{"id":599399,"date":"2026-02-18T20:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/599399\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T20:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:16:09","slug":"mark-cuban-says-nba-should-stop-tanking-crackdown-and-focus-on-affordability-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/599399\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Cuban says NBA should stop tanking crackdown and focus on affordability instead"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, the NBA has made an effort to curb tanking, the practice of teams intentionally losing in order to gain advantages in the coming seasons, such as preferable draft picks. The league has expanded playoffs to incentivize strong late-season performance and, more recently, fined franchises as much $750,000<\/a> for intentionally losing late-season games.<\/p>\n

Billionaire investor and former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban doesn\u2019t see this deliberate underperformance as an issue. The NBA should \u201cembrace tanking,\u201d he said, and instead address the real reason holding the sport back: that more people can\u2019t afford to go to games.<\/p>\n

\u201cTanking isn\u2019t the issue. Affordability and quality of game presentation are,\u201d Cuban wrote in an X post<\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cThe NBA should worry more about fan experience than tanking. It should worry more about pricing fans out of games than tanking.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Cuban, who sold his majority stake<\/a> in the Mavericks in 2023 for $3.5 billion, the NBA is not in the sports business, but rather the \u201cbusiness of creating experiences for fans.\u201d He said fans are less interested in seeing their teams win every night than in the memories of watching a game and the hope of one day competing in the playoffs and hoisting the Larry O\u2019Brien Championship Trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew can remember the score from the last game they saw or went to,\u201d Cuban said. \u201cThey can\u2019t remember the dunks or shots. What they remember is who they were with. Their family, friends, a date. That\u2019s what makes the experience special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFans know their team can\u2019t win every game,\u201d he continued. Instead, fans want hope. \u201cHope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBA is projected to generate $14.3 billion in the 2025-2026 season, Sportico reported<\/a>, a 12% bump from last season\u2019s $12.75 billion. More than one-quarter of the league\u2019s revenue comes from seating and suites<\/a>, and combined with the 9% coming from concessions and parking, make up the second-largest chunk of the NBA\u2019s income. That fraction is second only to national revenue in large part from its new 11-year, $76 billion media deal, making fan attendance a crucial part of the NBA\u2019s payday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, discretionary spending for Americans has been mixed this year<\/a>, driven primarily by higher-income households and stymied by lower-income families pulling back, perpetuating a K-shaped economy<\/a>. According to the January Conference Board\u2019s Consumer Confidence Survey<\/a>, 18.4% of Americans intend to spend more on entertainment, including sporting events, in the next six months, a slight dip from the month before.<\/p>\n

Basketball\u2019s affordability foul<\/p>\n

Professional basketball\u2019s affordability took the spotlight last week during the NBA\u2019s All-Star Weekend, which The Athletic culture writer Jason Jones<\/a> said at times \u201chad the vibes of a 7 a.m. Zoom<\/a> call.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With ample empty seats (despite the announced sellout crowd, via a league spokesperson) and a feeling of \u201cmeh\u201d in the Intuit<\/a> Dome, no amount of Ludacris performing \u201cStand Up\u201d could increase the energy,\u201d Jones wrote in a column<\/a>. \u201cBut when sporting events become too corporate, this is the result.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To be sure, the All-Star Weekend had its highest ratings in 15 years<\/a>, in part a result of the league revamping the game\u2019s format to feature three teams in a round-robin mini tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NBA did not immediately respond to Fortune\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Jones suggested the event prioritized sponsors and famous courtside guests, as well as showcasing the games on social media. a sound business decision in terms of boosting traffic across platforms and spotlighting big-name backers, but one that was not tailored to the experience of fans in the arena.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the tickets are prohibitively expensive to many, Jones argued. Individual stubs started at around $200<\/a>, meaning it would cost a family of four about $800 to attend the weekend\u2019s events in the arena\u2019s least expensive seats.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the All-Star Weekend that has become pricier for fans. The Washington Post reported in October 2025 that nearly 83% of pricing tiers for Wizards tickets increased<\/a> on a per-game basis this season amid arena renovations and a team rebuild, turning off some fans. The Mavericks, with a majority stake now held by the Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont family, similarly raised prices 8.61%<\/a> following the 2024-2025 season\u2014despite its fans\u2019 ire over the franchise trading All-Star point guard Luka Don\u010di\u0107 in a shocking move<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tanking controversy<\/p>\n

Cuban noted tanking can help enhance a fan\u2019s experience\u2014whether attending a game or not\u2014as it can kindle the hope at the core of fandom. Beyond<\/a> allowing teams to nab favorable draft picks and leverage high-profile players in trades for young talent, Cuban said it can also free up payroll for a team looking to make a big acquisition down the line.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks didn\u2019t often tank in Cuban\u2019s 23 years as part-owner of the team, according to the mogul, but when the team did, \u201cour fans appreciated it,\u201d he said. Cuban claimed the practice allowed the team to eventually improve and acquire Don\u010di\u0107 in 2018.<\/p>\n

Research on the impact of tanking on fan\u2019s experience of basketball doesn\u2019t always support Cuban\u2019s argument. A study<\/a> published in Sport Marketing Quarterly in 2020 found perceived tanking to be unpopular among NBA fans, who strongly disliked the practice regardless of their team\u2019s record.<\/p>\n

Cuban said for many families trying to make memories at a game, tanking just isn\u2019t top of mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know who cares the least about tanking?\u201d he questioned. \u201cA parent who [can\u2019t] afford to bring their three kids to a game and buy their kids a jersey of their fave player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, the NBA has made an effort to curb tanking, the practice of teams intentionally losing in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":599400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[8161,26878,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-599399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-affordability","9":"tag-mark-cuban","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116093477386591017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}