When Sportico released its annual valuation update, we weren’t surprised to see the Dallas Cowboys sit at the top. They’ve held the spot for a decade, and it doesn’t look like they’re slowing down anytime soon. Jerry Jones has built a Goliath from the $140 million investment he made back in 1989. Yet, the most impressive aspect here isn’t the titles.

The valuation is just scratching the surface of the revenue model Jones has managed to set up for the team.

Now, as ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter wrote, “Sportico once again named the Dallas Cowboys as the most valuable franchise in sports, listing their value at $15.5 billion. Jerry Jones’ franchise has been the most valuable in sports in every iteration of Sportico’s valuations,” Adam Schefter posted on X.

This marks a 21% jump from their valuation in 2025 ($12.8 billion). They currently sit $2.8 billion ahead of the second-place-valued Los Angeles Rams, who came in at $12.7 billion. New York Giants ($12 billion), New England Patriots ($10.4 billion), and New York Jets ($10.35 billion) round out the top 5 per Sportico. 

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While these numbers show other teams aren’t too far behind, the Cowboys are in a league of their own when it comes to revenue. 

In annual revenue generated, ‘America’s Team’ ($1.3 billion in revenue generated) is second only to La Liga giant Real Madrid (Soccer), which generated $1.39 billion. They were the only NFL franchise to cross the $1 billion revenue mark. But how does that number look in the NFL’s context?

Well, the Cowboys have an operating income (​​their earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of $510 million. The next two teams on the list, the Los Angeles Rams ($255 million)  and the Las Vegas Raiders ($233 million), aren’t able to match that number, even when the figures are combined. 

For a team that hasn’t reached a championship game in 30 years, Jones has managed a steady stream of income. And while a big chunk of it could be attributed to the fact that it is a legacy team, it comes down to Jerry Jones’ decisions. 

The first one goes back to the 1990s. Instead of relying on NFL teams’ formula of working together to monetize their franchises, Jones signed independent deals with Nike and Pepsi, signing deals with Texas Stadium rather than the franchise itself, bringing in $40 million in 1996. He added deals with Dr Pepper, AT&T, and American Express. 

But this move had just added on to Jones’ troubles. The NFL sent a $300 million suit his way, but Jones wasn’t one to back down. Instead, he doubled down. He filed a $750 million antitrust lawsuit against the league. While the NFL’s lawsuits had parts of it dismissed, the antitrust lawsuit opened the gates for Jones’ next income stream: merchandising. 

While every other NFL team could sign sponsorship agreements with their stadium, the settlement allowed the Cowboys to retain their own licensing agreements. More importantly, they also retained their merchandising rights. That meant that while they had to pay their allotted percentage into the league system that shared revenue, they could grow their merchandising business faster than any other team.

“It [merchandise] is a business that generates nearly $200 million in annual revenue. Dallas has re-upped several of its biggest sponsors over the past year, and the club’s $300 million in annual sponsorship revenue is nearly twice that of any other team,” Sportico further reported.

 Jones has managed to put the Cowboys’ back into the team’s growth, establishing a training facility, The Star, worth over a billion dollars. 

Now, the only thing left for the team is to bring back the Lombardi to Dallas.

Jerry Jones’ $15.5B monopoly despite a 30-year Super Bowl drought 

When the Dallas Cowboys last appeared and won the Super Bowl in 1996 (Super Bowl XXX), their valuation was $320 million (1996), per Financial World magazine (the primary sports business publication tracking team valuations before Forbes and Sportico were even established!).

Furthermore, they’ve managed only four playoff game victories since 2000, yet financial growth remains completely unaffected. 

Jerry Jones recently touched upon how they’ve been close to getting over the line, and that if they can improve as a team, the Super Bowl might not be far away.

“I like what we’ve got in our coaching staff, I like what we’ve got in the makeup of our players; I think we’re extraordinarily sound in the way we’re approaching all sides of the ball… I think we can be a contender,” Jerry Jones said when asked about his expectations from the Cowboys heading into the 2026 season, per DallasCowboys.com’s Tommy Yarish.

HC Brian Schottenheimer is entering his 2nd season at the helm. They went 7-9-1 in 2025, failing to make the playoffs. Offensively, America’s Team ranked 2nd in total offense at 391.9 yards per game, with the league’s 2nd-best passing offense (266.3 passing yards/game, 4,527 total passing yards). In stark contrast, however, their defense ranked worst in the league, allowing 30.1 points per game, as per FOX Sports’ 2025 rankings.

However, with QB Dak Prescott and WRs CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens leading a strong offense (recently coined ‘GOTI’, aka ‘Greatest Offense There Is’, by Prescott), Jerry Jones will be hoping their playoff fortunes change in 2026.