DALLAS — No need to speculate any longer: Mark Cuban told us exactly why he's selling a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks to casino magnate Miriam Adelson and her family.
After Tuesday night's reports of the sale were confirmed by a statement issued by the Adelson family on Wednesday afternoon, we reached out to Cuban and asked point blank why he decided to pull the trigger on this sale -- and why now.
"[It's] to put the Mavs in a better position to compete," Cuban told WFAA's Jonah Javad via email on Wednesday afternoon. "Media has always been our biggest source of revenue. You know what is happening there. 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."
Asked specifically if he's worried about the state of broadcast media -- and its effect on professional sports revenues -- Cuban further expanded his answer.
"We all need to be," he said. "Other than sports, numbers are falling fast. And sports are doing OK because the best new shows go on streaming platforms. But it creates a catch-22 for sports. Lots of folks don't have cable or [satellite]. So they can't see our games unless it streams locally. So I've been worried about it for the last five years -- particularly since kids are getting more and more sports and news from social media."
One likely solution, he told us, could be in gambling. Hence his long-term support for legalizing casinos in Texas, and his long-stated desire to team up with the Adelsons' Las Vegas Sands Corp., specifically, to do so.
"I think if resort casinos pass, Dallas becomes a top five travel destination in the country," Cuban said. "Which is why I think, at some point, it will."