Getty Image / Allen Berezovsky
Mark Cuban has been one of the most visible owners in all of sports during the 21st century. The longtime owner of the Dallas Mavericks sold a majority stake to Miriam Adelson, widow of the Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, in November of last year.
Mark Cuban is expected to still control much of the day-to-day operations of the team, despite not being a majority owner. But, he still felt it necessary to give employees of the team some huge bonuses to the tune of tens of millions of dollars in total.
An email from Mark Cuban to Mavs employees informing them of a plan to pay approximately $35M in bonuses in the wake of selling a majority stake of the franchise: pic.twitter.com/omoamjRA1H
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) January 5, 2024
That’s quite generous from Mark Cuban, but not all that surprising. To me, he’s always come off as someone who genuinely cares about other people and wants to make the world a better place.
As far as the bonuses, it’s unclear if they’re being paid out to just front office staff and full-time employees, or if employees such as concession workers are going to get a cut as well. That would thin the bonus money considerably. But, if it’s just front office staff and full time employees, such as those that work in ticket sales and marketing, that’s a pretty small number of employees, and they’re looking at a nice payday. Either way, a nice gesture by Mark Cuban.
Mark Cuban first became a billionaire in the late 1990s when he sold the now-defunct broadcast.com to Yahoo! for north of $5 billion in Yahoo! stock. In 2000, he bought the Mavericks, and the franchise has had by far the best period in franchise history under his ownership. Since taking over, the franchise has made the playoffs eighteen times in twenty-three seasons, and captured the team’s only NBA Championship in 2011.
Currently, the Mavericks are 20-15, good for 7th place in an ultra-competitive Western Conference.