Thanks to an 11-year, $110 billion media rights deal, NFL owners who feel strapped for cash are now allowed to sell a maximum of 10 percent of their NFL teams to a private equity firm that will immediately front them the money.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has a net worth of $15.1 billion according to Forbes, and whose Dallas franchise ranks as the NFL’s most valuable team at $10.1 billion (according to Forbes), is in favor of the approval by the league for its other 31 teams to do so. That’s an option he says he will not explore, however.
“Well, let me say this: it is something I’m well aware of,” Jones stated on August 28. “I haven’t made that area capitalization or the prospects of other ownership relative to the Cowboys. I personally have not made that a high priority for me to attend meetings at all because I don’t intend, and haven’t intended for that to apply with the Cowboys… I’m not trying to be evasive in any way. But, yes, the correct statement is I’m not looking to do it. I don’t want to foreclose anything as far as the future is concerned, but we have not been in that kind of mind thought.”
Jones went on to tout the benefits of the newly-approved arrangement. Some of the perks could be an immediate influx of cash, likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars, for franchises to put toward practice facility or stadium renovations or even other special projects.
“You’re foolish if you don’t get up every day and really look at how the tea leaves look at any given time,” Jones stated. “There’s no doubt that this is going to make us have a better league. There’s no doubt that it would give more financial flexibility, which in and of itself, since my experience in the NFL and when I look back at the financial viability of where we were in 1989 compared to where we are today and this type of thing that we voted to do yesterday will enhance this game for you, fans, professionals in the game, for the players, for the fans. It will create more financial viability and let us take advantage of the great following and the great interest that we have in the game. I don’t have specifics, but it will and you could clearly see that it was a unanimous affirmation there that this was good for fans, good for the league. Let me say this: anything that’s good for fans is good for the league.”
Jerry Jones‘ stewardship of the Dallas Cowboys has brought great results and success to one of the world’s most popular sports entities. His career, which spans well over three decades, reached a pinnacle with an induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017, as Jones became the 15th owner in history to earn a bust in Canton. Aside from being one of the three current owners to guide their franchises to three Super Bowl titles, Jones has strived to make efforts in the areas of sports marketing, broadcasting, team operations, promotions, as well as the development of AT&T Stadium and The Star, which have made imprints on the landscape of the NFL, fan engagement, and American sports culture.
Jones graduated from Arkansas in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and earned his Master of Arts degree from the university the same year. Jerry and his wife, Gene, live in Dallas and have three children, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
