In honor of Mark Cuban's birthday we present to you: Mark Cuban related content!

I'm a sports junkie almost as much as I am a movie junkie, sometimes even more so. I do tend to find the personalities in sports more engaging and interesting. The film business has Harvey Weinstein and competitive sports has Mark Cuban. Cuban is a great contradiction. You can't help but love the idea of the guy: an average Joe sports fan who basically overnight becomes a gigantic success. He did what any rational person in his situation would have done. He bought an NBA team.

I've seen Cuban do things that make me smile (refusing to sit in the Dallas Mavericks owner's box, much to the ire of NBA commissioner David Stern) and do others that made my eyes roll (arguing with NBA refs during a game is just dumb). Cuban has said some pretty stupid things too (despite the contextual evidence he was presented with, publicly saying the Kobe Bryant rape case was good for the NBA wasn't his brightest moment). But I must say, I'm on board with his latest bout of insanity.

Cuban wants to bring 3-D theater to sports. To be clear, Cuban is talking about people leaving the comfort of their homes to drive to a movie theater to watch a sporting event. We all know movies are headed this way. 3-D is the future. Period. But sports?

There are a couple of obstacles here. First off, the very idea of going to a movie theater to watch a sporting event is foreign. Secondly, most people are used to not having to pay for their sports (basic cable programming aside). They turn on NBC, ABC, CBS, ESPN and FOX and bam! It's right there. Obviously, Cuban is trying to appeal to sports fans. But if you're a big-time sports fan, you may already be paying more for some extra sports package as well. You usually pay for these things so that you don't have to leave the house and spend extra money on hot dogs, parking and ponchos. Now some rich guy is asking you to pay yet again to watch a sporting event in 3-D. That's more hot dogs. More popcorn. More parking. And lest we forget... the commercial breaks. Are we going to be subjected to (mostly) bad Super Bowl commercials in the middle of a game after we paid for our ten dollar tickets?It's something of an uphill battle.

But as Bobby D once told Pacino, there's a flip-side to that coin and that is this: it would be really, really cool.

Can you imagine a line-drive Alex Rodriguez shot coming at you (no Madonna jokes please)? How's about a Rafael Nadal ace? A kicker kicks a field goal in your face. From a quarterback's helmet cam you feel the three-dimensional space of being in the huddle and then getting blitzed by giant men the size of Marvel Sentinels. This would be great theater. If only we'd pay for it.

And I think we will. A good number of us anyway. I know I wouldn't pass up seeing the Super Bowl in 3-D in the comfort of my local Muvico. I'd get a three-day pass to watch the U.S. Open. A seven-day pass to the World Series. Hell, at the very least I think I'd rather watch one of these games or matches close-up in 3-D in a love seat in theater 7 than in some cramped, uncomfortable stadium-seat in the nosebleed section with some drunk a-hole pouring his beer over me and cursing like a sailor. As for the commercial issue, this will have to be replaced with behind-the-scene access to NFL huddles, NBA time-outs and MLB pitching mound visits. Maybe a ball player can spit sunflower seeds at us in 3-D power or something for two minutes. I don't know. The possibilities are endless. But one thing for certain: if I paid for my ticket, I want everything uncensored. Give me Lou Piniella expletive tirades or give me death!

And what would this mean for Hollywood? As if they didn't have enough competition. At the very least, Sunday attendance would drop even more. The need to see a sporting event live is more pressing than a movie event's premiere weekend. Sports are unscripted (unless we're talking the NBA -- pow!) and there's more of a need to see what happens when it happens. The Dark Knight will be there when I wake up in the morning. Hollywood, you know I love you. But I say bring this on.

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