Really interesting conversation between Dray and Mark Cuban about the thought processes and focus from NBA teams’ ownership/front office side on in-arena fan engagement and the very real impact the energy generated from it can have on the game itself and the business side of things.

Transcript below.

**Dray:** I know you watch everything and you not only do you watch everything, you know way more than any of us knows, but in watching what Steve Ballmer is doing with the new arena and how he’s trying to cater to fans.
What is one of the changes that you would make to the in-game basketball experience for fans? Like you being a huge fan yourself, but being in it, what’s one change that you’d make to better the experience for fans in the new arena?

**Cuban:** Well, I mean, Steve, you know, he’s great. **Like Steve talks about the bathrooms, right? Because he wants to get people back into their seats because if they’re not in their seats, they can’t be cheering. If they’re not making noise – because that six man is a real thing.**

When I got to the NBA, I used to give them shit all the time because the top spots, David, Adam and down, they were all lawyers. So I used to say NBA, nothing but attorneys, right? And you know, and I would give them shit. I’m like, dude, you don’t even know what business we’re in. You think we’re in the basketball business. You want to hear sneakers squeaking because that’s what they did in 1956. **I’m like, when you go to a game, you feel that energy that is unlike anything else you can get. You can’t get that watching in front of a television, right? You can’t get that when you feel that energy and you feel it when you walk on the court. Even like the worst matchups, right? There is an energy there and the fans feel it. And when it’s bad matchups, there’s usually more kids in the stands, so that’s loud, right? And so, when I got there, it was all about how do you keep people’s heads up? And that was before it was hardcore cell phones and wireless and everything. And so now, you wanna do as many things as you can so that people’s energy stays up. You wanna always be entertaining and parents are bringing their kids. And so, you’ve gotta make sure that that kid’s attention span doesn’t wander because if the parent has to pay attention to the kid because the kid is on his phone or whatever, you’re not gonna have that energy because you want that kid screaming, right?**

I learned an early lesson and you see it too, in 2000 or in 2024, you shoot t-shirts into the stands, they’re yelling. Other than a game winning bucket, right? Those people are going nuts for the t-shirts and so it’s like, okay, let’s get people’s heads to stay up and pay attention. So, you’ll see us do videos a lot. And so the jumbotrons have gotten amazing now because people have to look up. You have to keep that attention. You know, they’ve been testing see-through courts that actually show videos and are LCDs, you know, you saw it at the All-Star, right? But it was kind of weird because it was kind of smushy and it was a little bit different. So they got to get that better.

But for me, it’s like anything that keeps your head up and the energy up, right? It’s like, Balmer’s trying to do that one section (referring to “The Wall”)…like we started and we stopped this a few years ago, but if you came painted up as a Mavs fan, we had a whole section that was free. We had 300 people competing for 100 seats and everybody would be all painted up. **So, it’s all about energy because that’s where the fans give you an advantage. And it gets harder because things get more expensive. So, it’s like the front row, whether it’s Chase, whether it’s Dallas, whether it’s LA, wherever, even Milwaukee, right? Those are the people that pay to get close and yell and everything. It’s hard, though because they’re not putting on the t-shirts on during the playoffs, right? So, just trying to come up with ways that keep that energy up, that’s the mission in any arena.**

**Dray:** No, absolutely, I definitely understand that. **And we feel that energy and you feel when it’s not there, you can feel when energy leaves the arena. It’s sometimes tough because we start looking to the crowd for a little energy and they’re almost looking to us for a little energy. And when you have those different type of activations and things with the jumbotron, it can sometimes help organically spark them that helps organically spark us.**

**Cuban:** We do these original videos where we make the guys on our team the stars, right? And the guys are up and you can feel it, right? And you can feel when you do something or there’s the old standbys that get loud or like we’ll do a Hoosiers video where they’re all clapping and all that.

**Anything it takes to get the crowd going because that can mean the difference between winning and losing, right? And not just on the court, but them coming back and having a good experience. Because even if the game sucked, right? And no matter what 41 regular season games, there’s gonna be some stinkers both ways, right? As long as you can find ways to keep kids involved, they’ll keep that energy up**…Because if you’re a parent, like how old are your kids now?

**Dray:** My kids are 9, 7, 3, and 4 months.

**Cuban:** Congrats. So, that 9 and 7 year old, right? When you go to a game with them, no matter what the sport, and you’re looking in their face and you’re looking in their eyes and you’re seeing that smile, they got the cotton candy and they’re doing their thing, right? That’s all you care about as a parent. That is the experience. You remember the first time your aunt, your uncle, your dad, your mom, whoever it is, your buddies took you to a game or you went together and your parents, they remember it forever, right? You’ll remember that feeling forever, and that’s what we get to do at the NBA. That’s what I kind of try to emphasize for our people, right?
Because that’s what people remember. And that gets us Ws too, because when those kids are screaming with that cotton candy, it’s a win-win.

**Dray:** Absolutely. No, my wife actually brought it to my attention and kind of made me do it, but it was a good thing. In our arena, you know, where the comp seats we would get, they’d be a little higher up, and once my kids started getting a little older, she’s like, hey, they want to see you. Like, they want to be able to make eye contact with you. They want to be able to almost talk to you. And so I bought some seats, I can’t afford courtside seats at Chase Center, they’re a little too expensive, but we got some seats pretty close to the court and it actually changes the entire game experience for me, who’s playing.

by taygads