The Mavs are going MAGA.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is selling a majority stake in his franchise to the family of conservative mega-donor Miriam Adelson, according to reports Tuesday.
The move gives the Adelson family, whose fortune was largely amassed by late casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, a toehold in the world of professional sports. And they’re latching on to the NBA at a time when sports teams are increasingly the playthings — if not the political tools — of the richest of the rich.
As The Washington Post noted in its report on the sale:
NBA franchise values have skyrocketed over the past decade, and the agreement between Cuban and the Adelson family follows several other recent transactions. Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam agreed to purchase a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks in April. NBA legend Michael Jordan agreed to sell a majority stake of the Charlotte Hornets to (investment firm managers) Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin in June. In July, the Qatar Investment Authority acquired a 5 percent stake of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the ownership group that oversees the Washington Wizards, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and the NHL’s Washington Capitals.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has been used to pump money into — and wield influence over — sports leagues like the Professional Golf Association and Formula 1 Racing, earning accusations that the Saudi royal family is engaging in sportswashing, or using sports as a PR tool to launder its reputation in other arenas (like, for example, politics and human rights).
At any rate, the Mavs sale, which is likely to top several billion dollars, showcases the extreme wealth required even to enter the market for franchise team ownership (which hasn’t always been the case). And the rich in this case could easily get richer from this deal: CNBC reports Adelson could use the Mavericks to expand her family’s gambling empire into Texas.
While the Adelson family certainly
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