The billionaire basketball junkie is pitched as a potential name that could get in the football business if ... and only if ... Jerry Jones sees fit.
OXNARD, Calif. - Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is soaking up the sun here in Oxnard this week and embracing the crowds of die-hard fans that shower his team with attention ... both for good and bad reasons amid his team's 30-year championship drought.
Jones, who will turn 84 during his 38th season as the boss of America's Team, is flanked by his family in support and in operations of the franchise. Co-owners and children Stephen (executive vice president), Charlotte (chief brand officer), and Jerry Jr. (chief sales and marketing officer) make the Cowboys as close to a family-run business as it gets in professional sports.
So, for that reason, there is hardly any overwhelming belief that Jerry will put his organization on the market.
However, that's not to say that there wouldn't be options.
Several teams have switched ownerships in recent years, with price tags exceeding $10 billion. The Cowboys' price, at least for a major stake, surely would start at whatever figure makes them the most valuable franchise in the world. The Dallas Morning News recently suggested a sales tie between a pair of DFW billionaires.
Mark Cuban, now the minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is referred to as "a name to consider."
Why? Maybe in part because Cubes just got into baseball (with his group buying a piece of the MLB Athletics). With his Mavs position clouded by more uncertainty than ever, who is to say he won't try to reclaim superior authority in Dallas professional sports with the market's biggest brand?
The Hall-of-Famer Jones suggested to the paper that Cuban "the man'' makes the idea intriguing.
"That's exactly why if you're me, you would be open to that is because of the man," Jones said. "I have all the respect in the world for him and I know what he did for the Mavericks and what he's done for basketball. He's in additional to financial boatstreams of your team, you want to associate with the highest quality of [a person] who loves the game and then also at the same time wants to do something about it. Mark leads the way in that."
Cuban, who got his fame from his founding innovation in sports broadcast streaming, the hit investment show Shark Tank, and for owning the 2011 NBA champions for over two decades, now only holds a 27 percent stake in the Mavs. He's also in a heated lawsuit with the team's new owner and controlling governor, Patrick Dumont, which we were first to report here at MavsRoundtable.com.
"We wouldn't rule it out," Stephen Jones said to standout DMN beat writer Calvin Watkins about a sale of the Cowboys. "But we'd also be very particular in who we would bring in as a partner in terms of that. But, yes, it was designed when [the NFL] passed that rule that you could have private equity involved in the NFL and you could have minority partners, you know. It made sense for a lot of different reasons and every owner who chooses to go that path can speak for themselves in terms of why they're doing it. But it does, I think, it's a great tool."
Cuban's investment portfolio is partly tied to Harbinger Sports Partners, which bought a stake of MLB's Athletics, the team set to relocate from Oakland to Las Vegas by 2028.
Said Cuban: "I;m sure our Harbinger fund would be open to it.''
But DFW sports fans should tap the brakes before anybody gets too excited about a Jones/Cuban partnership.
While the DMN deserves credit for creative thinking and for asking the questions of the two powerbrokers, multiple sources tell CowboysRoundtable.com that there is no deal in the works whatsoever.
One source close to the situation tells us that everyone quoted in the story offered "polite'' answers. ... and that the Joneses in particular have no plan to sell pieces of the team.
The DMN is right in noting that an NFL rule change has been made, mostly to help owners' cash flow.
"In August 2024, NFL owners approved a measure to allow private equity firms to purchase up to 10 percent of a franchise, but each stake must be for at least 3 percent," The News wrote. "Last year, Buffalo, Miami and the Los Angeles Chargers sold a portion of their teams to private equity groups."
Hey, it's a fun idea. But Jerry doesn't need Cuban for "cash flow.'' Jones does have his sights set on exposure and growth (oh, and football). Cuban's creativity in those areas rivals that of Jones himself.
Still, in the end, the Cowboys are a family-run business ... and all indications - "politeness'' aside - suggest the Joneses plan to keep it that way.
