Mark Cuban Turned Down Chance to Buy Share of Steelers

Pittsburgh native and billionaire investor Mark Cuban was approached about buying a share of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he declined.

Speaking on an episode of Julian Edelman’s Games with Names podcast, Cuban said that he was offered the chance to buy a share of the Steelers, but that he wasn’t interested.

“I had an opportunity to buy into the Steelers,” Cuban said. “A minority owner contact me about selling and I just didn’t want to be an minority owner. David Tepper bought the Panthers and I guess they did reach out to me at some point but I wasn’t into it.”

Tepper, another billionaire Pittsburgh native, was formerly a minority owner of the Steelers before buying the Carolina Panthers in 2018. When he bought the Panthers, he was forced by league rules to sell his shares in the Steelers, which he had owned since 2009. 

That could’ve been the time period that Cuban was referring to. He said that he and Tepper didn’t realize that they had met as youngsters in Pittsburgh before their paths crossed as billionaires.

“I didn’t realize until after the fact when someone sent me a picture,” Cuban said. “I went to a Sweet 16 party for a girl I had a crush on and I had no chance with. They sent me a picture saying that guy right there is David Tepper, and there’s me and we were both 16 years old. Probably both chasing the same girl. Looking at the picture of him, looking at the picture of me, neither of us had a chance.”

Cuban, 65, made his fortune in the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion. In 2000, he bought a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million. He has been an investor on the show Shark Tank since 2011.

Cuban has been linked to several other sports franchises, including the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Another share of the Steelers is currently for sale, as new Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris must sell his share of the team.