DALLAS — It's been a season filled with changes for the Dallas Mavericks.
There are new faces up and down the roster. There are new faces in the boardroom.
And just this week, even more changes were announced: On Tuesday, the Mavs and WFAA’s parent company TEGNA jointly announced a partnership in which 10 Mavericks games from the remainder of the 2023-2024 NBA season will air on WFAA in addition to three additional Mavericks games already slated to air on WFAA as part of the regular "NBA on ABC" programming calendar.
As a result of that agreement, Mavs fans will now be able to watch 13 over-the-air games for free in the span of 11 weeks. Those games would’ve previously aired exclusively on cable -- and only through certain providers.
Per the organizations' announcements about the new TV deal, the games being broadcast on WFAA means 3 million area households — and more than 7 million total people in the Dallas-Fort Worth market — will be able to watch Mavs play for free and over the air via WFAA, and also through its partnerships with cable, satellite and streaming service providers.
In advance of the Mavericks' Wednesday night game against their hated Phoenix Suns rivals, which is airing on WFAA as one of those aforementioned and already announced "NBA on ABC" games, we caught up once again with Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall on the court at the American Airlines Center to talk about all the changes her organization has been enduring.
Here at WFAA, as you know, we're adding 10 local Mavericks broadcasts to the three national ABC games we were already airing. What made this deal right for the Mavs and their fans?
I'm so excited about this -- because we've been working for a while to try to increase viewership. So 7 million will be able to watch our game tonight. We're excited because this arena holds about 20,000 people -- but now 7 million can watch our game. We're excited about that. We're excited about our team. We just want to increase viewership, and our partnership is so important. We've wanted to see this for a while.
Let's talk about the ownership change. What has it meant for you as CEO to have the Adelson and Dumont family come in and have a majority stake in this team?
I'm excited about it. It means a lot. I mean, they could go anywhere in the world with their investment. But to bring it to Dallas -- which is a great place, we are the No. 1 sports destination [according to the Sports Business Journal] -- and to have them invest in us, we know what that means. We know what business they're in -- the hospitality business, the entertainment business. Mark Cuban has said for a long time that, when people talk about going on vacation, he wants people to be able to say they want to go on vacation in Dallas. So, that's the vision. We will have a big entertainment center -- a lot of stuff going on, a lot of activity -- that people can come and enjoy. So that's what it means -- investment in Dallas.
So the team stays here in the city, right?
Right here -- well, in this region... I assume it's the city. I don't know. The plans aren't there yet. We have a lot to do legislative-wise, all that. But the vision is you're going to see a lot of enhancements in this very arena -- in fact, I'm getting ready to go and go a walkthrough with some people right now. So you'll see a lot of money put into this arena. And then we will build something that will truly be a destination spot for Dallas, and I can't wait.