Mark Cuban buys a small town in Texas, just because

By Allison Morrow, CNN Business

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is having a Johnny Rose moment.

The billionaire just bought the entire town of Mustang, Texas — a blip on the map off I-45, with a population of 21 people, according to the latest census data.

The reason, Cuban told the Dallas Morning News: A buddy needed to sell it.

“I don’t know what if anything I will do with it,” Cuban told the paper. (Should Cuban find himself down on his luck a la “Schitt’s Creek,” though, it’s nice to know he’ll have his own hamlet and a zany group of townsfolk to take him in.)

Mustang is pretty much a 77-acre blank canvas for Cuban.

The town was founded in the early 1970s, when it was known mostly as a local watering hole in an otherwise dry Navarro County, according to the paper. These days, there’s little more than a trailer park and a strip club, Wispers Cabaret, which is reportedly in disrepair. On Friday, Google Maps showed the name of the club had been edited to “Mark Cubaret.”

The town also features a “resident alligator” in one its ponds, Dallas real estate broker Mike Turner told the Morning News.

Nearby attractions? Well, you’ve got Dallas about 45 minutes north. And history buffs with a penchant for cult lore will be pleased to find that the city of Waco is just over an hour’s drive southwest of Mustang. And just two miles from Wispers, there’s “Navarro County’s first and only vineyard and winery,” Angelita (which honestly looks super cute).

It’s not clear what Cuban paid for the town, but for someone with a net worth of nearly $6 billion, it was almost certainly a steal. The town was reportedly put up for sale in 2017 for $4 million, but Turner said it was overpriced, even when they slashed the listing price in half.

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