Jerry Jones Net Worth 2024: How Rich Did the Cowboys Make Him?

Jerry Jones is the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and a former football player in the University of Arkansas team. It suffices to say that he has football in his blood.

In 2024, Jerry Jones’ net worth is estimated at $14.8 billion.

But, football is not the only source of Jerry Jones’ fortune.

Jones also made a big name for himself in the oil industry and is a major real estate investor and avid collector of art.

Forbes names the Dallas Cowboys’ owner the 116th richest person in the world as of October 2023. His fortune has experienced a whirlwind growth in a single year with an estimated 63% increase between 2022 and 2023.

Not only did the Cowboys’ revenue grow, but the value of his natural gas holdings skyrocketed, as well as the value of his real estate assets.

But, how did Jerry Jones come to a point where he earns billions from his investments per year?

Let’s find out.

Jerry Jones’ Net Worth Breakdown:

Jerry Jones holds stocks in several companies, although the precise value of his stake in entities such as Papa John’s or Comstock remains undisclosed.

Additionally, he retains ownership of the Dallas Cowboys team.

While we are unable to determine the exact impact on his net worth, here is what information we have gathered so far.

5 Fun Facts About Jerry Jones

1. Jones played football at the University of Arkansas, co-captaining the 1964 National Championship team.
2. He made $175 million from an oil lease sale in 1986.
3. Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys for $140 million in 1989.
4. His superyacht, worth $250 million, can accommodate 44 people.
5. Jones appeared in a Papa John’s commercial in 2012.

Latest News & Updates

Jerry Jones is fully focused on the 2024 NFL season.

He has committed to going “all in” on retaining key players, including wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott, despite the looming financial challenges related to Prescott’s $59.4 million cap hit.

Jones’s resolve comes after the Cowboys had a disappointing end to the 2023 season, with a playoff loss despite a strong regular season performance​. (Source: NFL.com)

Early Life

Jerry Jones was born in 1942 in Los Angeles, California. The family moved to North Little Rock, Arkansas soon after, where young Jones completed his education.

He studied at the North Little Rock High School and the University of Arkansas, where he covered his expenses with a football scholarship.

During his time at the University of Arkansas, Jerry Jones was the co-captain of the football team and a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

He played as an offensive lineman under Frank Broyles and co-captained the 1964 Arkansas Razorbacks team that clinched the National Championship.

This was the period when he met Jimmy Johnson, a teammate that he later hired as the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

While he was still in college, Jones met Gene, his wife.

Today, the couple has three children together: Stephen, Jerry Jr, and Charlotte.

In March 2021, a woman named Alexandra Davis claimed she was Jones’ daughter and that he paid her mother money in an attempt to hide this fact. In 2022, she filed a defamation suit against him, saying that he spread misinformation and attempted to portray her as a “shakedown artist”.

The case is awaiting judgment.

Jerry Jones Net Worth: How He Bought the Cowboys and Made Billions

When Jerry Jones graduated from college in 1965, he borrowed a million dollars from the Teamster Union to invest in new restaurants in Missouri.

His Shakey’s Pizza restaurant venture didn’t pan out and soon after, Jones started working at his father’s insurance agency, Modern Security Life of Springfield as its vice president.

In 1970, Jerry Jones got his MBA in Arkansas. Not long after this, he founded Jones Oil and Land Lease, his first venture in the oil industry.

Jerry Jones’ Oil and Gas Ventures

Jones Oil and Land Lease was a privately held company that built Jerry Jones his first millions. He spent two decades expanding his business and building his net worth.

In 1982, he spent $15 million on oil leases, and about $35 million to grow the business. In 1986, he offered the leases back to the organization he bought them from and made $175 million from the deal.

When he talks about these ventures, he says:

The greatest wealth is in the gas. It’s much bigger than the Cowboys.

Back in 2018, he bought controlling shares in Comstock Resources. His Comstock investment is now valued at over $1.1 billion.

At 80 years old, he continues to play an active role in the operations of the oil and coal company.

Purchase and Ownership of the Dallas Cowboys

By 1989, Jerry Jones’ net worth had grown to such an extent to allow him to re-enter the world of football. His desire to own a team in the National Football League finally came true when he paid $140 million to buy the Dallas Cowboys.

This would soon turn out to be an incredible investment.

The first major decision he made as the Cowboys’ owner was to replace Tom Landry, the existing coach, with Jimmy Johnson – his former teammate from Arkansas.

The first two seasons for the Dallas Cowboys were challenging but in 1991, they returned to the playoffs. A year later, they won the Super Bowl. This was the third Super Bowl victory for the team.

In 1993, the Cowboys secured the Vince Lombardi Trophy yet again. However, this was also the year when the professional relationship between Johnson and Jones began to deteriorate.

Following a major dispute, Johnson ultimately departed from his role as the team’s coach.

Johnson was replaced by Barry Switzer in 1994, the coach with whom NFL’s Dallas Cowboys would win the Super Bowl in 1995.

The Dallas Cowboys “Ring of Honor” does not include Johnson even today, despite his two Super Bowl victories. When asked about the matter, Jerry Jones said:

Disloyalty … I couldn’t handle the disloyalty. Whether it was right or not, by every measurement you can go, I had paid so many times a higher price to get to be there than he had paid, it was unbelievable I’d rather have won that one with Barry 10 times more than doing the same thing with Jimmy, a thousand times more than having done the same thing with Jimmy. Just simply because I guess I am still that damn frustrated with the way everything happened with Jimmy.

Jerry Jones is credited by Cowboys fans with much of the team’s success since he purchased the Dallas Cowboys.

He made a deal with Fox to become the primary broadcast network of the NFL at a time when other networks like ABC and CBS were offering lower revenue for television rights.

This specific contract led to a substantial surge in TV revenues, significantly contributing to the NFL’s remarkable success. It wasn’t long before the NFL would claim the title of the world’s wealthiest sports league.

Today, the Dallas Cowboys are considered one of the most valuable teams in the NFL. The franchise’s current value far surpasses its worth at the time of Jerry Jones’s acquisition, currently estimated at approximately $9 billion.

Other Ventures

In 2008, Jerry Jones started a new business in partnership with Yankee Global Enterprises. The new venture’s name was Legends Hospitality, a food, merchandise, retail, beverage, and stadium operations company. The company still serves venues like the Cowboys Stadium.

In addition to this, Jones owns major investments in the Papa John’s franchises. In 2004, Papa John’s became the official pizza for the Cowboys team and in return, Jones bought 49% interest in Papa John’s stores.

In 2012, Jones appeared even in a commercial for the brand.

The relationship is going strong even today. Here is what he says about Papa John:

Papa John’s was named by all of the people that look at the NFL, Papa John’s was named as the product most associated with the NFL, and it was named that a year ago by a survey of our viewers. So he is quite an American story. He was not cavalier about showing he’s got data. So when he speaks, I listen.

Jerry Jones Charity Investments

Jerry and Eugenia Jones, his wife, are active philanthropists who created the Gene and Jerry Jones Family Foundation.

The foundation aims to improve the quality of life for the youth in Arlington, focusing organizations supporting Arlington youth including programs for football, health, wellness, athletics, etc.

The family has pledged to donate $16.5 million to this organization over 33 years through their foundation. They’ve also pledged $20 million to the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation which works on the museum in Arlington, Texas.

What Else Does Jerry Jones Invest In?

Apart from being a Dallas Cowboys owner, his sports franchise, as well as his oil and gas exploration business, Jones has many other assets in his investment portfolio.

He invests in real estate, art, hospitality management, and of course, his mega yacht.

Here is how these contribute to his net worth.

Mega Yacht

Jones’ mega yacht was built in 2018. It’s an enormous yacht worth $250 million and designed to accommodate 44 people, including the crew.

Real Estate

Jerry Jones and his family live in Dallas, Texas.

They have a Mediterranean-style mansion which Jones purchased back in 1992 for $6 million. The value of the home now is over $28 million. It’s a 14,000-square-feet home with six bedrooms, a swimming pool, a tennis court, and a spa.

In addition to this, Jones heads up Blue Star Land, his real estate development firm. In 2018, Blue Star Land spent $38 million to develop the project Star Business Park on a 200-acre site.

The name of the company comes from the Dallas Cowboys’ logo – the blue star.

Art Collection

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is an avid art collector. He owns paintings by Matisse, Renoir, Picasso, as well as Norman Rockwell’s “Coin Toss”.

Cryptocurrency

While it’s not known if Jones invests in crypto, he’s a public proponent of digital currencies. In 2022, the Dallas Cowboys struck a deal with Blockchain.com as their “exclusive digital asset partner”. Jones has said:

When you have a chance to really delve into the kind of future that you have in the digital world, I wanted the Dallas Cowboys to be a part of that future in any and every way we could

What Can We Learn From Jerry Jones’ Success?

Jerry Jones’ journey is dynamic.

He’s living proof that success is possible when you try hard to reach your goals and make your dreams come true.

He spent years working in the oil industry to accumulate enough wealth to buy an NFL team, demonstrating a relentless character and grand business acumen.

From his beginnings as a football player to his ventures in oil, real estate, and even art, Jones shows us the spirit of a multifaceted businessman. He’s a visionary who turned his passion into an empire and a multibillion-dollar net worth.

Through his journey, Jones teaches us how important adaptability is, along with calculated risk-taking. He kept seizing new opportunities that came his way and often expanded into new fields.