Exclusive: A dive into the lack of diversity in pro sports ownership
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It’s impossible to talk about the Dallas Cowboys without mentioning Jerry Jones.
The team’s president, general manager and owner since he purchased the Cowboys in 1989, will turn 81 in October. The Hall of Famer has won three Super Bowls in Dallas, but hasn’t been back to the big game in 27 years.
Jones is also one of 41 owners of an NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL team who is a white man older than 68 years old. With few minorities and fewer women in charge, sports can be seen as an old white man’s business.
The Star-Telegram compiled a list of all 118 franchises privately owned by one majority or controlling owner and charted them by age, race and gender.
Where does Jones fall?
Jones is the 17th oldest owner in the four major North American sports and is the sixth oldest owner in the NFL. The 16 owners older than Jones are also white, with 14 of them being men.
The oldest
The average age of all owners was 68.5 years old. The oldest owner is Chicago Bears’ Virginia Halas McCaskey who turned 100 years old this year. She inherited ownership when her father, Bears founder George Halas, died in 1983.
The NFL has the oldest average owner at 70 years old, followed by the MLB at 69. The NBA and NHL are the youngest of the old, with an average age of about 67.
The oldest MLB owner is Orioles’ Peter Angelos, who is 94. Indiana Pacers owner Herbert Simon, 88, is the oldest in the NBA, and the oldest in the NHL is Jeremy Jacobs of the Boston Bruins at 83.
The youngest
Four of the youngest owners in the four leagues are in the NBA, and all are in their 40s. Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is the youngest of them at 43 years old. No other league has an owner younger than 50.
The youngest in the NHL is 51-year-old Carolina Hurricanes owner Thomas Duddon. Hal Steinbrenner is the youngest owner in the MLB at 53, and six months older than him is the youngest NFL owner — Kim Pegula, also 53.
Female owners
Pegula is the youngest NFL owner and youngest female owner of the 118 teams. Eight percent of all the teams’ owners are women, with eight in the NFL. The aforementioned McCaskey is a part of that list, with Houston Texans’ Janice McNair and Saints’ Gayle Benson.
Of the 10 female owners, four own multiple teams across the leagues, such as Benson who owns the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, and Jody Allen who owns the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers — the only owner to control two teams in two different states.
The average age of female owners is more than four years older than the whole average, at 73 years old.
Owners of minority groups
When Michael Jordan finalized the sale of the Charlotte Hornets on Aug. 3, he left as the only African American owner. There are now only 10 owners of minority groups. Five are in the NBA, such as Sacramento Kings’ Vivek Ranadive and Nets’ Joseph Tsai. Four own NHL teams, including Pegula.
The MLB only features one, Los Angeles Angels’ Arte Moreno. Of the 32 NFL owners, two — Jaguars’ Shahid Khan and Bills’ Pegula — are of minority groups.
The average age of an owner of a minority group is 60.7 years old, almost eight years younger than the average.
Which sport is the most diverse?
Not the MLB. None of the privately owned baseball teams are owned by women. Pegula, a Korean woman who owns the Buffalo Bills and Sabres, is the only female owner of a minority group in all of the four major sports and one of eight women who own NFL teams. Though one-fourth of the NFL teams are owned by women, it is still mostly white.
The NBA looks to be the most diverse, with a wide age range, the most owners of a minority group and the second most female owners of the four leagues.
The Chicago Blackhawks conclusion
While the Star-Telegram researched for this project, Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz died at 70 years old on July 25. Ownership of the team was sold to the Wirtz Corporation soon after, which Wirtz owned until his death. Wirtz’s son Danny Wirtz, the Blackhawks CEO since 2020, will serve as the company’s president and chairman, and become the team’s owner.
The Wirtz Corporation was founded in Chicago in 1926 by Arthur Wirtz, who passed it on to his son, William Wirtz, when he died in 1983, who then sold it to his son, Rocky Wirtz, at his death in 2007. Danny Wirtz will be the fourth generation man in his family to own the Wirtz Corporation.
Like many companies around the world, many sports franchises pass ownership through the family. When Jerry Jones dies, his oldest son, Stephen Jones — who is already the Cowboys executive vice president, CEO and director of player personnel — will likely take primary ownership of the team.
Star-Telegram staff members Steve Wilson and Dave Ammenheuser contributed to this report.
