Sources: Mark Cuban has deal in place to sell a significant stake in the Dallas Mavericks to the family of Las Vegas billionaire Miriam Adelson
Read the latest updates to my initial breaking news report on a league-shaking development involving one of the most famous team owners in sports
Mark Cuban, primary stakeholder of the Dallas Mavericks for nearly a quarter-century and one of highest-profile owners in North American team sports, is selling a significant stake in the franchise to the family of Las Vegas billionaire Miriam Adelson, The Stein Line has learned.
League sources say that the deal, which requires NBA approval and is already being vetted at league level, would leave Cuban with an ownership stake in the franchise and, despite a smaller stake than the Adelsons, enable him to retain operational control of the team's basketball dealings.
Sources say that Cuban, who bought the team from Ross Perot Jr. in January 2000 for a purchase price of $285 million, has agreed to sell what is believed to be a majority stake in the club to the Adelson family based on a franchise valuation of less than $4 billion. In Forbes’ most recent compilation of NBA franchise values at the start of the season, Cuban’s Mavericks were listed at $4.5 billion — seventh-highest in the league.
The uncommon structure of the agreement, mind you, figures to hold far greater appeal to Cuban than making a deal at a higher franchise valuation, since this deal appears uniquely poised to allow him — for the foreseeable future — to function with the same hands-on ownership style that he has employed for nearly 24 years.
A partnership with Las Vegas Sands Corp., furthermore, would bring significant real-estate and casino-gaming expertise to the Mavericks’ organization that he openly lacks and covets. Cuban, who turned 65 in July, has been saying for years that he hopes to someday build a new arena in Dallas with a casino attached — provided gambling is eventually legalized in Texas.
Cuban specifically told The Dallas Morning News last December: “My goal, and we’d partner with Las Vegas Sands, is when we build a new arena, it’ll be in the middle of a resort and casino. That’s the mission.”
A deal to cede majority ownership to Adelson is nonetheless a shocker and, should it receive league approval, would likely go into effect during this current season. The Mavericks took a 10-6 record into Tuesday night’s home game against Houston after last season’s crash to a 38-44 mark that dropped Dallas into the NBA Draft lottery on the heels of a surprising run to the Western Conference finals in 2022.
Cuban, when reached Tuesday, declined comment.
Adelson, listed as the fifth-richest woman in the world by Forbes with an estimated net worth of more than $33 billion, revealed in a company announcement and a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday that she is selling $2 billion worth of company stock in Las Vegas Sands Corp. — roughly 10% of her stake in the company — to fund the "purchase of a majority interest in a professional sports franchise pursuant to a binding purchase agreement, subject to customary league approvals."
That franchise, stunningly, is the Mavericks.
Congrats, Marc! Nice to see your name all over the hoops news this morning.
The fact that he is retaining control of basketball operations, along with his interesting comment about the casino/resort, to me, feels like a 'tell' in terms of the motivation. I don't think it was a liquidity play or anything more than involving a motivated partner to help finance an even bigger vision. And the Adelson's interest in the Mavericks would seem to be less about adding the vanity plate of a sports team to their holdings, and more about taking a huge step into the potentially lucrative synergy of sports/gambling/entertainment.
Just like several casinos in Vegas clamored to find a way to include a Cirque du Soleil show once it proved to be a lucrative 'resident artist,' clearly there's been an intrigue in the sports/gambling connection as Vegas has opened up to various franchises. But there's a finite number of sporting teams that Vegas, alone, can handle, and it remains to be seen if the A's, for example, will even succeed (I have my doubts, not just because I'm from the Bay Area and have little faith in John Fisher).
Expanding where sports and gambling can intersect seems like the natural next step, and Texas does feel like it's shaping up to be a battle-ground on this front now with this purchase. Interesting to note that, after Sheldon Adelson passed away in 2021, the Las Vegas Sands corporation, despite it's name, has ceased to own any actual properties in Las Vegas (all of their actual property holdings are in Macau and Singapore), so it makes some sense that they might try to see a vision outside of Vegas.