Mark Cuban Bought An Entire Texas Ghost Town For A Friend Dying Of Cancer — And Hasn't Even Been There: 'I Have Zero Plans For It'

Mark Cuban once bought an entire town—and then forgot it existed.

Back in 2021, the billionaire entrepreneur and then-Dallas Mavericks owner scooped up Mustang, Texas, a 77-acre ghost town about an hour south of Dallas. The price tag? Just $2 million, which sounds like a bargain until you realize it came with a defunct strip club, a pond with an alligator, and exactly zero residents.

But it wasn't a business deal, a development play, or even a PR stunt. It was a favor.

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The town's former owner, Marty Price, was a Dallas attorney and devoted Mavericks fan who held season tickets on the floor. Cuban says he bought Mustang to help out Price, who was battling cancer at the time. Price passed away in August 2021 at the age of 75.

The New York Times reported the reason: Price apparently didn't want to leave his wife and children a hard-to-maintain ghost town.

Cuban stepped in. "I bought it to help out a basketball buddy who was dying of cancer, he needed it for his family," he told Business Insider in 2024 email. "I have zero plans for it, I haven't ever been there."

Cuban didn't need the land—he just wanted to help the guy liquidate what little he had left to provide for his family. 

Mustang had been on the market since 2017 for $4 million but couldn't find a buyer, thanks to its seedy history and sky-high asking price. Even when it was dropped to $2 million, interest was lukewarm. Mike Turner, the real estate broker who originally listed it, told the Dallas Morning News, "I had a fair amount of interest in it, but it was priced too high—even at $2 million."

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The deal reportedly was handled by Rogers Healy and Associates Commercial, whose team included Danny Bollinger, a former Mavericks photographer turned real estate agent. Bollinger had been let go from the Mavs in 2018 after allegations of sexual harassment, but by 2019, he had switched lanes into real estate and helped close the town sale.

So what exactly did Cuban buy? Technically: a patch of land that once had a strip club, a liquor store, and a trailer park. There's no mayor, no post office, not even a gas station. And in 2024, when Business Insider's Alcynna Lloyd went to check it out, she found… nothing. No buildings. No people. Just wind and tumbleweeds. Mustang is, in the truest sense, a ghost town.

The only known use of the land? Letting the nearby town of Angus park their fire truck there.

In a world where billionaires buy stadiums, yachts, and social media platforms for clout, Cuban's purchase of Mustang stands out for how refreshingly pointless it is. No crypto hub. No glamping resort. Just a dying wish honored—and a billionaire who kept it moving.

No vision board. No profit plan. Just Texas dirt and a pretty solid friendship.

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