National Basketball Association
...ire, his MicroSolutions company having successfully linked companies’ individual computers to networks (Finder 4). His life would never be the same. Then a couple years later Cuban would become a billionaire. His Broadcast.com, founded when he and Indiana University friend Todd Wagner wanted a way to hear Hoosiers games in Dallas, became the place to hear audio and video online and watch streaming video of Victoria’s Secret fashion shows and Bill Clinton testimony (Finder 4). Broadcast.com was sold to Yahoo and Cuban netted almost $2 billion dollars. So what would a normal blue-collar guy do with billions of dollars? The answer was easy for Cuban, since he was a basketball fanatic, Cuban decided to buy his hometown Dallas Mavericks. He bought the flagging Mavericks franchise from Ross Perot Jr. for $280 million, including an $80 million stake in the new American Airlines Center (Finder 4). Folks screamed that he overpaid for a team known as the Mav-wrecks, losers of 70 percent of their games in the 1990’s (Finder 4). However, things were about to drastically change in Dallas. Cuban would use his business ability along with his great personality to transform the franchise into a winner immediately. Cuban’s attitude and ability affected the Mavericks instantaneously. The team was 31-19 the rest of the new owner’s first season, then 53-29 last season and to the playoffs for the first time in eleven years (Finder 4). “The Mavericks were boring before he bought them,” said waitress Karla Fitch (Qtd. in DuBaud 2). Mark Cuban didn’t like current state of affairs in Dallas on and off the court. He concluded that his team needed his personal touched and ideas. “He changed the organization from top to bottom,” said Terdema Ussery, in his fifth year as Mavericks president (Qtd. in Finder 4). Changing the organization worked brilliantly and at the same time transformed Dallas into a basketball town. Season ticket sales are up 25% over last year and sponsorship revenue has increased about 30% (McConnell 1). Wabash and Lake write Ben McConnell dissects Cuban’s winning formula into six strategies. First, connect with your fans. Rather than sit in a skybox with the rest of the well—heeled crowd, Cuban sits among his customers in the stands (McConnell 2). Secondly, encourage your fans to further their support for the team. For example, during the playoffs, Cuban offered free admission to fans that painted their faces in the Maverick’s colors (McConnell 2). Next, create a realistic goal that everyone can work towards. At the onset of ownership, Cuban gave his employees a goal of making it to the playoffs within two years (McConnell 2). Fourth, get out and be recognized nationally. Mark Cuban is a personable guy so he had no problem making numerous appearances on television, radio, and print. Fifth, create a cause for the fans. Cuban masterfully capitalized on playing up the underdog nature of the last-place Mavs (McConnell 2). Finally, Cuban uses technology to improve the Mav’s arena and training facilities. Cuban is the guy behind the new $46 million team plane, the 757 with a weight room and high definition TV’s (Finder 6). Cuban is also the guy behind the locker room outfitted with personal DVD players, flat-screen TV’s, and laptops for each player (Finder 6). All these elements enabled the Maverick’s franchise to soar to the top of the league incredibly fast. While Cuban’s business success can’t be argued with, the NBA powers that be have not taken lightly to Cuban’s wide-open personality. The fact is Mark Cuban is the ultimate fan. Therefore, he tends to exert more emotion then the average owner. Honestly, he exerts much, much more emotion than the other owners. His customary post-game comments berating the officials, regardless of which team was the beneficiary of the calls in question quickly wore thin with the commissioner’s office (Bernardo 1). Cuban has been so bothered by the NBA’s poor officiating that he has begun tracking each official’s calls. As a fan of NBA basketball, I admire Cuban for this action because officiating seems to be a major problem in the league. While the NBA hates that Cuban does this, he has earned the respect of his team for speaking up to NBA executives. As guard Steve Nash said, “How many owners around the league are behind the bench yelling and screaming? Uh, zero.” (Qtd. in Finder 5). This is also the boss whose employees call him Mark and the owner whose cubicle sits closer to the team office doors than the secretary’s (Finder 6). Cuban also answers his fans e-mai...