https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/02/19/je...s-power-crisis

Sports Illustrated story

Michael Rosenberg
Feb 19, 2021

As Texas Freezes, Jerry Jones Does What He’s Always Done
The power outages and gas shortages in Texas provided Jones and his company an opportunity to profit. And he took it.



Jerry Jones is doing what he has always done: trying to cash in. He is damn good at it. He is a billionaire for a lot of reasons: business acumen, luck, fearlessness and the willingness to do things like jack up the price of natural gas at a time when the people of Texas need it the most.

As Texans continue to go days without power or heat, shale-driller Comstock Resources Inc., a publicly traded company of which Jones is the majority stockholder, has, according to NPR, been selling gas at “super-premium prices.” It has been “like hitting the jackpot," Roland Burns, Comstock’s president and CFO, said on a Wednesday earnings call.

This is business to Jones, as defensible to him as—I’m being hypothetical here, of course—another billionaire claiming that not paying taxes “makes me smart.” Jones does not need the money, but need has nothing to do with this. Making more money for himself is one way he keeps score. (Winning Super Bowls is the other, though he hasn’t done that in almost three decades.)

O.K. then. Let’s keep score.

The citizens of Arlington contributed $325 million to fund Jones’s playhouse, AT&T Stadium. Jones pays the city a paltry $2.5 million per year to operate the stadium. This deal is supposed to be an economic generator for Arlington, and maybe it has been. But an implicit reason for agreements like these is that a team does not just belong to the franchise owner. A team belongs to the citizenry that cheers it on. Right.

Now you see how Jones is treating Texans in their time of need. We can call this a betrayal, but it’s really just an extension of the relationship between Jones and Texans. It is impossible to arrange a fair transaction when one party is in it for love and the other is in it for money. Years ago, when Jones wanted a stadium deal, he enlisted Roger Staubach in the public effort, a clever way to make the vote seem like an act of fan loyalty without explicitly calling it that.

Jones knew what he was doing then, and he surely knows what he is doing now. If all the clothing suddenly disappeared from the state, Jones would start selling Cowboys sweatshirts for $1,000 each.

Remember this story the next time your favorite team asks for a new stadium or your favorite player is accused of being greedy because he wants to test free agency, or even the next time you shell out cash for merchandise.

The Dallas Cowboys are America’s Team in NFL Films’ telling, and Jones has cannily managed to monetize that image without using the actual moniker. He bought the Cowboys not just because he wanted an NFL team, but because he wanted this NFL team, the one with arguably the biggest fan base in American sports. He knew the Cowboys meant something to people. He loves that. He is a master at making money off it.

Jones won three Super Bowls early in his Cowboys tenure and has desperately tried to win a fourth ever since. In that way, his desires seem aligned with those of his fan base, but still: He is doing this for him, not them. He did foot most of the expense of the stadium, but that was not because he wanted to boost the Arlington economy. He wanted the world’s fanciest stadium. In the 11 years since it opened, the Cowboys’ franchise value has gone from $1.6 billion to $5.7 billion, according to Forbes.

That would be enough for most of us. Yet Comstock Resources is selling gas at prices ranging from $15 per thousand cubic feet to $179 per thousand cubic feet, a markup of between 600% and 7500% over pre-crisis levels. The idea that people might desperately need the gas and can’t afford this has probably not even occurred to him. The church of market worship has a narrow definition of sin.

Jones should be embarrassed, but billionaires don’t get embarrassed by what they see as good business deals. They get embarrassed when many people call them out, or when the public shame is so great that the good business deal morphs into a lousy one. Cowboys fans can show Jones how angry they are by cutting down on their financial support of the team. Logic says they should. History says they will not. Jones is betting that he can make money by price-gouging the very people he purports to represent. In that sense, he is a fitting owner of America’s Team.

__________________
Hope is the dream of the waking man.
Aristotle

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Job 14:6-8

I don't like this article...at all...

I am no fan of Jones, and I'm from Philly, so, by rule, the Cowboys suck, but nowhere in this article does it say that Jones HIMSELF raised the prices...as the headline states...

Being a majority stockholder says NOTHING about his involvement in the operations of the company...He could be the kind of stockholder that wants to know everything that happens day-to-day, or he could be the kind of stockholder who sits back and just collects dividends on his investment...

NOWHERE does it say he has to sign off on price increases...or it was his idea....or there was a stockholder vote...or if he was even AWARE of it...

Also not mentioned in the article is how much repairs, infrastructure to the system, and other costs the company may have to eat because of the freeze...was it nothing? $10 million?$50 million?....We don't know because this trashtalker didn't research THAT...

The article just says "He's got the most stocks, so he's making all of the decisions; even if we don't know that's true!!!!"...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

I just looked up the company (Comstock Resources Inc.) and see that there are AT LEAST 4 other energy companies Comstock competes with that have higher revenue than Comstock's $255M...



Did the author check up on these companies and see if there are price increases as well?...Are they commensurate?...If at all?...

We'll never know...This was just another "hate the rich" piece...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

yeah people were happy I guess with their deregulated energy.
But typical bill that was 33 dollars same time last year was $700 this time and the power was still shut off.
There's talk of some people having several thousand dollar bills.
But as former gov Perry says, a least they're free.

__________________
I like candy corn.

My brother lives in Plano TX and votes Democrat. He also pays extra to get wind power electric. You know, the power generating machinery that froze up in the record cold. Go figure.

He says the gas bill has gone up a bit since last year but your example is not reflective of reality. Besides, virtually no one has received a bill since the cold snap current crisis created the fuel and power shortage. So from where did you get those figures?

It would be so helpful if you would bring some real facts to your arguments.

__________________
I am going to hang a Batman Costume in my closet. .......... Just to screw with myself when I get alzheimer's.
sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura.

I AM NOT A REPUBLICAN, I AM A FREEMAN, THE DEMOCRATS WORST NIGHTMARE

on the street interviews in houston, austin, dallas-ft worth where the people were in line to get propane.


but yeah no. windmills make up 13-23% of the stand alone Texas grid that El Paso and one other city chose not to be a part of. all the generators froze. natural gas was the biggest problem, but yes all of it froze. It wasn't winterized and Texas isn't on a normal grid to pull power from other states. and Texas does not have rules on how their own grid is managed.

__________________
I like candy corn.

Keep talking. it proves your innocence about the facts.

Texas is an exporter of energy. Texas Coal Commission, which is not part of the Texas government, actually sets the volume of oil and gas mined. Thereby controlling the supply of crude and fuels. And Texas can cut the chord to all other states if and when it wants to. Because traditionally, it is normally energy independent. But it didn't. I know because Springfield MO, where I was hunkered down, suffered power loss and had rolling blackouts. Much of the
power that stayed on came out of Texas.

You are right at 13% about the amount of wind mill energy on the grid. Keep in mind several natural gas turbine plants shut down as well. But that deficiency was all it took for the power deficit during the crisis.

Money that could have been spent on expanding proven technology was redirected by political decisions made outside of Texas. Mot one windmill in the world has yet paid for the cost of its erection. And not one has been a reliable source of power when the wind is fickle. The economics were explained at the time. They still are the same. Political choices over common sense just to be green. Politically correct but,,,;Foolish.

And you put the blame on Governor Perry who actually had no choice to do otherwise. To promote and do what was practical and proven. As for who controls the power production in Texas, it isn't the government but private utilities. And the BOD of the Texas Power commission has been called for resignations and and inquiry. So stop blaming the government just because in Texas it is primarily red. It doesn't matter who in in the governor's mansion, the power commission is independent.

The big money, like T Boone Pickens, who could have put up more windmills, didn't do so because it wasn't practical. It still isn't.

Proof is in the pudding dearie. A thousand windmills at over $3 million apiece couldn't produce the energy that five power plants at half that cost could have done. As much sun as Texas receives, the solar panels failed in the blizzard. And they don't work in the dead cold of night when the residents really needed the power.

The last people you would blame are the greenies that created the mess. Colour me surprised.

__________________
I am going to hang a Batman Costume in my closet. .......... Just to screw with myself when I get alzheimer's.
sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura.

I AM NOT A REPUBLICAN, I AM A FREEMAN, THE DEMOCRATS WORST NIGHTMARE

"But for oil and gas producers that have managed to keep production going, this is proving to be a big payday. Jerry Jones, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Cowboys, appears to be one of the beneficiaries.

Comstock Resources Inc., a shale driller that operates in Texas and Louisiana, told investors on an earnings call this week that the surge in natural gas prices was providing it with a major — albeit almost certainly temporary — financial boost. The company is publicly traded but Jones holds a majority of the shares.

"Obviously, this week is like hitting the jackpot," President and Chief Financial Officer Roland Burns said Wednesday.

����BOOM ���� GameStop? Nope; it's the price of the Oklahoma regional benchmark natural gas (OGT), rising vertically to $999 per mBtu (this is up ~33,200% from its price two weeks ago of less than $3 per mBtu) | #OOTT #TexasFreeze #texaspoweroutage #LogarithmicScaleForOGT pic.twitter.com/oX2JjSYsZ9"
https://www.npr.org/sections/live-up...prices-surging

So most likely he knew. I doubt he missed this call or unmentioned similar calls/notifications earlier.
But Also, there's no record he has any complaints or directed the company to do otherwise.

PLUS let's say you're right, it's not "Jerry Jones", it's just the company running wild.
Does that make the price increases any better if nameless Owners, Members ,CEOs or CFOs did it?

__________________
Hope is the dream of the waking man.
Aristotle

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Job 14:6-8

This is very misleading. Spot pricing for wholesale natural gas trades are set by market indices which reflect available supply and demand. No one is unilaterally raising the price. The gas companies that are crowing about their profits last week look like ghouls, but they didn't really have an option to charge a lower price.

true to a point, but it's my understanding that there is some leeway in pricing.
And that the company did wisely create some reserves for the winter. So "new" pricing was not needed just a windfall/tragic opportunity.

__________________
Hope is the dream of the waking man.
Aristotle

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Job 14:6-8