Jerry Jones net worth 2026 (Image via Getty)
From a $140 million purchase to a $17 billion team
128, up from $16.6 billion in 2025. 9 on Forbes’ list of the richest U.S. sports team owners. Celebrity Net Worth still carries $13 billion. Jones bought the club from Bum Bright in 1989. The first season ended 1-15. Jimmy Johnson, his old Arkansas teammate, built a roster that won Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII, and Barry Switzer added XXX after the 1995 season. The Johnson partnership broke apart in 1994 over credit and control. The titles stopped after that January 1996 win. Forbes ranked the Cowboys first for the 20th straight year, ahead of the Rams at $13.5 billion, the Giants at $12 billion and the Patriots at $10.6 billion. Dallas generated nearly $1.28 billion in revenue last season, slightly more than Real Madrid, and an estimated $677 million in operating income, $342 million ahead of the next-best NFL team. Seattle’s $9.6 billion sale to Vinod Khosla shows how fast the whole league is rising, yet the Cowboys still sit far above it.
Because it matches what Forbes said the Cowboys alone were worth last year, that number looks dated,. A team that has not won a Super Bowl in three decades is still the most profitable operation in sports.
Years later, asked why Johnson still has no spot in the team’s Ring of Honor, Jones said: “Disloyalty … I couldn’t handle the disloyalty. Pick a source and you get a different answer. On the Forbes world list, Jones and his family rank No. The live figure has since climbed, and it makes him No. Why such a spread? Nobody can read Jones’s bank statements. He owns a private team, private land and private energy investments, so every outlet has to estimate. Some update when the team’s value jumps. Others lag behind. He had just fired Tom Landry, the only head coach the franchise had ever known, and taken over football decisions himself. Dallas was not happy. Then things flipped fast. It is a revealing line. It shows how personal this business has always been for him. The money did not. Pause on that. Winning helps, but ownership at this level sells attention, and Dallas has more of it than anyone. Jones did not just hold the asset and wait. Early in his tenure he pushed for Fox to become a major NFL television partner while older networks wanted to pay less. That move is credited with lifting league TV revenue, and every owner benefits from a bigger pot, Dallas included.