The Dallas Cowboys football club is regarded as the most expensive in the world. According to the American magazine Forbes, it tops the list of 50 most valuable sports teams in the world in 2023. Since 2016, the team has been the leader in all sports ratings. In 2023, the club’s value was estimated at 9 billion dollars. Find out more at i-dallas.
Jerry Jones and his dream to acquire a football team
Jerry Jones deserves most of the credit for the Dallas Cowboys’ status as the most expensive sports team in the world. The American billionaire has owned it since 1989.
At the age of 23, Jerry was an ordinary graduate of the University of Arkansas. The guy couldn’t imagine his college years without sports as he really loved playing football. Jones became interested not only in the process itself, but also in the complexities of the entire sports industry, and he began fantasizing about owning a football club. Due to the lack of funds, he shared this idea exclusively with his wife. Above all, he feared that his father would find out about his fantasies and would mock him or call him an idiot.
Jerry began secretly looking for meetings with other football club owners. When large-scale sporting events were held, he came to hotels and sought to meet someone who had already achieved success in this field.
Once, fortune smiled on him, and one of the entrepreneurs proposed that he become a minority shareholder, which meant purchasing only a portion of the shares in the club, which was just about to become a member of the National Football League. Jones, however, declined as he wanted to assume the role of a full-fledged manager.
Subsequently, the man found out that the San Diego Chargers football team was being sold for a rather ridiculous price, given the market situation at that time. Jerry desperately needed $50,000 to pay for exclusive negotiation rights. He approached his father, who owned his own insurance company, and asked the man to lend him the necessary funds. However, he not only rejected him but also managed to ward off the man’s enthusiasm for this idea.
Jerry Jones spent more than 20 years of his life working for his father to earn money and eventually purchase the desired soccer club.
Having achieved the goal, the man became not just the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, but also its president and general manager.
Period of the club’s decline
By 1989, the club was doing quite badly: the team was weak, and the athletic association was in decline. In 1971 and 1979, the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl, but their success did not last. The club’s owners went into debt but continued to lose money, so the club was on the verge of bankruptcy. Shares eventually became the property of several entities. Jerry Jones took advantage of this situation. He gradually acquired complete ownership of the Dallas Cowboys by investing small sums of money.
Along with him, Donald Trump expressed an interest in the club. In 1984, he almost bought it for $50 million. However, at the last minute, the politician decided not to take this step, dismissing the agreement as useless. In an interview with the New York Times, he stated that he would sincerely feel sorry for anyone who dared to acquire the hopeless football team.
Jerry Jones, on the other hand, did not listen to anyone and went for his goal. First, he paid off the club’s debts, then purchased the stadium and finally the team. The club experienced a period of growth and success during his leadership.
Radical changes to the Dallas Cowboys
First, Jerry Jones implemented personnel adjustments, which he called “cleaning up the house.” Tom Landry had been the coach of the Dallas Cowboys since 1960. In 29 seasons, he led the team to victory twice. As soon as Jones became the owner of the club, Landry did not work another day. The redundancy did not pass by the other members of the club. Jerry was annoyed by the fact that 130 employees were compensated when other clubs only had 30 staff members. The new owner dismissed the president, chief scout, financier and even the photographer.
Jones remembers those times with anxiety. He claims that no one can comprehend how his hands shook back then. He frequently had to hold a cup with both hands just to drink water. This was owing to the fact that he was at serious risk of burning out while simultaneously interfering with the lives of other people.
However, the long-awaited success arrived very soon: after four years, the club’s business rapidly increased. Since the mid-1990s, Dallas Cowboys triumphs have been regarded as customary and expected. The team won championships in 1992, 1993 and 1995.
Cheerleaders, beer and commercials
The Dallas Cowboys football team continued to grow after that. Jerry Jones continued to examine the performance of each link that contributed to the club’s success. Even if someone said that the businessman was doing something stupid, he stubbornly ignored it.
In 1989, the Los Angeles Times published a controversial article with comments from Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. 14 of the 35 girls left the team owing to significant changes to their uniforms. Jones insisted on the cheerleaders’ appearance becoming more appealing. Shorts were to be made more fitted to the body, as were t-shirts with an open stomach, among other things. Despite the dissatisfaction of some girls, the uniform was changed, and others were pleased to present the Dallas Cowboys in a new unusual attire.
Furthermore, fans should thank Jones for the presence of beer at the stadium. He had to go through a lot of conflicts with state officials in order to make an exemption. The club’s owner argued that the alcohol ban during the game violated the Constitution. As a result, the stadium was designated as a special type of public facility that does not fall under the alcohol ban. So fans at Texas Stadium were permitted to consume beer and wine.
In 1995, the Dallas Cowboys football club began signing quite promising sponsorship contracts with world-famous companies. Among them were Pepsi, Nike, Coca-Cola, Visa, American Express and others. This violated the regulations of the National Football League, resulting in more than one court case.
Going outside the football club
In 2001, the Dallas Cowboys sought to push beyond their boundaries. To help promote the club and attract high-level customers, Cowboys Golf Club was founded. In addition to promoting his own brand, Jerry Jones saw this as a general development of the sports life in Dallas.
In the same year, he also purchased a training base in California, where Jerry took his team to play. According to data collected by the National Football League, the Dallas Cowboys have become the most popular club throughout the entire California. Even though Texas and California are not neighboring states.
The most high-profile event that sparked attention around the Dallas Cowboys in 2019 was an author’s photo project. As part of the project, modern photo booths were installed, allowing fans to snap photos with any athlete of their choice. They could appear via augmented reality. You can immediately share the snapshot on social media to share your emotions. This initiative appears to be nothing out of the ordinary, but it was well received by many people. Jerry Jones referred to the Dallas Cowboys photo booth initiative as a realization of the basic needs of all active fans.