According to a source with knowledge of the negotiations, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is negotiating to transfer the majority of the team to the family that owns the Las Vegas Sands casino. This information was provided on Tuesday night.
The person, who spoke to The Associated Press under the condition of anonymity because the details were not being made public, said the agreement would be valued at about $3.5 billion and would take weeks for the league to process.
Under the agreement,
Cuba would continue to oversee basketball operations. The possible sale was first reported by NBA reporter Marc Stein. The business owned by Sheldon Adelson’s widow, Miriam Adelson, declared earlier on Tuesday that it was selling $2 billion of her shares to fund the purchase of an unidentified professional sports team.
Cuban stated that he would have been interested in working with Sands almost a year ago. He has been an advocate for Texas gambling legalization, a cause that was not pursued by the state Legislature during its recently concluded biennial session.
After purchasing the Mavericks,
the 65-year-old Cuban quickly gained notoriety and recently announced he was leaving the popular business TV program “Shark Tank” after the 16th season next year. in 2000.
With a great deal of assistance from star forward Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas went from being one of the worst teams in professional sports in the 1990s to one of the best under Cuban.
The publicly listed Las Vegas company Las Vegas Sands Corp., which constructed the Venetian and Palazzo resorts, is primarily owned by Miriam Adelson. As of right now, the company only operates casinos in Macau and Singapore. The billionaire founder and owner of Las Vegas Sands, Sheldon Adelson, passed away in 2021 at the age of 87.
The $2 billion worth of stock sales were disclosed by the company in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Adelson and the Miriam Adelson Trust were named as sellers in the filing, but no team, league, or location was mentioned.
Based on the $3.5 billion valuation,
Adelson might be acquiring at least 57% of the NBA team if the full $2 billion is used for the acquisition. According to the filing, the 78-year-old doctor Adelson will keep 51.3% of the company’s shares after the sale. The Las Vegas Review-Journal, the biggest newspaper in Nevada, is also owned by the same family.
We have been advised by the selling stockholders that they currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering, along with additional cash on hand, to fund the purchase of a majority interest in a professional sports franchise … subject to customary league approvals, the business stated in its SEC filing.
The NBA’s Board of Governors must then approve new owners after a screening process that usually takes several weeks at minimum.
In addition, Cuban stated late last year that, should Texas decide to legalize gaming, he intended to construct a new arena in downtown Dallas that would double as a casino resort.
During the most recent session,
proponents of legalized gambling in Texas attempted to introduce a constitutional amendment to the voters, but the proposal was not successful in passing the legislature. The next regular session of the Republican-controlled Legislature is scheduled for 2025.
Cuban won’t be going away from the limelight because he will still be in charge of basketball operations. Efforts to legalize gambling in Texas may actually serve to increase the notoriety of a billionaire who has been active in business, sports, and finance for almost 25 years.
After graduating from Indiana University, Cuban became a self-confessed basketball junkie and was almost always courtside for Mavericks games. He has also always been vocal and has racked up millions in fines as the owner. He frequently threw tantrums at government officials.
An AP Source Claims That Mark Cuban is Working
An AP Source Claims That Mark Cuban is Working