PITTSBURGH – Ownership of the Pittsburgh Pirates is always a topic of discussion among fans, leading to debates about people they would rather see at the helm of the team.
Mark Cuban, minority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, is one of those figures that Pirates fans always target when making wish lists for new owners of the team.
Cuban, a native of western Pennsylvania who grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, made his money by selling a company he co-founded called MicroSolutions for $6 million in 1990. Yahoo! then acquired another company he owned, called Broadcast.com, for $5.7 billion.
He hedged against the risk of a decline in the Yahoo! stock he received as part of the deal. This saved him after the dot-com bubble burst and protected him from losing his fortune.
Cuban had already tried to buy the Pirates in 2005, but then-owner Kevin McClatchey rejected his attempt.
Bob Nutting purchased the team in January 2007, and fans have long criticized his owner for putting profit over success, as the Pirates had the second-lowest payroll in MLB at the start of the season and ranked at the bottom of the scale for most of his tenure.
In the final game of their series at PNC Park, the Pirates blew a 10-3 lead in the seventh inning against the Chicago Cubs and lost 14-10. They were the first team in seven years to blow such a large seventh-inning lead, and the 41 runs they allowed in the three losses to the Cubs are the most they have ever allowed against their division rival.
One fan asked on Twitter if Cuban would buy the team after the game was over. Another person responded on Twitter that Nutting has no incentive to sell since she makes so much money from television and tickets and doesn’t need to spend it.
Cuban took the time to respond on Twitter and confirmed that the current owners of the Pirates would not sell the team under any circumstances.
“If someone offered you a job that paid $25 million or more a year, where you stood in the town square and had the entire city of Pittsburgh yell at you, would you take the job?” Cuban replied.
“This job is to own the pirates.
Why should they sell?”
If someone offered you a job paying $25 million or more a year that involved standing in the town square with the entire city of Pittsburgh yelling at you, would you take the job?
This job is to own the pirates.
Why would they sell? https://t.co/PI8se807lH
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) 29 August 2024
Pirates fans will continue to be disappointed with the current owners, and it doesn’t look like Cuban can save them from years of mediocrity and low spending.
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