Multibillionaire Jerry Jones is the owner of the Dallas Cowboys — popularly known as “America’s team” and the most valuable sports franchise in the world. He helped to transform the NFL team into a Super Bowl champion three times over within a few years of taking ownership.
But Jones has always been a businessman, and his holdings also include property and natural gas production.
Here’s how Jones makes his money and where he ranks among the world’s billionaires.
What is Jerry Jones’s net worth?
Jones has a net worth of $16.1 billion as of late November 2024, according to Forbes. This put him #128 among the world’s wealthiest individuals at the time. This puts his wealth about $4 billion lower than that of Carolina Panthers owner, David Tepper, who manages a hedge fund in addition to owning an NFL team.
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How much did Jerry Jones pay for the Cowboys? What is the team worth now?
The biggest holding contributing to his net worth is the Dallas Cowboys, which Forbes values at more than $10 billion. Jones and his wife reportedly own 51% of the football team, while their three children equally own the remaining 49%.
Jones purchased the Cowboys for $150 million in 1989, and immediately set out on a business plan to revive the game-losing franchise and draw fans to the team.
Jerry Jones, 82, bought the Dallas Cowboys for $150 million in 1989, and within a decade the team won three Super Bowls. Despite being the most valuable sports franchise, the Cowboys haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1996.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Who is Jerry Jones?
Jerry Jones was born in Los Angeles, Calif. in 1942. He and his family moved to North Little Rock, Arkansas when he was three years old. Jones attended the University of Arkansas and graduated with a degree in business in 1965 and later earned a master’s degree in 1970.
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As a football player on scholarship for the Razorbacks at the University of Arkansas, he was co-captain of the 1964 national championship team.
His master’s thesis was called “The Role of Oral Communication in Modern-Day Collegiate Football,” and he sent out questionnaires to the best college football coaches at the time, including Paul “Bear” Bryant of the University of Alabama, about how they used communication to teach and inspire their teams.
How did Jerry Jones make his money?
Jones took an interest in business and making money at an early age. He told Forbes that he worked at his parents’ grocery store, Pat’s Super Market, as early as 9 years old.
In a 2010 interview with his alma mater, he credited his father and mother for influencing his interest in being creative in business. He described his father as a showman and a marketer who would sometimes don a Wild West cowboy uniform in his store and put on amateur talent shows while customers were buying groceries.
While he was a student in Arkansas, Jones owned a small interest in several oil wells, sold life insurance to businessmen, and sold shoes to student fraternity members.
After graduating from Arkansas, Jones’ father moved on from the grocery business and started an insurance company called Modern Security Line in Missouri. Jones joined his father in the business, and then started his own oil and gas venture in 1971.
At around 25 years old, Jones looked into taking ownership of the San Diego Chargers just before the AFL and the NFL merged, causing the team’s value to surge, but his father advised him to avoid taking on the debt to finance the transaction.
Following that failed football pursuit, Jones ventured into real estate investment but was on the hook for loans and interest payments that he couldn’t make when he didn’t sell the properties as planned. He told Forbes that the impact of negative cash flow was an important lesson that he learned at a young age, and he has since applied it to his business dealings, particularly with the Cowboys.
After taking over the franchise in 1989, Jones focused on the football organization’s cash flow problem and solved that by reducing overhead and looking for ways to generate revenue, such as finding more sponsors.
Jones’s other key business interests include retail and residential property development in the Dallas area as well as crude oil and natural gas exploration and production. His family’s ownership in the oil and gas industry includes a reported 71% stake in Comstock Resources (CRK) . Jones also owns Papa John’s pizzeria franchises and a hospitality management company.
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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, left, talks with Jerry Jones in 2023. Just before the start of the 2024 season, Prescott signed a four-year, $260 million contract — making him the highest-paid NFL player.
Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
How does Jerry Jones spend his money?
As majority owner — along with his wife Gene — of the Dallas Cowboys, Jones focuses on recruiting players and signing them onto sometimes lucrative contracts. He is also the organization’s president and general manager, which means that he has control over the hiring and firing of important staff, such as the head coach and players.
The Cowboys had $1.2 billion in revenue for the 2023 football season, and player expenses amounted to $314 million, according to Forbes. Just as the 2024 NFL season started in September, the Cowboys signed their franchise quarterback Dak Prescott to a four-year, $240 million contract, which came out to $60 million a year. (Prescott sat out halfway into the 2024 season due to injury.)
Still, Jones’s roles as president and general manager have drawn consternation from some fans, particularly due to his recruitment and retention of players that they believe have led to the Cowboys’ inability to attain another Super Bowl championship (or even appear in one) since their 1996 winning season.
The Cowboys organization said on its website that “the foundation for the future success of the team has been secured through savvy draft maneuvers and key free agent acquisitions, starting up front on the offensive line.”
As the public face of the Cowboys, Jones said as recently as November 2024 that he won’t relinquish the general manager role as long as he remains the team’s owner. He has said his ownership of the team will pass on to his children.
Outside of football, Jones is a collector of fine art, and he and his wife put up artwork throughout AT&T Stadium, where the Cowboys play. His collection includes artwork by modern artists such as Anish Kapoor. He bought Norman Rockwell’s painting, “the Coin Toss,” from fellow Texan Ross Perot for $1 million shortly after his purchase of the Cowboys in 1989, and it is displayed privately at his home.
Jones reportedly bought a $250 million yacht in 2019.
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