The Cowboys are a private, family-run company. The team does not publish how the shares are split between Jerry Jones and his children, and no outside investor is publicly known to hold a stake.
Who owns the Cowboys today?
The Cowboys' own front office pages list four owners, all from one family:
| Person | Title on the Cowboys' website (October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Jerry Jones | Owner, President and General Manager |
| Stephen Jones | Chief Operating Officer and Co-Owner; also Executive Vice President of Player Personnel and President of AT&T Stadium |
| Charlotte Jones | Chief Brand Officer and Co-Owner; also President of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders |
| Jerry Jones Jr. | Chief Sales and Marketing Officer and Co-Owner |
Jerry Jones, born in 1942, still makes the football decisions as general manager, which is rare for an NFL owner. Stephen Jones, his eldest son, runs day-to-day operations as chief operating officer. I found no formal succession plan announced by the team as of October 25, 2026.
How much did Jerry Jones pay for the Cowboys?
About $140 million, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which calls it the first sports franchise sale above $100 million. Forbes' profile of Jones puts the price at $150 million. I use the Hall of Fame figure, which matches most accounts of the sale.
Jones bet almost everything on it. He put in nearly all of his roughly $90 million fortune in cash and borrowed about $50 million for the rest, the Hall of Fame says. Bright, a Dallas oilman, had bought the team in 1984 and was selling after heavy losses in the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. NFL owners approved the sale about a week later.
Jones then fired Tom Landry, the only head coach the team had ever had, and hired his college teammate Jimmy Johnson. The Cowboys went 1 and 15 in 1989, then won Super Bowls after the 1992, 1993 and 1995 seasons.
How much are the Dallas Cowboys worth?
| Measure | Figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Team value | $17 billion, up 31% in a year | Forbes, September 9, 2026 |
| Revenue | $1.278 billion | Forbes, 2025 season |
| Operating income | $677 million | Forbes, 2025 season |
| Rank | No. 1 in the NFL, for the 20th straight year | Forbes, September 9, 2026 |
| Next most valuable | Los Angeles Rams, $13.5 billion | Forbes, September 9, 2026 |
From about $140 million in 1989 to $17 billion in 2026 is roughly a 121-fold increase in 37 years, or about 14% a year compounded. That is Forbes' estimate, not a sale price, since the team has not been sold.
Jerry Jones' net worth
Forbes estimated Jerry Jones' net worth at $23.3 billion on October 25, 2026, and lists the Cowboys as the source of his wealth. Most of it is the team. The other big piece is oil and gas: companies Jones controls held 208,300,084 shares, or 70.9%, of the public driller Comstock Resources on April 7, 2026, according to Comstock's proxy. The proxy says Jones is the sole shareholder of Blue Star Exploration, the general partner of those holders.
Every Cowboys owner
| Owner | Years | Who ran the team | Price paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clint Murchison Jr. | 1960 to 1984 | Tex Schramm, president and general manager; Tom Landry, head coach | Expansion team |
| H.R. "Bum" Bright and 11 partners | 1984 to 1989 | Schramm and Landry stayed on; Bright was a hands-off owner | $85 million |
| Jerry Jones | 1989 to today | Jones as owner, president and general manager; his three children as co-owners and executives | About $140 million |
Sources: Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2026; Dallas Cowboys; Wikipedia's history of the team and of Bum Bright. Forbes gives Jones' price as $150 million.
Only three owners in 66 years, and only one in the last 37. Jones is also one of very few NFL owners who is his own general manager, so the owner and the "CEO" of football decisions are the same person.
Cowboys ownership timeline
- 1960
Clint Murchison Jr. starts the Cowboys as an NFL expansion team, with Tex Schramm running it and Tom Landry coaching
- 1984
Murchison sells to H.R. "Bum" Bright and 11 limited partners on March 19
- 1989
Jerry Jones buys the team on February 25 and replaces Landry with Jimmy Johnson
- 1990s
Super Bowl wins after the 1992, 1993 and 1995 seasons
- 2009
AT&T Stadium opens in Arlington in May
- 2016
The Star, the team's headquarters in Frisco, opens
- 2017
Jones enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame as an owner
- 2024
Forbes and Sportico both value the Cowboys at $10.1 billion, the first team above $10 billion
- 2026
Forbes values the team at $17 billion, No. 1 in the NFL for the 20th straight year
Is anyone else part owner of the Cowboys?
Not publicly. The Cowboys' website names only Jerry Jones and his three children as owners. NFL rules let teams sell limited stakes to outside investors, including some private equity funds since 2024, but I found no announced Cowboys sale of that kind as of October 25, 2026.
Related reading
Sources & methodology
Observations retain their source, period and definition. Uncertainty is preserved; missing values are not zero.
- Jerry Jones, Owner / President / General Manager (Dallas Cowboys) ↗
Dallas Cowboys
Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Stephen Jones, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Owner (Dallas Cowboys) ↗
Dallas Cowboys
Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Charlotte Jones, Chief Brand Officer and Co-Owner (Dallas Cowboys) ↗
Dallas Cowboys
Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Jerry Jones, Jr., Chief Sales & Marketing Officer and Co-Owner (Dallas Cowboys) ↗
Dallas Cowboys
Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Moments in NFL History: Long shot pays off for 'America's Team' (Pro Football Hall of Fame) ↗
Pro Football Hall of Fame
- Bum Bright (Wikipedia) ↗
Wikipedia
Accessed 2026-10-25.
- The NFL's Most Valuable Teams 2026 (Forbes via Yahoo Sports) ↗
Forbes via Yahoo Sports · 2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z
- Forbes profile: Jerry Jones ↗
forbes.com · 2026-10-25T00:00:00.000Z
- Comstock Resources 2026 proxy statement (SEC EDGAR) ↗
SEC EDGAR · 2026-04-22T00:00:00.000Z