in 2000, is up in 2031. Prep for a new build could start as early as 2025, especially if the team’s future home is as dramatic as Cuban has envisioned.
“My dream—and this is like the long, long, long, long, long, long shot—is to build an arena that’s 20 stories up in the air where every seat has a view of downtown [Dallas], whether that’s north, south, east or west,” he said back in 2016. Why should baseball parks be the only ones with bucket list-worthy panoramas?
Sands president and COO Patrick Dumont (who is also Miriam Adelson’s son-in-law) will be the Mavs’ new official governor, according to Marc Stein, with Cuban serving as alternate governor (and retaining control of basketball operations). The transaction still needs to be approved at the league level, with a targeted close date in the next month or so.
“The Adelson and Dumont families are honored to have the opportunity to be stewards of this great franchise,” the incoming owners said in a statement. “Through our commitment and additional investment in the team, we look forward to partnering with Mark Cuban to build on the team’s success and legacy in Dallas and beyond.”
It might be instructive to view the new setup not as an acquisition but as a merger, pairing Cuban’s tech and media know-how with the Sands’ institutional power, real estate experience and in-person monetization prowess.
In fact, it might take exactly that kind of ownership team-up to realize the type of value growth Cuban has seen since grabbing the Mavs for $285 million. In the interim, nearly every sports franchise has 10x’d in value (the latest transaction valued Dallas at $3.5 billion), boosted by television’s continuous revenue expansions. The next 10x will likely be harder to identify.
Maybe an advertising firm will see a different way of monetizing a community’s enthusiasm. Or a live events provider could bank on the power of a reliable draw anchoring a venue. And of course there are always the vanity buyers looking for the thrill of victory.
For now, the Mavericks are living up to their independent-minded moniker. But don’t be surprised if this shock deal is only the first.