Mark Cuban-led group buys piece of Athletics

Harbinger Sports Partners, which includes billionaire Mark Cuban, has invested in the Athletics as the MLB team prepares to move to Las Vegas in 2028.

The Atlanta-based private equity firm, led by Cuban, a minority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, purchased an undisclosed minority stake in the A’s, the firm announced Thursday.

The group also includes former MLB Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Mariner, entrepreneur Rashaun Williams and former Arthur M. Blank Sports & Entertainment CEO Steve Cannon.

“As someone who helped lead the development of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, I was incredibly impressed with the Athletics’ vision,” Cannon, co-founder and CEO of Harbinger Sports Partners, said in a statement. “The new ballpark will be more than a baseball stadium. It will become a year-round entertainment venue and another landmark destination on the Las Vegas Strip.”

Harbinger announced in April that it had raised more than $460 million in investor commitments for a fund targeting minority stakes in major U.S. professional sports franchises.

The group added that Las Vegas will continue to attract more professional franchises and marquee sporting events. The firm expects to remain active in Las Vegas as additional opportunities in professional sports emerge.

“Las Vegas represents one of the greatest sports investment opportunities of our generation,” Williams, founder and chief investment officer of Harbinger Sports Partners, said in a statement. “We’re not simply investing in a baseball franchise. We’re investing in a city that has fundamentally changed the economics of professional sports.”

The A’s said they are pleased to welcome Harbinger Sports Partners as an investor.

“The experience of their principals across sports, media and entertainment, combined with their long-term perspective, makes them a valuable addition to our ownership group as we work to build the future of the franchise in Las Vegas,” A’s spokeswoman Catherine Aker said in a statement.

Cuban co-founded Broadcast.com in the late 1990s and sold the company to Yahoo for $5.7 billion. Cuban has held an ownership stake in the Mavericks since 2000, when he purchased the team for $285 million from businessman and politician H. Ross Perot Jr.

The Adelson and Dumont families purchased a 70 percent controlling stake in the Mavericks in 2023, reducing Cuban from majority owner to minority owner, retaining a 27 percent stake in the team. He is also known beyond sports as a panelist on the popular investment show “Shark Tank.”

The A’s are building a $2 billion, 33,000-seat ballpark in Las Vegas, where the franchise will relocate beginning with the 2028 season. The A’s are playing at a Triple-A ballpark in Sacramento until their Las Vegas stadium is completed.

The A’s, which are seeking to raise up to $550 million from investors, last year sold a minority ownership stake to stadium concessionaire Aramark Sports + Entertainment in a deal that reportedly included a $100 million equity investment and a $75 million capital expenditure contribution.

In 2025, a South Korean group that included BTS member Suga and former MLB pitcher Chan Ho Park reportedly purchased a $70 million stake in the A’s.

The Review-Journal is owned by the Adelson and Dumont families.