Aug 7, 2026
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Add us on GoogleMark Cuban is no stranger to the Dallas sports scene. Now, three years after selling his majority stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Cuban appears to have set his sights on the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
When the Dallas Morning News recently asked Cuban whether he would buy into the Cowboys — currently the most valuable team in the NFL — Cuban said “I’m sure our Harbinger fund would be open to it.” Current team owner Jerry Jones, who has been historically disinterested in selling off part of his team, seems open to the idea as well.
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“If you’re me, you would be open to that because of the man,” Jones said to the Dallas Morning News. “I have all the respect in the world for him and I know what he did for the Mavericks.”
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This potential deal is only possible because of a recent NFL rule change that now allows private equity firms to invest in NFL teams. Here’s what to know about the current state of this nascent deal and the rule change that could allow it to happen.
Far from a done deal
As of now, neither Cuban nor Jones have made any firm plans to go through with the sale. And Stephen Jones, Jerry’s son and Dallas Cowboy’s co-owner, says the company wouldn’t easily agree to a minority sale to someone else.
Stephen also said the Cowboys would be “very particular in who we would bring in as a partner” in an interview with 105.3 The Fan.
“It’s not something we would ever totally rule out, but I wouldn’t say anything’s on the front burner either,” he said.
Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys for around $150 million in 1989. Today, the team is worth $13 billion, according to Forbes. And while people are certainly interested in buying, Jones has been historically uninterested in selling.
“The Cowboys are just not for sale,” said Jones in a 2018 interview with Bloomberg. “They’re a long-term asset and my immediate family — which has been a part of making them what they are today — they’ll own the Cowboys long after I’m gone.”
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His interest in potentially selling a minority stake to Cuban, however, marks a notable change in his approach.
“He’s in additional to financial boatstreams of your team, you want to associate with the highest quality of [a person] who loves the game and then also, at the same time, wants to do something about it,” Jones told the Dallas Morning News. “Mark leads the way in that.”
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How an NFL rule change made a deal possible
This potential deal wouldn’t be permitted without a recent NFL rule change that allows some private equity firms to buy up to a 10% stake in NFL teams — a ruling that the Jones family supported.
“I think it’s a great tool,” Stephen said on 105.3 The Fan. “I think it makes the league stronger, personally.”
Other major sports leagues have already allowed private equity to invest in their teams. The NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS all put their private equity ownership caps at 30%, which is significantly more than the NFL’s 10%.
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While private equity deals can provide cash to professional sports teams, it can also create concerns that those teams will be treated as investments first and sports franchises last. Those concerns recently took center stage when a FIFA proposal that would have allowed private equity firms to purchase a 20% stake in the World Cup was called off.
“The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product,” said UFEA, the governing organization for European football, in a statement rejecting the proposal. “No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale.”
The NFL’s rule update is still limited in scope — it only allows a few predetermined private equity firms to invest in teams, and Cuban’s Harbinger fund is not currently on the list. He’d need to get permission from the NFL to carry out the deal.
The Dallas Cowboys and Mark Cuban did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Kit Pulliam is a DC-based financial journalist with over five years of experience writing, editing and fact-checking financial content.
