Does size matter? Crowds at Cowboys camp becomes talking point

The Dallas Cowboys are the biggest brand in the NFL, and all American sports, recently valued at $9 billion. Team owner Jerry Jones has played a major role in catapulting America’s Team into the forefront of the football world, regardless of their performance. Year after year, Cowboys fans keep coming back to a team that hasn’t made it close to the pinnacle of the sport in 28 seasons. That’s a lifetime for a franchise that had gotten used to success.

During this time of futility, fans want to believe in Jones and his desire to win. Jones is famous for saying there isn’t a check he wouldn’t write to get the Cowboys another Super Bowl, but his words continue to ring hollow as the team remains dormant during free agency. On Tuesday, conversation around whether or not fans have had enough surfaced online.

This offseason was a particularly quiet one as the organization barely made a move in the open market and failed to re-sign any of their priorities to extensions. The lack of urgency this offseason has led many fans to feel less enthusiastic about the Cowboys’ prospects for the 2024 season.

However, as down as many team backers had seemed to be on social media, that didn’t stop diehard fans from buying tickets to see their beloved Cowboys. The team sold out their season tickets, allegedly faster than any other team in the league; something the Joneses happily brought up at training camps opening press conference.

That enthusiasm was seemingly backed up early in camp when there were crowds lining for the opening practices in Oxnard. There were masses of people waiting to get a look at the 2024 Cowboys and to get autographs from Jones and their favorite players.

However, after the opening sessions and the initial weekend passed, the first real workout saw the crowds drastically diminished.

Cowboys beat reporters pointed out how empty the stands were for the first padded practice of camp.

As Leslie notes, even with the crowds for the opening few days, attendance has been lower compared to camps in the past. The question is, should it matter?

While many fans and beat writers have noticed the dwindling support in the stands, just as many have pointed out that practice is where the focus should be. The work being done on the field is what matters, not who isn’t on hand to watch.

Although Cowboys fans seem to be split on the crowds and if it matters to them, it might mean something to Jerry and Stephen Jones. The product on the field and the teams success should be paramount to anything else, but the Joneses played a large role in this controversy by bragging about their ticket sales. In doing so, they brought credence to those who believe the Joneses top priority is making money, not winning games.

If the Joneses didn’t bring up their ticket sales, this likely wouldn’t have been much of a story. But in making selling all their season tickets in record fashion a talking point, they allowed people to throw it back in their faces. If it’s fine to talk about fan interest with ticket sales, it’s fair game to point out the lack of attendance in training camp.

Reality hasn’t changed on either side. Fans want the organization to do everything they can to put the best team on the field and use their resources to do so. They want the Cowboys to win games, and hopefully, a Super Bowl.

Ownership can say they want to win, but they’ve shown more of a preference for making money and keeping it in their pockets. Until they show more of a willingness to go ‘all-in’ and spend their cap dollars to the max to do so, they’ll continue to get backlash.

The crowds in training camp don’t matter to the product on the field, but it’s something the Joneses surely notice.

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