The Dallas Cowboys are worth $15.5 billion according to Sportico's 2025 franchise valuation release, extending their unbroken run atop North American sports since 2018. No other team is close. The gap to second place — the New York Yankees at $8.4 billion — exceeds the enterprise value of fourteen NFL franchises.
The figure represents a 26% year-over-year increase from Sportico's prior $12.3 billion mark. Revenue expansion came primarily from SoFi Stadium–style hospitality inventory installed at AT&T Stadium during the 2024 offseason, plus a renegotiated local media package with Nexstar that guaranteed $55 million annually through 2029. The Cowboys also booked $1.1 billion in total revenue for the 2024 season, $280 million ahead of the next-highest NFL club. Merchandise alone cleared $200 million, a league record for non-Super Bowl years.
The valuation matters less for what Jerry Jones might sell the team for — he is 82 and has never solicited bids — than for what happens when the estate inevitably transfers. At $15.5 billion, a standard 40% federal estate tax implies a $6.2 billion liability unless the family employs Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts or installment sales to heirs. Stephen Jones, the executive vice president and designated successor, has structured minority limited partnerships that value the Cowboys closer to $12 billion on a control-discounted basis, per two family-office sources familiar with the estate planning. The IRS has already challenged similar structures in the Broncos and Commanders sales; the gap between Sportico's headline number and the estate's filed basis could generate the largest sports-franchise tax dispute on record.
The valuation also creates tension inside the league's revenue-sharing model. While gate and national broadcast money splits evenly, the Cowboys keep roughly $300 million annually in sponsorship and local media income that lower-valued clubs cannot match. That dynamic has stalled negotiations on the next round of league-wide private equity rules, which would allow institutional stakes up to 12.5% of any team. Family offices bidding on fractional NFL positions now face a compressed return profile: the Cowboys command a 3.2% revenue yield at $15.5 billion, versus 6.8% for a team like Jacksonville at $5.6 billion. Allocators prefer the latter unless they believe Dallas can sustain double-digit valuation growth, which would require either international expansion revenue or a new stadium — both unlikely before 2030.
Sportico's pricing also sets the floor for any distressed sale among lower-tier franchises. When David Tepper paid $2.3 billion for the Panthers in 2018, the Cowboys were worth $5 billion; the ratio was roughly 2:1. If that multiple holds, a speculative bid on a bottom-six franchise today should start near $7 billion, well above the $6.05 billion the Commanders fetched in 2023. Two family-office syndicates are already modeling bids in that range for the next available club, which oddsmakers expect to be New Orleans if Gayle Benson's estate opens before 2027.
Watch whether Stephen Jones files updated estate paperwork in Dallas County by June, when Texas law requires disclosure of any partnership revaluations above $10 billion. Also watch the league's private-equity committee, which meets again in May and will either raise the institutional ownership cap to 20% or kill the program entirely if the Cowboys' valuation distorts bidding behavior. And watch which luxury suites the Jones family begins selling as $2 million-per-year ten-year commitments; AT&T Stadium has 42 unsold inventory slots in the upper premium tier, and if those move at asking price, the $15.5 billion figure starts to look conservative.
The Cowboys have not won a playoff game since January 2019, but the franchise's value has doubled in that span. The next owner — whether Stephen Jones or a future buyer — inherits the richest asset in American sports and a tax bill no estate plan can wish away.
The takeaway
Cowboys' $15.5B valuation doubles nearest peer and complicates Jones succession with potential $6.2B estate tax.
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