Mavs' Cuban expects to lose more than $100M due to COVID-19

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is bracing for a big financial hit as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

During an appearance on 96.7 The Ticket on Monday, Cuban said he expects to lose upward of $100 million due to the restrictions COVID-19 has created for the NBA.

"Am I going to lose a lot of money this year? Yes. No question about it," Cuban said, according to the Dallas Morning News. "More than $100 million when this is all said and done? Yes. No question about it.

"Fortunately, I'm in a position where I can afford it. I'll keep on paying our folks, it's just the right thing to do. But at the same time, we need to get back into our normal season ... Starting in December is not something that's going to be repeated because we learned people like having their sports when they have their sports."

Cuban added he's optimistic the Mavs' arena will be back at full capacity later this season.

"Hopefully, post-vaccine, life will be back to normal and everything will be OK," he said. "Fans will be in arenas, and I'll tell you this, it wouldn't shock me if we start doing Mavs snapback where we reach a point in time where there's enough people with vaccines and everybody's confident, maybe it's March, maybe it's April, maybe even May since we started late, and we're just selling out the place."

The Mavs are the ninth-most valuable team in the NBA with an estimated worth of $2.4 billion, according to Forbes' latest valuations. Cuban has an estimated net worth of $4.2 billion.