Jerry Jones Is Now the Most Powerful Person in Sports

Last Monday, the 32 NFL owners held a vote to decide on the Oakland Raiders’ application to relocate to Las Vegas, and 31 of the owners approved. The most vocal supporter was Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Jones has been talking up the franchise’s potential move to Sin City as far back as November of last year, when he called it “pretty definitive” that the move would happen. Why would he care so much though?

It can all be summed up in one word: Legends.

Jones owns a significant portion of the hospitality/marketing company known as Legends, and so he makes a lot of money through them. Just some of the business partners that Legends brags about on their website are the New York Yankees, Manchester City FC, One World Observatory, USC, Notre Dame, the Rose Bowl, the Phoenix Suns, and the Dallas Cowboys, of course. But there are some other NFL-related names that have popped up on this list in recent years.

When the San Francisco 49ers were building their new Levi’s Stadium in 2012 and 2013, Legends struck a deal with the franchise to install suites in the stadium in exchange for an undisclosed portion of revenue going forward. But that’s not all.

Jones also played an integral role in the long, complicated process of approving the Rams’ relocation to Los Angeles, specifically in Inglewood, California. Jones was also largely responsible for the addendum of that deal that packaged the Chargers alongside in their relocation to Los Angeles, in which the Rams and Chargers will share a stadium. For a detailed and incredibly fascinating account of all this, including a display of the cunning genius of Jones, read the ESPN Outside the Lines report here.

But during the relocation process, when Jones was convincing Rams owner Stan Kroenke of all the details regarding the new stadium proposal, he snuck in a part where Legends would sell suites to the new stadium in a similar manner to what had been done with Levi’s Stadium. After Kroenke agreed for this to be part of the deal, Jones then pushed for the Chargers to be included. As detailed in the ESPN report, this was mostly against the wishes of Chargers owner Dean Spanos, especially since Jones and Kroenke’s proposal would give full control of stadium planning to Kroenke. Thus, once the owners ultimately approved the Rams/Chargers relocation, Jones had created a situation in which both franchises would owe unspecified portions of revenue to Legends.

And now, Jones has struck legendary gold again. As the Raiders begin work on their new stadium in Las Vegas, for which Jones helped Raiders owner Mark Davis acquire funds, there will be another deal with Legends, though this is the biggest one yet. According to Tim Kawakami of The Mercury News, Legends will not only sell the suites for the Vegas stadium, but also will be responsible for sponsorships in some aspect. But wait, there’s more: Legends could potentially be part of the largest naming-rights deal in NFL history.

Reports are that Legends has already made hundreds of millions of dollars off of these various stadium deals, and if the Raiders’ move becomes as successful as many people expect it will, the mysterious company could see its value surpass that of several NFL franchises. And a large chunk of all that money will go right back into Jones’ pocketbook, along with the money he gets from the Cowboys. Oh, did I mention that the Cowboys are consistently one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world?

But beyond just money, Jones now has significant sway over the Raiders, 49ers, Rams, and Chargers, in addition to the team he actually owns. He has perhaps the most control over the 49ers, whose team president, Al Guido, used to be an executive with Legends. But the Chargers and Rams feature several young stars between Jared Goff, Todd Gurley, Melvin Gordon, and Joey Bosa, all of which is great for marketing purposes. And the Raiders are fresh off a playoff appearance with a young roster hungry for more.

The point is that, while Jones will only get richer than he already was, he has also amassed an unprecedented amount of control within the NFL, creating a sort of ownership bloc. It’s as if he’s playing a game of Monopoly, and everyone else is losing. Jones was already one of the most influential owners in the NF:, but now it’s all but official: Jerry Jones is the most powerful person in sports.