Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban will no longer be majority owner, but he will still have final say in what happens on the basketball side.
Per Marc Stein of The Stein Line, Cuban is set to sell his majority stake in the franchise to the Addison family, who made their money in the casino industry.
Cuban bought the Mavs in the year 2000 for an estimated $285 million — and is selling his stake for about $3.5 billion, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Cuban will indeed keep full control of basketball operations, Charania confirmed.
The deal is said to be agreed on and now only pending league approval. Cuban, perhaps the most accessible owner in pro sports history, said last year that he and Las Vegas Sands Corporation had planned to form a partnership and build an arena and casino in the Dallas area should gambling be legalized in Texas.
“My goal, and we’d partner with Las Vegas Sands, is when we build a new arena it’ll be in the middle of a resort and casino,” he said, via Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. “That’s the mission.”
Specifically, Cuban is reportedly selling the majority stake to billionaire Miriam Adelson, widow of late businessman Sheldon Adelson, of Las Vegas Sands.
More must-reads: