Dallas Mavericks Owner Patrick Dumont Says Team Aims To Build ‘The Best Arena In The World’

This week on CNBC Sport, the podcast, my colleague Contessa Brewer is in Macau for the NBA's second annual preseason journey to the gambling capital of China. This week, the Dallas Mavericks are playing the Houston Rockets in two games at the Venetian Arena in Macau. Contessa sits down with Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont, who was also the CEO of Las Vegas Sands, the owner of that arena, about the convergence of his two jobs. It's the most exciting thing I could ever dream of. That's coming up next on CNBC Sport the podcast. Well, whose house are we in today? We are in Sans's house. Yeah, this is a big deal, Patrick. Patrick Dumont, who's the head of Las Vegas Sand, the CEO and the chairman, but also the governor of the Dallas Mavericks. So this is the second year that you've had the NBA China Games in your house in Macau, but this year your team is here too. Give me the lay of the land. What's this like for you? It's unbelievable. It's the most exciting thing I could ever dream of. The idea, one that we would have the NBA here in Macau after all these years and have it be the second year and have this much excitement, additional hype. Last year was really good. This year is reaching a new level. I think fans understand what's going on here. I think people of Macau understand how great it is to have the NBA. We have people coming from all over to the games. It's really exciting. But then to have the Mavericks here, it's incredible. It's a dream come true. And I think the great thing is the team's having a really good time getting to experience Macau. But for us, having it in our building here at Sands, have the NBA, have another year of this really exciting event, bringing NBA basketball to Macau in China, and then having our team here is a dream come true. I got to tell you, it was really special to be down watching the practice unfold, and then watching Cooper Flagg lined up with some of the very young Chinese basketball players who were getting these one-on-one sessions with the NBA. What does it mean for you now to, you know, be the owner of this team and know how important it is to be grooming talent from a young age? Well, it's about giving back to the community. The amazing thing here is we have not only Cooper Flag and Kyrie Irving here who are giving back to the community, and they're amazing at it. Our team has a big part, and so having these events where we can interact with kids in the community, help them think about basketball, working as a tim learning sports is just a really special thing. And the great thing is the NBA is an amazing partner. They're really focused on community events, just like Sans is. So it's a natural relationship for us to have the games here, but at the same time have the NBA and Sam's work together, have the players come in, and we do great things for the community. It's actually really special. Have you been able to measure the impact that having the NBA China Games? I mean, it's. I assume it's you're hoping for something more than just a weekend of sold-out hotel suites and lots of people coming through and buying merch. For us, it's about tourism. It's about helping the community. It's about helping Macau with this amazing set of games, but more importantly, it's about having people recognize just what Macau is today-one of the great tourism markets of the world. We have invested 20 billion dollars over the last 20 years. We've been in Macau for more than 20 years, creating what we believe is the leading hospitality product the world has ever seen, and this is a way to highlight that. So I think it's unregulated, but it's really about also for us giving back to the community. These may be the players for tomorrow, but maybe they'll be inspired by some of the players they see here and realize that they can work as a team and work hard and grow and develop into something that allows them to reach their full potential. And that's really what this is about. For people who don't follow the gambling industry the way that I do, they might be surprised to learn that the government of Macau has intended to diversify its economic revenue streams beyond just gambling. So, having sports here was something that the government wanted. It looks like it's paying off. For instance, August set an all-time record for the month in terms of visitation, but gambling revenue, which is really the economic driver for companies like Las Vegas Sands, that was down 10% from pre-pandemic levels. We've seen it down about almost 20% in September. Is the new normal that you get lots of people coming for the restaurants and the shopping and the concerts, and the sports, but not so much gambling. So we really sell great experiences, and as a company, and my philosophy is to invest through cycles. We think about things for the long term. So if you look at how we invest here in Macau, and actually how we invest in Marina Bay Sands, we want to be the leading company for luxury hospitality, luxury gaming, luxury events, luxury experiences, and business tourism, and we feel like we're on our way, and so we invest through cycles. You know, no business goes straight up, and I think for us, we're very bullish about the future. We're very excited about the tourism and the type of tourists that we have coming to this market. This is the number one gaming market in the world. It has had some volatility. But in our view, the future looks very bright, and we're investing against that thesis. Well, you mentioned Marina Bay Sands. It's in Singapore. It is the world's most lucrative casino property. Do you want Macau to function more like Singapore? Well, I think for us, it's about having high qualities of service, having high quality experiences for our customers and creating the best possible product. So for us, we focus on our people. We focus on our product. We focus on our service, and then we believe the customers will come and they'll come back because of the experiences they had. We have world-class entertainment in Singapore. We have world-class entertainment here. We have the best shopping at both locations. We have wonderful mice experiences for people, which actually helps facilitate like conferences and sales meetings. Come back for go to conferences. Come back as leisure tourists if they have a great time. So for us, these things worked well together. And so for us, it's really about creating the best possible tourism experiences and then taking advantage of the market in its best segments. You know, I'm covering lots of travel and leisure companies. One thing that I've noticed is that whether it's cruises or hotels, there's this rush to expand into luxury. Are you worried about the space getting too crowded that there's only so many rich people in the world to pay for hotel suites and Michelin star dinners? The great news for us is that all of our revenue-producing assets are in Asia, and we believe fundamentally in the long-term wealth creation story in Asia. China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, South Korea. These countries have young entrepreneurs. They have a lot of economic growth. We invest through cycles because we believe in the long run the story will continue. So for us, it's not about it's not about are there enough customers? It's can we create enough of an interesting set of experiences where people find us indispensable of their lives? That we sell a lifestyle that they really enjoy and they want to experience with their families and friends over and over again. And are you finding these tentpole events, whether it's F1 in Singapore, NBA China Games in Macau, or or concerts in Dallas? How much are the other offerings driving tourism to your businesses? I think it's a really important part of the story. I think tourism is driven in part by entertainment, particularly for us and the types of customers that we have. So F1 is a tremendous event. It takes over all of Singapore. We have a partnership with Ferrari. We feel like there's a lot of brand commonality there. We both sell great experiences, so we're happy to partner with them. And for us, F1 is just a great event. It's a headline event for Singapore, and it's something that is really exciting. It's a really well presented race, and it's just a lot of fun to go to. So for us, our customers love it. But here in Macau, we have all types of concerts, and live entertainment is really important to the tourists that come here, so we have a full schedule of live entertainment, and we think it just makes great experiences. It drives our best customers to return. In the meantime, even though Las Vegas Sands has sold out of Las Vegas, I know that you still are there and you've lived there for a long time. I'm just curious how you see Las Vegas fitting into NBA expansion plans. I've I've heard that you've been involved in meetings with some of the investment groups who are interested in bringing a timber. So Las Vegas, as a Las Vegas resident, is is one of the most exciting entertainment cities in the world. I think it's the top entertainment city in the world, just by visitors and the types of things we have going on there. The sphere. The sphere. You know, credit to Jim Dolan. Right. Wow, what an unbelievable thing! Have you been? Yes, I love it. Phenomenal. It is. And that's what Vegas is about, right? It's about investment. It's about reinventing itself. It's about creating new experiences for people. When you think about the history and all the great developers in Vegas, they've really created unbelievable things that have Vegas in everyone's mind, right? So I feel like having an NBA team there is a natural thing to do, but again, it depends on what the league wants. Who who gives? Who gets the edge? Is it is it the team that comes forward and says we're going to build a new arena and we want it to be state of the art and give some competition to T-Mobile, which your competitor Bill Holmbrechtel told me last week in Las Vegas. No, we would prefer to just keep T-Mobile as the arena of choice. I think the story has yet to be written, but I think ultimately whatever is decided, it will be something great for the league. It'll be great for the city of Las Vegas, and it'll be really exciting for the global sport of basketball because I think a lot of people love coming to Vegas to see sports. That's been proven if you look at the success of franchises that have moved there, and I think it's a really exciting opportunity. When you build a new stadium now. Does that need to be something that can be used year-round for lots of different events? Does it need to be multi-purpose? Well, I think the great thing about NBA basketball is that the arenas that are built for NBA basketball do really well as entertainment venues. Yeah. You know, if you look around the U.S. some of the best entertainment venues that people go to also are NBA arenas. So there's definitely a natural fit there, specifically in Vegas, for such a big entertainment stand. Well, speaking of building, I know that there's been some hope and some plans for a new entertainment district around the Dallas Mavericks. Talk to me a little bit about where plans stand, and also, can you make it work financially if you never? So I think the great thing about the city of Dallas is that there's a lot of opportunity to do something really special for our fans. So we're in early days yet. We're still working through it. We've done some preliminary work with zoning for one of the sites that we're looking at, Valley View. I hope that it goes well. But for us, the most important thing is remaining in the city of Dallas and remaining true to our fans and building something tremendous that they're really proud about. You know, Texas is about everything's bigger in Texas. So for us, I think we're going to try to build the best arena in the world. You know, when Las Vegas Sands thinks about Texas and the Metroflex, it's really about an asset that will be both for business and leisure tourism. So for us, that site has to be really large and really specific. So I think the Mavericks are going to have a home for the Mavericks, and we'll figure out how to do that and what that needs to look like to build the best possible arena and entertainment district we can for our fans and for the city. And then whatever Las Vegas Sands can do in the future, that will be its own location, its own site, and its own time. Do you think that the rise of prediction markets, which operate in Texas, even though there's not legal sports betting there. Do you think does anything to change hearts and minds in Texas about the possibilities for gambling in the future? So, we sell experiences that kind of go outside of AI, go outside of the phone, go outside of your home computer. These are things that people experience live. It's entertainment. It's having a great dinner with your friends or your colleagues. It's something that's different from what I think is offered by the experience from from prediction markets, which is something that I think helps fan engagement in sports. But it's something completely different from what we do. So for us, we're really thinking about how do we create the the buildings, the experiences that help define what our company does best, which is business and leisure tourism at a large scale for luxury for luxury guests. Meanwhile, we've seen valuations on these NBA teams continue to soar. When you look back at buying the Mavericks with your family just a few years ago, do you look back on that and go, "Wow, I got a really good deal" I don't think of it that way. We're just happy to be in the NBA family. We're happy to be Dallas Mavericks. We love the team. Our family loves the franchise. It's a labor of love, and it's something we're really proud about. And we do it for the fans. We do it for the city. What do you think that being a casino magnate does in terms of the way you approach being the governor or being the leader of the Mavericks? I think the one thing is I come from a hospitality background, so I feel like what we'll be able to bring to the Mavericks is a heightened hospitality. You know, for us, the new arena is going to be a place where hospitality is really focused on in providing the best possible experience for our fans in a way they've never had. Last year, Patrick, we were out doing a free throw shootout in the NBA store. I think you won. I think that you didn't try that hard, and I saw that you didn't wear your sneakers this year because I was ready for a do-over. I think you'd probably win again. Thank you for thank you so much. Great to see you. Thanks for your time. Thanks for coming to Macau.