In 1979, the late Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers for the tidy sum of $67.5 million. That price tag included the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and The Forum, where the Lakers played their home games, in Inglewood.
That season the Lakers would win the first of 10 championships under Buss’ watch.
They would play in six other NBA Finals for a total of 16 Western Conference championships in 31 seasons.
Buss passed away in 2013 and the team remained in the control of the Buss family. Until two weeks ago, when the team was sold for $10 billion.
That’s roughly $4 billion more than the last NBA franchise was sold for, the Boston Celtics, just last year.
Those are the two most iconic franchises in the NBA.
Just imagine what one of the most iconic NFL franchises would go for if it went on the market. In Jerry Jones’ case, he shouldn’t just be imagining it.
He should be actively making it happen.
Time To Cash Out
Tyler Webb runs a newsletter that focuses on the business side of sports. He put together this graphic about how much each NFL team was sold for and when the last time they were sold.
How much each #NFL team last sold for.
(collab w/ @ASCSportsMedia) pic.twitter.com/HoIzNxPyOg
— Tyler Webb (@tylermwebb) July 3, 2024
The Washington Commanders were the last NFL team to be purchased.
They went for nearly the same amount as the Celtics did last year and the Commanders’ sale went through two years ago.
If Washington commanded a $6 billion price tag, just imagine what the Cowboys, with AT&T Stadium attached, would go for today.
I think Jones could get $15 billion easily. And that number should have Jones searching for his real estate agent’s phone number in his contacts.
Jones, as you will note in the graphic above, bought the Cowboys and Texas Stadium back in 1989 for a mere $140 million.
He’s got three Lombardi trophies to show for it. Not quite the resume that Buss put together, but nothing to be ashamed of either.
Nothing Left To Prove
With those three championships in tow, Jones could leave the NFL with his head held high and know that the next 10 generations of his family wouldn’t have to do anything for the rest of their lives.
The only reason why he’s hanging around is his ego. He has to prove to the world that it was he, and not Jimmy Johnson, that built that 1990s dynasty.
It’s the only reason why he won’t give up being the General Manager.
But at some point he must realize this: That boat sailed long ago.
After 29 seasons, and it will be 30 after Dallas fails to make the Super Bowl again in 2025, there is abundant evidence that Johnson was the football guy.
Jones was, and still is, the money guy. It’s time, Jerry Jones, to take the money and run.
Sell the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones, the sooner, the better.
a Dallas Cowboys fan, since the 70’s Jerry Jones won’t sell the Cowboys he’s a idiot and all the sports media groups keep telling Jerry Jones he’s doing great and Jerry Jones don’t want to show that he lost control of the situation
Dude, your an idiot!! Just like I told this dumb writer…. Why would Jerry sell the Cowboys when he can make more money keeping the team in his family!! By the time his grandkids own the team it’ll be worth twice as much as it is now, if not more!! So why sell it when he can just keep it in the family and keep making it more valuable with every generation that owns it!! And where do you keep coming up with these ridiculous comments!? Since when has these so called media groups keep telling Jerry he’s doing a great job!? That’s a new one for me!! And if they do say anything like that it’s because of how Jerry turned the Cowboys into such a valuable team, and that’s about it!! And that just happens to be true!! And what has Jerry lost control of!? I haven’t seen anything he’s lost control of!! Last time I checked, he’s the owner of the Cowboys, so he has control over everything that has to do with the team!! Anything he don’t have control of on that team is because he gave it to somebody…. Like when he gave Stephen Jones control over the cap space and signing players!! But even then, he still has control over that because he’s still the owner!! He let’s Stephen deal with that situation, but if it not being done the way he wants it to be then he takes over!! So again…. What has he lost control of!? Cause to me, it looks like he’s got control over everything!!
Idk why I wasted my time commenting on your stupid comment, your just like this writer, you make these stupid comments and never look to see if anybody replies to them!! I guess it just drives me crazy to see such ridiculous comments and I have to say something even if I know my comment won’t be read!! So I guess it’s worth it!!
I read it! There was never a doubt in my mind that Jerrah has always had tight control over the organization. He was defacto not only owner, GM, but to some extent weilded influence over all HC’s except for Jimmy Johnson and to a point Bill Parcells.
This is from a Cowboys hater. You assume that Dallas won’t go to the Superbowl in 2025. They had a great draft and got Pickens from Pittsburgh. They should have a great year this year if they can stay healthy. Jerry isn’t selling and if you haven’t noticed his son Stephen has been making a lot of decisions now. Getting a new owner doesn’t mean you will win a championship.
This “writer” don’t seem to realize that!! Apparently new ownership will fix everything, cause that’s worked out so well for all the other teams lately!! And apparently he don’t know what it means to be the owner of the most valuable team in the world and what it would mean to know he has something so valuable that he can hand down to his children and grandchildren and even his great grandchildren and so on!! Apparently this guy would be dumb enough to sell something so valuable instead of keeping it in the family for generations and generations down the line!! Jerry’s family are already rich and set for life, so I think Jerry would rather keep the Cowboys in his family forever if he has anything to do with it!! By the time his grandchildren get ownership over the team, it’ll be worth at least double of what it is now, so I think it’ll be smarter to keep the team in the family and let it keep growing in value and doing that will also make that generations owner and his family rich for life…. Which means no matter how far down the line it stays in the Jones family, they’ll always be set for life as long as they own the Cowboys!! But this guy thinks it’s better to sell now for one lump sum and eventually run out of that lump sum down the road!! Which to me isn’t very smart!! I really don’t understand how this guy was given a job to be a writer for the Cowboys!!
Neither Jerry nor his family needs the money. Selling the Cowboys would take away his influence and his life’s work.
Besides, owning the Cowboys gives Jerry and his family access to endless amounts of capital.
As usual, a wasted space that could’ve been used for a better story!! Why would Jerry sell the Cowboys /? That would be stupid!! He’s made more since he’s been the owner than what he can sell the it for!! And his family is already set!! And owning a team like the Cowboys, it can be handed down for generations and still have his family set up for life and the more it stays in the family the more it’ll be worth, because the team will only get more valuable as time goes by, which means the younger generation to own it will be even more well off than Jerry is!! So it would be smarter for Jerry to make sure he keeps the team in his family, than to sell it for one lump sum!! Anybody with a half a brain would know that!! And for somebody that’s SUPPOSED TO BE a Cowboys fan, you sure do write a lot of bad stuff about them!! If you are a Cowboys fan then you should consider finding a different job, cause your writing sucks!! If this wasn’t inside the star, which is supposed to be writers who are fans of the Cowboys writing good stuff about the Cowboys, I would think you are a Philly or Washington fan, cause you sound just like a Philly and Washington fan with how much crap you talk about the Cowboys!!
And apparently you don’t read your own comment section or you would have learned something about the Cowboys by now with all the knowledge I have written on your crap lately!! With the biggest one being about the Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones situation!! You need to go do your research cause you don’t know what your talking about when it comes to that situation!! And to be clear, Jerry can take all the credit he wants when it comes to the team he helped Jimmy put together in the 90s cause he was the one that helped build that team!! Jimmy was just the head coach, he wasn’t the GM, he wasn’t the owner, he was just the coach, which means he can control the players on the team, but he don’t sign players, or trade for players, that was Jerry’s job!! I’m sure Jimmy told Jerry what kind of players he needed and at what position he needed them at, but Jerry was the one that got the players signed!! And the scouting department was the ones that found the best players in the draft!! The only player Jimmy got that he knew and wanted was Troy Aikman!! Everybody else was chosen by Jerry with help from the scouting department by the position that Jimmy needed!! That’s how it works!! So go do your research or just go write for a different team!! Maybe you will be a better writer for Philly or one of the other NFC East teams
I’m not really sure why I wrote all this, it’s not like you read the comments!! I guess I wouldn’t blame you for not reading them cause all you get are bad comments about how bad of a writer you are!! I think you only have one person that agrees with you and it’s this guy Edward Carmichael, which btw is a guy who never knows what he’s talking about either!! He’s so bad with his comments that even your writing friends at inside the star tell him he don’t know what he’s talking about!! So that should tell you something!!
maybe he could sell them too you – oh thats right your just a busted down so called journalist
Face it, Jerrah will not sell the team.
And if he did, what will he do with himself?
He unquestionably loves the notoriety.
He loves the pressure.
He loves the “contacts.”
He loves being head honcho at NFL meetings.
He loves to watch the games from his birdseye perch at AT&T Staduim.
It won’t happen.
Ask George Steinbrenner.