NBA Dallas Mavericks up for sale for $3.5 billion

One of the biggest deals in sports history is about to take place in the NBA. Very popular, including due to the scandals with his participation, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, will sell more than half of his shares to the Adelson family, one of the leaders in the US gambling industry, based on an estimate of the total value of the club at $3.5 billion.

All leading American media resources reported that the deal to sell most of the Dallas Mavericks shares by Mark Cuban to the Adelson family is close to completion. According to ESPN, we are talking about a 57 percent stake. At the same time, Mr. Cuban, even having lost formal control over Dallas, will retain the post of its head. Predicting the value of the package, CNBC and other sources point out that Miriam Adelson, the daughter of the famous gambling magnate, founder of the Las Vegas Sands corporation Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021, has put up for sale a controlling stake in her shares, planning to receive $2 billion for it. Las Vegas Sands itself has already confirmed that this money will be used to purchase a stake in a “professional sports franchise.” Thus, it will be carried out based on the total cost of the entire club of more than $3.5 billion.

The deal will go down as one of the largest in sports history. But in fact, it fits quite well with the new trend. Recently, the sharply improved economic situation in the NBA, whose annual revenues have reached $10 billion, has led to both an explosive growth in the contracts of basketball players and an increase in demand for league clubs. After the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, several transactions were carried out to sell small or large blocks of their shares. The most recent among them is the one carried out in August by Michael Jordan, the brightest basketball legend. He sold a controlling stake in the underdog Charlotte Hornets, which cost him $250 million in 2010, based on an estimate of the club’s total value at $3 billion. But this figure is by no means a record. The record for the NBA remains the one that allowed Mat Ishbia to gain control of the Phoenix Suns at the end of last year. The club cost him about $4 billion.

Forbes previously valued Dallas at $4.5 billion. In its ranking, it was in seventh place, but quite significantly inferior to the leader, the Golden State Warriors, with an estimated value of $7.7 billion.

The Dallas story attracted additional attention because of the background of its owner. Investor Mark Cuban acquired a controlling stake in the club in 2000 for $285 million. Before him, Dallas was a hopeless middle peasant, and after passing into the hands of Mr. Cuban, it entered the list of the strongest NBA clubs, reaching the championship finals in 2006, and in 2011 m having won it: in the final series, the team beat the Miami Heat with LeBron James, who was in his prime, perhaps the brightest star of the league in this century. True, since then the Mavericks have not taken off. In more than ten years, he only once—in 2022—proceeded beyond the starting round of the playoffs, dropping out at the semifinal stage.

But the peculiarity of “Dallas” is that interest in it was largely ensured by the behavior of the first person. Mark Cuban has established himself as undeniably America’s most eccentric sports club owner. He has repeatedly shocked audiences with various antics, such as the tradition of watching games with fans in the usual stands or the ban on playing the US anthem before the team’s home games, so as, as Mr. Cuban explained, not to offend the feelings of those who do not feel that “he represents them.” .

Mark Cuban has one interesting achievement that will not be easy to repeat. During his ownership of Dallas, he paid $1.665 million in fines to the NBA. Mr. Cuban was punished for criticizing referees, league management, and insulting opponents and functionaries.

ESPN does not rule out that the sale of most of the shares of Dallas by Mark Cuban to the Adelson family is connected with his already expressed desire to move the club to a new arena “in the center of a casino resort,” which would provide an even more favorable economic environment for it. It is known about Mr. Cuban that he has long been lobbying for the lifting of the ban on gambling for the state of Texas, where Dallas is located.

Alexey Dospehov