How’ bout them dollars?
Dallas Cowboys score record-breaking value of $8 billion, says Forbes
Billionaire Jerry Jones keeps scoring with his investment in the Dallas Cowboys.
For the 16th year in a row, the Dallas Cowboys top Forbes’ annual ranking of NFL team valuations. Now, Forbes says, the Cowboys are worth $8 billion — the first pro sports franchise of any type to reach that mark. That figure is up from the $6.5 billion valuation reported last year.
“The sale of the Denver Broncos for a record $4.65 billion helped push up the value of all NFL teams,” says Mike Ozanian, assistant managing editor at Forbes.
As if their $8 billion valuation weren’t impressive enough, the Cowboys are the first NFL team to generate $1 billion in revenue, according to Forbes. That’s thanks in no small part to corporate sponsorships like the team’s 10-year, $200 million beer deal with Molson Coors.
The average NFL team is now worth $4.47 billion, up 28 percent from last year, Forbes says. The state’s only other pro football team, the Houston Texans, ranks 11th with a valuation of $4.7 billion, compared with $3.7 billion on last year’s list.
Forbes based its team valuations on revenue and operating income for the 2021 NFL season. Last year, the Cowboys generated nearly $1.1 billion in revenue and $466 million in operating income (a yardstick for how much revenue will eventually turn into profit).
Jones bought the Cowboys for around $140 million or $150 million in 1989, depending on which media account you trust. Jones insists he’ll never sell what now is a multibillion-dollar money machine. But he has tossed around a potential $10 billion sale price.
As of August 30, Forbes pegged Jones’ net worth at $12.3 billion.
Jones derives much of his wealth from his ownership of the Cowboys, where he is president and general manager. Some of his treasure chest — $200 million a year — goes toward renting the $1.5 billion AT&T Stadium, where the Cowboys play their home games.
Well before he occupied the White House, Donald Trump reportedly had a chance to snag the Cowboys for $40 million to $50 million. That was in 1983, several years before Jones purchased the team.
“I feel sorry for the poor guy who is going to buy the Cowboys. … He’ll be known to the world as a loser,” Trump famously proclaimed in a 1984 interview.
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