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What does a Texas-based NBA franchise have in common with a North Louisiana city’s former Double-AA minor league baseball team?
When the owner of a sports team wants to justify moving their franchise to another market, fans in Shreveport have seen this act before.
Baseball enthusiasts living in Shreveport during the early 2000’s witnessed the city’s minor league team being intentionally sabotaged and then moved to the new team owner’s preferred city.
The current situation with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks looks remarkably similar to something I witnessed in Shreveport two decades ago.
First, the local sports team owner sells the local franchise to an out-of-town ownership group.
Then, the new team owner alienates the fan base by making the a series of infuriating management decisions.
Next, the team raises ticket prices even while the team’s on-field performance is waning.
Finally, the team cites the diminished local interest to justify moving the team to another market (the same one they had in mind when they purchased the franchise).
If you think this sounds a bit like the pro baseball movie “Major League”, you’re on the right track.
The Dallas Mavericks are making all the wrong moves – unless that was the plan all along by the team’s new ownership group
Since the city of Dallas was granted an NBA expansion franchise back in 1980, the Dallas Mavericks have seen more down years than championships (one).
In 2000, billionaire businessman Mark Cuban spent $285 million to purchase the majority interest in the Dallas Mavericks from none other than H. Ross Perot, Jr. (the same man who ran for President twice).
Mark Cuban (a bona fide basketball fan) became a very active owner who weighed-in on many issues surrounding his basketball team.
Under his watch, the Dallas Mavericks won their first and only NBA title in June, 2011 as perennial All-Star forward Dirk Nowitski finally earned a championship ring.
After helping the Mavs make the playoffs in 17 of his 23 years as team owner, Mark Cuban sold his controlling interest in the Dallas Mavericks to Las Vegas casino owners Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont in December 2023.
Mark Cuban’s snagged over $2.6 billion for selling a 69% interest in his NBA team. Cuban still retains a 27% ownership percentage in the Dallas Mavericks.
The new Las Vegas-based majority owners have been pushing to legalize casino gambling in the Lone Star state. Though the new owners say they have no plans to move the team to Las Vegas (even if Texas doesn’t approve gambling in the coming years), should they be trusted?
How does this story tie-in with a Shreveport minor league baseball team?
The Shreveport Captains were long-time participants in the Class AA Texas League. The city built a new baseball stadium (Fair Grounds Field) in 1985 as fans rejoiced and returned in solid numbers for the next decade.
As a few major employers either closed their plants or moved employees elsewhere, attendance slowly waned during the late 1990’s to less than 1,500 fans per home game.
Enter out-of-state owner Mandalay Entertainment.
Primarily a movie company based in Hollywood, Mandalay also operated a growing sports division which purchased and operated several minor league baseball franchises.
In 2001, Mandalay purchased the Shreveport Captains franchise from their long-time and personally involved local owner.
The new owner wanted a clean start.
They immediately changed the team’s nickname from Captains to Swamp Dragons.
Locals were confused and embarrassed by the baseball team’s goofy sounding new nickname.
Shreveport doesn’t have swamps like south Louisiana. No dragons have ever been seen flying around the Ark-La-Tex, either.
The baseball team’s new nickname was just double-dumb.
Then, Mandalay increased ticket prices in a city which was already struggling to support the team. After the departure of a few major employers in the prior decade, Shreveport baseball fans voted against the price increases with their feet.
The former team owner had provided discounts for military personnel stationed at nearby Barksdale Air Force Base to encourage attendance.
The new team owner dropped those discounts.
Strike 2!
At the same time, a new baseball stadium was under construction down I-20 West in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas.
As attendance for Shreveport’s Texas League AA franchise started to drop like a rock, that new baseball stadium in Frisco was seeking a tenant. How convenient!
Strike 3! You’re out!
At the end of the second year of Mandalay Baseball LLC’s ownership, the Shreveport AA baseball franchise was relocated to its new baseball stadium and home in Frisco, Texas.
They are known as the Frisco RoughRiders today.
The NBA’s Dallas Mavericks may be on a similar trajectory
First, the new team owners in Dallas recently traded Luka Doncic, the Mavericks’ most popular player since the retirement of Dirk Nowitski.
The 25-year old Doncic, a 7-time NBA All-Star already, is now a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.
In return, the Lakers sent aging center Anthony Davis (who is also injured and not playing at this time) to join guard Kyrie Irving (who recently injured his knee and is now out for the season).
A large number of Mavericks fans have indicated a willingness to sell and/or end their season ticket orders.
With declining fan interest, the new Dallas Mavericks ownership announced an 8% increase in season ticket prices for next season!
It seemed a bit tone deaf to raise ticket prices after shipping Dallas fan favorite Luka Doncic to Los Angeles while his replacement sits with a lengthy injury.
Are the Dallas Mavericks trying to alienate the fans enough to justify moving the team to Las Vegas?
It is obvious that the new ownership group for the Dallas Mavericks is not in agreement with the wishes of long-time local fans.
Even Dallas Mavericks’ former majority owner Mark Cuban can’t understand what the team was thinking by trading Luka Doncic – one of the top young players in the NBA.
Earlier this week, Cuban said, “No disrespect to Anthony Davis, but I still firmly believe that if we had gotten four unprotected #1’s (first round picks) plus Anthony Davis, this would be a different conversation.”
Instead, the Mavericks received zero first round picks in what may become one of the worst trades in NBA history.
Needless to say, the current ownership group is not pleased with the local fans’ grousing and speculation that, perhaps, the Luka Doncic trade was intentional sabotage.
Patrick Dumont, one of the new Dallas Mavericks majority owners, chirped his dissatisfaction (from his Las Vegas office) about this increasing “Dallas-to-Las Vegas” rumor.
“I’m not sure where this is coming from,” he claimed. “Our family happens to live in Las Vegas, but we have investments all over the world. Dallas is the city we wanted to be in, and that’s where it (the Mavericks) is going to be.”
In 2018, your SwampSwami saw a similar game plan being utilized by baseball’s Oakland A’s
I may have been a few years ahead of myself, but this franchise relocation game is not certainly not new.
Guess where the Oakland Athletics are moving in a couple of years?
Yep, Las Vegas.
Last September, the final major league baseball game was played in Oakland Coliseum. The team will begin playing the next three seasons at their interim home in Sacramento, California as Las Vegas constructs a new stadium to welcome their incoming major league baseball franchise.
Las Vegas already hosts the NBA’s Summer League games.
All the city is lacking to entertain visitors with year-round major league sports is an NBA franchise.
Does anyone know of an NBA team which might consider moving to Vegas in a few years?
In the event the Dallas Mavericks should announce a name change in the next few years to something goofy like the “North Texas Dirty Dribblers”, those moving vans with Nevada license plates are likely on the way to Big D.