The pending multibillion-dollar sale of the Dallas Mavericks is expected to be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors which started meeting Wednesday.
The sale would be for big money – somewhere north of $3.5 billion.
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It would also make for a seismic shift in the franchise’s history.
Mark Cuban, who bought the team in January 2000, has been the principal owner of the Mavericks for more than half of its existence as a franchise.
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But that would change if the sale of the team is approved. Cuban would remain as a minority owner of the Mavs, and would still head up basketball operations, according to multiple reports.
The buyers of the team – Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law Patrick Dumont – are Las Vegas gambling magnates who, together, are part of the ownership group that runs The Venetian Las Vegas and The Palazzo on the Las Vegas strip.
The Adelson family’s estimated wealth is around $33 billion, which would make them the wealthiest sports franchise owners in the United States.
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Cuban has said that he expects the franchise to remain in Dallas after the sale, but that he and the new owners will make a push for Texas lawmakers to legalize casino gambling in the state.
If casino gambling is legalized in Texas, it is expected that the Mavericks would leave the American Airlines Center and, instead, move into a newly constructed arena that would be attached to a casino resort.
The new owners of the Mavericks are connected to a company that recently purchased a 100 acre-plus plot of vacant land along Highway 114 in Irving, near the site of the former Texas Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys used to play.
It has not yet been made clear what the intended purpose of that land purchase could be.
