Perks

It pays to own, especially professional sports teams. Just ask Dan Snyder and Mark Cuban. Snyder has been the poster boy for dumb ownership, not counting Jerry Reinsdorf or John J. Fisher, owner of the A’s. In twenty-four years, Snyder’s Washington NFL team has qualified for the playoffs all of six times, none of them leading to a Super Bowl. Under Snyder, the Commanders have been less than mediocre, with an overall .427 winning percentage in the regular season. On top of that, the NFL has fined Washington $10 million for a toxic work environment, and there are multiple ongoing public investigations of the team and Snyder. But guess what? The guy’s going to get at least $6 billion when he sells the team, which should happen sooner than later. That’s a nice return on an initial $800 million investment. Who cares about stinkin’ fines? Cuban is a world removed from Snyder. He knows the sport he’s involved in and wants to win, even if that means losing. The NBA recently fined Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks for tanking, this during the last game of the regular season. Cuban is thinking draft, not early playoff exit, which probably would’ve happened had the Mavs beaten the Bulls and moved on to the play-in tournament. The loss gives the team a better chance of holding onto its first-round pick in the upcoming draft; a 2019 trade with the Knicks includes a provision that New York gets the Dallas pick if it’s not in the top ten. This bit of skullduggery cost the Mavs (and Cuban) $750,000. Wow. Somebody take up a collection. Snyder faced growing sentiment among NFL owners that he sell the team. The sales’ price makes for one nice golden parachute. As for Cuban, he has a good team starting with guard Luka Doncic and is thinking in terms of a quick rebuild. Basically, he’s betting what amounts to chump change that his team goes deep in the playoffs, starting next season. And if you’re a fan of either team (or the White Sox or A’s or Pirates or…)? That makes you, my friend, a renter with this one advantage—you’re not bound by a lease. You can always move on.