Jerry Jones is doing what he has always done: trying to make money. He’s damn good at it. He is a billionaire for many reasons: business acumen, happiness, fearlessness, and a willingness to do things like drive up the price of natural gas at a time when the people of Texas need it most.
Because Texans are without power or heat for days on end, shale drilling machine Comstock Resources Inc., a publicly traded company of which Jones is the majority shareholder, has sold gas at “super prime prices,” according to NPR. It was “like I hit the jackpot,” Roland Burns, Comstock’s president and CFO, said on a profit call on Wednesday.
These are business for Jones, just as defensible to him as – I’m hypothetical here, of course – another billionaire who claims that not paying taxes “makes me smart.” Jones doesn’t need the money, but need has nothing to do with it. Earning more money for himself is one way he scores. (Winning Super Bowls is the other, although he hasn’t in nearly three decades.)
Okay then. Let’s keep score.
Arlington residents contributed $ 325 million to fund Jones’s playhouse, AT&T Stadium. Jones pays the city a paltry $ 2.5 million a year to operate the stadium. This deal should be, and perhaps, an economic generator for Arlington. But an implicit reason for agreements like this is that a team doesn’t belong to the franchise owner alone. A team belongs to the bourgeoisie that encourages it. Turn right.
Now you see how Jones treats Texans in their time of need. We can call this a betrayal, but it’s really just an extension of the Jones and Texans relationship. It is impossible to arrange a fair transaction if one party is there for love and the other for money. Years ago, when Jones wanted a stadium deal, he enlisted Roger Staubach for the public effort, a clever way to make the vote seem like an act of fan loyalty without explicitly calling it that.
Jones knew what he was doing then, and he sure knows what he is doing now. If all of the clothing suddenly disappeared from the state, Jones would start selling Cowboys sweatshirts for $ 1,000 each.
Remember this story the next time your favorite team asks for a new stadium or your favorite player is accused of being greedy for trying out free agency, or even the next time you’re handing out cash for merchandise.
The Dallas Cowboys are the US team in NFL Films’ stories, and Jones has managed to make money off that image without using its real name. He bought the Cowboys not just because he wanted an NFL team, but because he wanted to this NFL Team, the one with arguably the greatest fan base in American sport. He knew the cowboys meant something to people. He loves that. He is a master at making money with it.
Jones won three Super Bowls early in his career with Cowboys and has been desperate to win a fourth ever since. That way, his desires seem in line with those of his fan base, but still, he’s doing this for him, not for them. He paid most of the cost of the stadium, but it wasn’t because he wanted to boost Arlington’s economy. He wanted the fanciest stadium in the world. In the 11 years since opening, the Cowboys’ franchise value has grown from $ 1.6 billion to $ 5.7 billion, according to Forbes.
That would be enough for most of us. Still, Comstock Resources sells gas at prices ranging from $ 15 per thousand cubic feet to $ 179 per thousand cubic feet, a mark-up of between 600% and 7500% from pre-crisis levels. The idea that people badly need the gas and can’t afford it probably didn’t even cross his mind. The market worship church has a narrow definition of sin.
Jones should be ashamed, but billionaires aren’t ashamed of what they consider good business deals. They are ashamed when many people shout them, or when the public shame is so great that the good deal turns into a crappy deal. Cowboy fans can show Jones how angry they are by cutting back on their financial support for the team. Logic says they should. History says they won’t. Jones is betting that he can make money by praising the people he claims to represent. In that sense, he is a fitting owner of America’s Team.