Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones seems to be more interested in his team’s profile and profitability than its trophy case. However, Jones also seems to realize that reduced training-camp attendance in 2024 traces to nearly 30 years of failing to get past the divisional round of the playoffs.
“We all know what the issue is here,” Jones said, via Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News. “Our [lack of] success in the postseason. We haven’t had it. We know that. Our fans know that. Everybody knows it. These players know it. [Coach] Mike [McCarthy] knows it. His staff knows it. That’s the elephant in the room. We got to go take the next step and we haven’t done that, and until we do it there will be frustration.”
Cowboys executive V.P. Stephen Jones echoed that sentiment. “At the end of the day, this is all about, as Jerry said, that last game,” Stephen Jones told Watkins. “It’s our postseason success. No one is more frustrated than we are and they wouldn’t be great fans if they weren’t frustrated, with the [lack] of success we had in the postseason. It’s been duly respected in terms of what their frustration is. The good news is you don’t want them not to care. And they do care.”
But do the Cowboys care enough to change it? They couldn’t go “all-in” this year because they failed to resolve on a timely basis contract issues with receiver CeeDee Lamb, quarterback Dak Prescott, and linebacker Micah Parsons. And that happened in large part because, frankly, Jerry is a little cheap. Or a lot cheap.
And the fans are getting restless. As evidenced by the lack of fans at training camp in Oxnard, California.
“I too have seen some afternoons when they weren’t totally full out here,” Jerry said. “But I know this from the standpoint of the traffic jams out here and the miles and miles of trying to get in [parking lots] that looks like you’re going to come out here and [see] 100,000 people [in the stands]. But just so much what’s going on here hasn’t been something that should concern us.”
It won’t truly concern Jerry until he sees large swaths of empty seats at AT&T Stadium or Cowboys games suddenly drawing lower ratings than they once did. And he probably believes that won’t happen.
Why would it? They’ve struggled to succeed in the postseason since 1995. And they’re still America’s Team. And they’ll continue to be America’s Team.