Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban has been outspoken in his criticism of President Trump, but he said that his "public politics haven't cost his business," according to Stefan Stevenson of the FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM. Appearing on Dallas-based KTCK-AM on Friday, Cuban said that the Mavericks "have lost 12 season-ticket holders because of his political activism." Cuban: "I probably had eight people tell me they bought (season tickets) because they heard other people were giving me a hard time." Cuban said that he "made it a point of steering clear of politics during the first 16 years of his Mavs’ ownership," but knowing Trump personally "changed things in his 17th year." Cuban said that most fans "don’t care enough about politics to be offended or pleased by his political beliefs." He suggested that fans "turned off by his political beliefs, which he mostly espouses on Twitter, should just ignore him." Asked if he would ever consider running for president, Cuban said, "I doubt it. I really doubt it" (STAR-TELEGRAM.com, 2/13). Cuban said of the 12 season-ticket holders who canceled, "In the bigger scheme of things, our season ticket holders haven't cancelled. All things considered, I thought our season ticket base, we're at over 15,000 season ticket holder equivalents, our walk up is up. A lot of our season ticket holders might not come to some of the games -- Philly -- so we'll get a lot of no-shows but overall our drop is actually up over last year" (DALLASNEWS.com, 2/11).
SOCIAL ANIMALS: POLITICO's Rebecca Morin noted Cuban on Friday warned CEOs to be "careful in talking with and about Trump." The president later responded on Twitter, saying Cuban is "not smart enough to run for president." Trump: "I know Mark Cuban well. He backed me big-time but I wasn't interested in taking all of his calls. He's not smart enough to run for president!" Cuban first "dismissed Trump's tweet by replying with 'LOL.'" Cuban then "tweeted an image of a 2016 letter he wrote to Trump saying that in order to be president, Trump needed 'to really dig in on the issues.'" Cuban also "replied to a tweet on why Trump is dissing him, saying: 'I don't know. But isn't it better for all of us that he is tweeting rather than trying to govern?'" (POLITICO.com, 2/12).
