Mark Cuban alienated and irritated a lot of fans in his 20-plus years of owning the Dallas Mavericks, but he never put together the type of run this current ownership group is still on.
All of the goodwill and warm feelings generated by the Mavericks’ run to the 2024 NBA Finals, and signing free agent Klay Thompson, have been thrown into an incinerator in a month that feels more like a decade.
On Monday morning, Mavericks season ticket holders were greeted with the good news that the prices of the 2025-’26 tickets are going up by eight percent. There is never a good day to announce a ticket price hike, but to do so now is a case of first-ballot, Hall of Fame terrible timing.
Nearly one month to the day after the team traded its most popular player, Luka Doncic, to their most reviled rival in exchange for one injured superstar, one solid prospect and one future draft pick, the Mavericks decided the best path forward to winning back angry fans is to raise raise ticket prices.
Give them this: It’s an outside-the-box move.
Trading Luka is a basketball move. Raising a ticket price is a business move. They are not linked, but they’re together.
The team said in a statement that the overall price increase will be 8.61 percent; the hike, the club said, “reflect ongoing investments in team and fan engagement.”
According to Bookies.com, “Families will spend $320.31 on four of the cheapest available tickets, a parking spot, two beers, two sodas, and four hot dogs at an NBA arena (in ‘24-’25). The cost indicates a modest increase of $11.67, or 3.6%, from 2023.”
The Mavs are banking on this area’s continued population growth will continue to keep the American Airlines Center full. More than 8.1 million people live in the DFW metro area, making this one of the largest population centers in the United States.
Using Bookies.com calculations and formula, attending a Mavericks game ranks 14th in the 30-team NBA this season. Expect the Mavs to remain right around there, at least, in 2025-’26.
The other 29 NBA franchises, however, will not be not be announcing ticket price hikes 30 days after trading away one of the best players in the world.