Since the beginning of this month, there has been a lot of buzz around Mark Cuban being interested in buying Dallas Cowboys stock. At the same time, Jerry Jones added to the buzz, claiming he was “open” to selling them. Weeks later, the Cowboys owner made the final call.
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“No, I don’t have that on my plate as a possibility at this time,” said Jones about his plans to sell the stock following practice in Oxnard on August 13. “But the question really was, should I ever look at it? Well, he’s the kind of individual that I would want to have as a part of a group.
“In his particular case because of the experience he’s got and just plain because I know Mark and I really like his human qualities. … So candidly, when they brought his name up, I said, ‘Well, that’s the kind of individual if you’re going to go outside our family.’ But I don’t have any plans for that.”
NFL owners voted in August 2024 to allow private equity firms to purchase up to 10% of a franchise, provided each stake is at least 3%.
The Dallas Cowboys have long been a team of interest. Jerry Jones bought the team for $140 million in 1989. Years later, they are the league’s most valuable franchise at $13 billion, according to Forbes. A minority stake in the team would set up investors with come good money easily.
Recently, Mark Cuban (minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks) told the Dallas Morning News that the “Harbinger fund would be open” to buying a minority stake in the Cowboys. Jones responded positively, saying that he had “all the respect in the world for him and I know what he did for the Mavericks.”
Cuban is now part of the newly formed $750 million private equity fund Harbinger Sports Partners, which has acquired a minority interest in the Las Vegas Athletics.
The comment was interpreted as a departure from Jones’ usual stance on selling minority stakes to other people. Since minority sales were approved by the league, the Jones family has repeatedly put down ideas of bringing in outsiders into the business.
However, as the Cowboys owner hinted, if they are open to selling stocks in the future, they will be considering Cuban first. He is the one who made the Dallas Mavericks relevant again in the NBA. Cuban’s commitment to success helped the franchise to grab its first NBA title in 2010-11. He, too, is a fan of how Jones balances things in Dallas.
“The difference between us is Jerry saw the whole thing as a business… When he talks about running this thing as a business and as a football team, he’s usually right,” Cuban said on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast.
If and when the Joneses do open their doors to investors, we will already have a winner.