Every Mega Sports Story Finds Place In Las Vegas As Reports Point To Miriam Adelson Buying Share In NBA Dallas Mavericks
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
It seems like every major sports business story finds a path through Las Vegas.
Formula One’s upscale sports event carved out a literal route in the Strip corridor to the delight of rich car fans and the chagrin of the Las Vegas commoner. The National Football League is prepping Las Vegas to stage Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium. And the first Major League Baseball team move in more than a half-century is supposed to result in the Athletics opening a stadium on the Strip in 2028.
Now comes an NBA ownership oddity of Las Vegas Sands Corporation billionaire Miriam Adelson, 78, the widow of the late hotel-casino owner tycoon Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas, buying a stake in the Dallas Mavericks thanks to Miriam Adelson selling $2 billion of Las Vegas Sands stock. Sheldon Adelson died in January 2021.
Sheldon Adelson played a major role in the move of the Oakland Raiders to a new domed stadium in Las Vegas after Adelson paid lobbyists to successfully influence Nevada state legislators to approve a hotel room tax to raise $750 million in public dollars to help the Raiders build Allegiant Stadium.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban foreshadowed this potential sale when he said about a year ago that he envisioned the Mavs playing in a hotel-casino setting. The problem is that sports gambling is illegal 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,” Cuban told The Dallas Morning News. “That’s the mission.”
A prominent arena builder, Tim Leiweke of the Oak View Group, wants to build an NBA arena as part of a $10 billion hotel-casino project at Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road south of the Strip with easy access to Interstate 15.
Under the deal, Cuban would control the franchise and oversee all basketball operations despite selling this majority share to Adelson. Her $2 billion share of a team valued at $3.5 billion
Cuban bought the Mavericks in 2000 for $285 million.
Keep in mind that NBA superstar LeBron James has spoken several times of his hope to own an NBA team in Las Vegas.
