Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban bought the town of Mustang, Texas, which is roughly 55 miles south of Dallas.
“Did it to help out a friend. No plans yet!” Cuban said in an email to NBC News.
That’s pretty nice. Imagine buying a town just to help out a friend. It’s good to be a billionaire.
The entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor bought the town that was first built in the 1970s. Mustang previously belonged to attorney Marty Price, a friend of Cuban’s and a longtime Mavericks fan with floor seats, who died in August after an illness.
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The 77-acre town has a population of just 23 people, according to Census records, and had previously been offered on sale for $4 million in 2017, but no buyers emerged. The town is really just an abandoned strip club, volunteer fire department and a vacant mobile home park.
Cuban wasn’t the only person interested in purchasing the town. Dallas real estate broker Mike Turner wanted to purchase the town, but at $2 million it was outside his price range.
“I had a fair amount of interest in it, but it was priced too high — even when we brought it down to $2 million,” Dallas real estate broker Mike Turner told the News. “The old strip club is not in good repair, but it could be redone for something…There is a resident alligator in one of the ponds.”
Cuban and his Mavericks have been in the news the last few years for reasons other than consistent play. There were the corrosive workplace culture and sexual harassment allegations in 2018, and the ousting of Haralabos Voulgaris and Donnie Nelson this past offseason.
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So what is Cuban going to do with this abandoned town?
Maybe he builds some kind of Mavericks’ South facility for young players in nearby counties. Though Texas is a football state, not sure how well that goes.
Perhaps he demolishes the abandoned strip club and mobile home park and builds apartment complexes and ashopping center, and Mustang becomes a profitable hamlet? That would track with his entrepreneurial mindset.
He could build a state-of-the-art facility to house the next multinational corporation looking to dodge taxes and run their business in a cheaper state like Texas.
Since Cuban doesn’t seemed pressed to do anything with it and it was only a few million dollars, maybe he could do something nice for the impoverished people in the area. Build affordable housing, maybe a shelter?
Great entrepreneurs are curious about things they find interesting. When that journey let's them see stepping stones to breakthroughs before others, amazing businesses can be created. https://t.co/aJaIxauuHy
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) November 30, 2021
The truth is you don’t become a billionaire by spending money without a purpose. Even if it’s only a couple of a million dollars.
Cuban no doubt fancies himself a great entrepreneur. There is something going on there that he’s seeing, potentially before others do. The goal is to turn Mustang into something that generates something of value for him; otherwise he just light money on fire.
Yes, he maybe wanted to help a friend. But the help came with an eye on something bigger, because that’s what the best apex capitalist predators in the world do.
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