Mark Cuban says the Mets should feel free to ask him if he wants to own part of their team, because he would be open to listening.
The Dallas Mavericks’ billionaire owner — one of sports’ most charismatic, eccentric and outspoken team proprietors — said yesterday he is willing to listen if the Mets want to talk with him about buying a share of the team, but said he will not pursue it on his own because of failed MLB bids in the past.
“If they want to sit down and sell me on it, I can be a willing buyer and a willing customer,” Cuban said before his Mavericks crushed the Knicks, 113-97, last night at the Garden. “But I’m not going to be a bidder on anything.”
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The 51-year-old, whose net worth is $2.3 billion according to Forbes, said he hasn’t heard anything from the Mets. Cuban said he hasn’t done any research to know if he would have a legitimate interest in the Mets, but he still has a desire to own a baseball team.
“For any baseball team, I’m not going to chase after it,” Cuban said. “If someone sees me as a potential owner, I’ll take their call and discuss a deal. I’m not going to get into a bidding situation ever again. I’m not going to be in a situation where I make the proposal and they just go through with it.
“Obviously, I feel like I’d be a good team owner in baseball, but I’m not going to go through the same process I did with the Rangers and the Cubs.”
Cuban submitted a $581 million bid for the Rangers last year, according to the Dallas Morning News, but lost out to Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg’s $593 million proposal.
“We had a limit on what we could spend,” Cuban told the paper.
He reportedly bid for the Cubs in 2007 but wasn’t selected as the buyer there either.
Mets ownership has said it is looking to sell only 20-25 percent of the franchise, which could present an obstacle. Cuban said he doubts he would be willing to buy in without majority control unless he has future buying rights.
“You take a small part of something that makes a ton of money, if the price is right, no matter who you are. But I don’t know the specifics of it, so I couldn’t say,” said Cuban, whose Mavericks are on pace to make the playoffs for an 11th straight season. “I can tell you from my perspective, it’d be very unlikely that I’d choose to participate if they came to me for a minority stake unless there was a right to buy it in the event of that opportunity.”
How likely is it that a team’s ownership would pursue a buyer versus the other way around? Cuban — who called the Mets “a great franchise” and labeled New York as “a great city” — said it depends.
“It’s like anything else. If you think that there’s a lot of demand, you try to create a bidding environment. If you don’t think there’s much demand, you go out and try to sell it to anybody who writes the check,” he said. “It just depends on the franchise and what the scenario is, what the price is.
“But like I said, I’m not going to be making any phone calls, but I’ll answer the phone.”
mark.hale@nypost.com