Patrick Dumont, the new governor and majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, spoke exclusively. dallas morning news Last week, he talked all things Mavericks, bringing perspective, candor, and surprisingly fresh emotion to what he called the honor of succeeding Mark Cuban as governor.
“The fact that we're even talking about this makes me feel like I have to pinch myself,” he said.
Here, Dumont talks about giving bonuses to all Mavericks employees after selling the team.
Q: I wanted to ask about the $35 million that will be distributed to Mavericks employees after the sale. I emailed one employee who said he cried for an hour after receiving the email. How was that decision made and why was it important to make that decision?
Dumont: It was an easy decision. We have always worked hard to value our team. We've been successful and we've been very fortunate to have been successful. But we also remember what it was like in the beginning. And I think our team is working extremely hard.
For reference, Las Vegas closed in March 2020. I remember the pandemic like it was yesterday. This was a very, very difficult time. And then we were sitting in a conference room and the state called us and said we had to shut down. And we realized that it doesn't last for 2 days. We had to make a decision. “What do you do with our team?”
Now, we were a little bit unique because we had people with very long tenure at our facility. And we've had people who have been with us since the beginning, since we opened. They were called founders. I would say about 15% of all employees. I think his 40% of the staff had been working for him for over 10 years.
Lowest sales of all time in Las Vegas. And then, on the spot, we took the call from the state and made the decision to pay everyone. What we later learned was that many households in Las Vegas have people working at multiple establishments. So one family member will work with us and the other family member will work for one of the other operators in the strip.
There were also mass layoffs from other managers. And because we kept people employed, they were able to provide health care to children. They paid off their mortgages, rebuilt their lives, and survived the pandemic. That was very interesting because we didn't know how long it would last. …I ended up doing it for over a year, and it was the right thing to do. We are part of the Vegas community. People have grown up with us. …that's the right thing to do.
So when this deal happened, and Mark was having great sales success, it was only right to give something back. That's why we did it.
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