DALLAS — News broke last month of Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban's plans to sell his majority stake in the team, and now a source with the team has confirmed when the vote to approve that sale will happen.
The high-ranking source told WFAA the vote on the sale of the team will take place at a Board of Governors meeting on Dec. 20.
Cuban intends to sell his stake to the Las Vegas-based casino magnate Miriam Adelson and her family.
"[It's] to put the Mavs in a better position to compete," Cuban told WFAA's Jonah Javad via email two weeks ago. "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."
Adelson, 78, is estimated along with her family to have a net worth of $35 billion, and is the fifth-richest woman in the world, according to Forbes. She is the widow of the late, polarizing figure Sheldon Adelson, who founded the Las Vegas Sands Corporation upon purchasing that city's Sands Hotel and Casino for $110 million in 1988.
Although Cuban, 65, will relinquish majority ownership of the franchise as part of the sale, he will, per reports, "continue to retain operational control of the team."
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."