Keeping Up with Jerry Jones
The high-flying NFL owner on going big, moving fast and always making an impression – and the helicopter that helps him do all three.
JERRY JONES MAY have revolutionised the business of professional football with lucrative television contracts and state-of-the-art stadiums, but even he didn’t anticipate the impact his Airbus Corporate Helicopter, DC-1, would have on the Dallas Cowboys’ brand.
He says: “We originally got the ACH145 for transportation. We wanted to commute between The Star, our headquarters in Frisco, and the stadium in Arlington (both in Texas), but it also had to get us to other businesses along the Gulf Coast and North Texas.”
The logistic advantages were immediately obvious. The commute from The Star’s practice field to AT&T Stadium dropped from a one-hour drive to a 13-minute flight. The helicopter’s 644km range reaches remote areas of Texas (where Jones has other business interests) and since DC-1 can land anywhere, the 233km/hr cruise speed is
more efficient than a small airplane. Jones also uses the chopper to hunt wild game from the air on his ranch, making sure to replace the executive interior with camouflage surfaces for the occasion.
But it has been the promotional benefits that most caught the Cowboys’ owner by surprise. According to Jones, flying DC-1 over metro Dallas or landing on scrubland in South Texas is the best billboard imaginable for the US$5.8 billion sports franchise. “It lends an aura to the Cowboys, whether we’re circling the stadium and landing next to fans on game day or carrying business associates and sponsors,” Jones says. What he underestimated, he says, “is just how interesting the helicopter is for our fans. It gets their attention and keeps them thinking about us.”
Team colours – navy blue, metallic silver, royal blue and white – make up the custom interior, but the palette is muted. “We’re not about chequered tablecloths and sawdust floors,” Jones says. Instead, the team wants to project “a modern, urban-cowboy image. There’s no question the helicopter relays that cutting-edge look.”
The helicopter has seating for up to 10, though the layout can be reconfigured by mission. A walnut chest serves as the onboard liquor cabinet, with phone-charging ports and Bose headsets for each leather seat. Enhanced soundproofing allows for conversations that would be challenging on most other helicopters. Having spent so much time aboard DC-1, Jones feels at home in the cabin. “It’s like getting into one of my cars,” he says.
The helicopter also serves as an air shuttle for Jones and his family, both for business and for trips to the family ranch. It’s also an impressive way to travel with the team’s sponsors, other executives Jones does business with, politicians and sports greats like former Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo and tight end Jason Witten. In March, retired major general Patrick Brady, a former US Army helicopter pilot and Medal of Honor recipient who evacuated 5,000 wounded from battlefields in Vietnam, took the controls aboard DC-1. “That flight was particularly meaningful for me,” says Jones, whose family has a long association with the National Medal of Honor Museum.
Friday nights were equally as significant for Jones and his wife, Eugenia ‘Gene’ Jones, when the pair would land outside high-school fields in the Dallas metro area to watch their grandsons play football. “It would’ve been impossible to make those games without that helicopter,” says Jones.
Safety was always a priority. DC-1’s all-glass cockpit, with Helionix avionics, is intuitive and lessens pilot workload, and its Helicopter Terrain Awareness and Warning System is designed for in-flight obstacle avoidance. The copter also has two Safran Arriel 2E turboshaft engines, which allow for single-engine flight. “It’s a very capable system,” says Will Fulton, head of marketing for Airbus Helicopters of North America, who notes the Cowboys “spared no expense” in choosing every available safety option.
But DC-1 is also about brand building. America’s Team, as the Cowboys are nicknamed, can still lay claim to the title of world’s most valuable sports franchise, despite not having won a Super Bowl since 1996.
And Jones understands DC-1’s entertainment value. The pilots have standing orders to surprise Cowboys Club patrons by hovering in front of its floor-to-ceiling windows before making a landing at The Star. “It’s quite a show,” Jones says. “We strobe them real good at night.”
But the Airbus just as often transports Jones and his players to Salvation Army fundraisers and local business openings in small, remote towns. “Many times those people aren’t football fans, but if we’re active in those areas, there’s a good chance they’ll tune in to watch the game on Thanksgiving Day,” Jones says. “They’ll have more affinity for the brand.”
For a man known for colourful talk – he once reportedly described negotiations during the 2011 National Football League lockout as “down to circumcising mosquitoes” – the billionaire is downright reverent when talking about the brandbuilding bonus of DC-1.
“I’m half-serious here, but I’d like to take it and land it on every road in Texas,” Jones says. “Or maybe have five, landing in every community across the US. It’s a real attention magnet.”
Flying DC-1 over metro Dallas or landing in a remote Texas town is the best billboard imaginable for the US$5.8 billion sports franchise.