This comes after Cuban sold a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks in 2023, a move he called a “mistake” on a recent podcast appearance. His arrangement unraveled with the Adelson family, as Cuban lost control over basketball decisions for a team he had spent 23 years transforming from a laughingstock into one of the NBA’s most valuable and culturally relevant franchises. 

When Cuban bought the Mavericks in 2000 for $285 million, the team was mired in mediocrity and playing in front of half-empty arenas. He rebuilt the franchise’s identity almost entirely around fan experience and brand, turning the Mavericks into a media-savvy operation that eventually won a championship in 2011. He followed a similar path as a donor with his alma mater, the Indiana Hoosiers, who won the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship off the back of his savviness, especially involving the kind of recruitment possible with name and image likeness rules.

The Cuban sports playbook, treating a franchise as a growth business and entertainment brand rather than a passive local asset, is central to why Cuban’s involvement in the A’s deal carries weight beyond just his money. For decades, the business of professional sports was relatively straightforward. Teams sold tickets, concessions, sponsorships and television rights to loyal hometown fans. Winning championships used to translate into bigger crowds, but losing seasons often meant declining revenue. For Cuban and his investment group Harbinger, the Athletics’ move from Oakland to Las Vegas was less about baseball and more about economics. 

Cuban has said he had a “handshake agreement” with current Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont to continue overseeing basketball operations after the sale, but that arrangement fell apart when Dumont handed full authority to former general manager Nico Harrison, whose blockbuster trade of Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025 blindsided Cuban — and triggered a fan backlash that led to Harrison’s firing in November 2025. 

The playbook

Harbinger founder and chief investment officer Rashaun Williams told Fortune that professional sports have entered what the firm calls “Sports 2.0,” an era where teams increasingly resemble media and entertainment companies rather than organizations dependent solely on local fan attendance.

It’s a thesis that echoes what Cuban himself has argued for years. Teams now monetize fans through streaming, digital media, sports betting partnerships, concerts, stadium events and year-round experiences that extend well beyond the baseball season. 

“The new model of baseball—or basketball, football—is teams becoming media companies and transcending a local marketplace,” Williams told Fortune. “They’re finding ways to diversify their revenue and monetize that fan base 365 days a year.”

That evolution makes Vegas particularly attractive. Unlike traditional sports markets, the city continuously attracts tourists looking for entertainment. Visiting fans often travel specifically to watch their own teams play in Las Vegas, filling hotels, casinos and stadiums while generating premium demand for suites and hospitality packages. 

“People will travel to Vegas for an away game more than they will travel to Wisconsin or Memphis,” Williams said. “You want to be in a place where you can monetize outside of game day.”

Las Vegas as the ultimate Sports 2.0 city

That philosophy was a major factor behind Harbinger’s decision to invest in the soon-to-be Las Vegas Athletics, pending their current move into Sin City. The firm believes no city illustrates “sports 2.0” better than Vegas.

The structure of Cuban’s involvement looks deliberately different from his investment in the Mavericks, though. “This is a fund,” Cuban told the Dallas Morning News after the deal was announced. “I told them I’m happy to help where I can. But we are a minority interest. Not the operating company.” 

A’s majority owner John Fisher will retain full control of baseball and business operations, and there’s no indication the Harbinger stake changes team leadership or day-to-day decisions. That’s a notable contrast with how the Mavericks situation unraveled—Cuban says he had a handshake deal to keep running basketball operations there, and its collapse is what fueled his ongoing dispute with Dumont. With the A’s, he appears to be avoiding that trap altogether by never asking for operational control in the first place.

Instead, Cuban and Harbinger look to set foundations in solid investment opportunities in the growing MLB market with their team of predictive analysts.

“We look at the owner, we look at the operator, then we look at the market,” Williams said. “We use predictive analytics to do demand modeling, which tells you whether a team has pricing power in a locality.” 

Rather than evaluating a team’s current record, Williams said the firm’s investment process focuses on whether a market can generate premium ticket prices, lucrative sponsorships, luxury suite demand and non-game day revenue. 

For Harbinger, Las Vegas checked every box. 

The city attracts roughly 30 million to 40 million visitors annually and has already demonstrated its ability to support major professional franchises. Its deep pool of corporate customers willing to purchase premium seating and sponsorship packages sweetened the deal. 

Williams pointed to the NFL’s Raiders, whose move from Oakland to Las Vegas dramatically increased team revenues, as evidence that the Athletics could experience similar financial gains. 

The Raiders climbed from near the bottom of the league in revenue before moving to Las Vegas to among the NFL’s highest-revenue franchises afterward, according to Williams. Combined with the popularity of the NHL’s Golden Knights, Harbinger believes the Athletics have similar upside as the city’s newest major league team.

“One could argue that this Las Vegas A’s opportunity is poised to grow in a similar fashion,” he told Fortune. 

The next frontier of sports

However, Williams said he believes the industry is already beginning to move beyond “sports 2.0.” He envisions a future where AI, personalized media rights and new forms of digital fan engagement will fundamentally reshape how supporters consume sports over the next decade.

“There’s a sports 3.0 thesis where you start thinking about AI and the leagues doing different things with their media rights and giving fans access to content in the ways they’ll be consuming it 10 or 12 years from now,” he told Fortune.

But for now, Harbinger’s investment in the A’s is less about betting on one baseball team than investing in that broader transformation. Williams told Fortune that Harbinger expects to complete two or three investments annually across profitable North American professional sports franchises.

“We happen to know what the next decade has in store because we’re owners and operators ourselves,” Williams said. “Success for us is supporting the best franchises with the least amount of risk while helping them create value.”