An investment group led by Josh Harris is on the verge of an agreement to purchase the Washington Commanders from owner Daniel Snyder, according to a person with direct knowledge of the sale process.
Harris’s group is “nearing a deal” but it is “not yet final,” according to that person, adding that an agreement still must be finalized and submitted to the NFL. The group’s bid is for about $6 billion, another person with direct knowledge of the process previously said.
The deal would have to be ratified by the NFL’s team owners, who are scheduled to meet in Minneapolis in May. If it is approved, the sale would end Snyder’s tempestuous ownership of the franchise he bought in 1999 from the Jack Kent Cooke estate for $800 million.
The sale price would be a record for an NFL franchise, surpassing the $4.65 billion a group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton paid last year to purchase the Denver Broncos from the Pat Bowlen Trust.
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The Harris group declined to comment through a spokesman. The Commanders and the NFL also decline to comment.
Both Harris, the owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, and investor Mitchell Rales, a businessman and philanthropist based in Potomac, Md., have roots in the D.C. area. Former NBA great Earvin “Magic” Johnson is an investor in Harris’s group.
Harris-Rales partnership gives Daniel Snyder a strong non-Bezos option
Canadian commercial real estate developer and private equity executive Steve Apostolopoulos visited the team’s facilities and submitted a bid for the franchise. Bidders also included Tilman Fertitta, the owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets. Fertitta said in a televised interview Wednesday with CNBC that he had bid $5.6 billion for the team. On Wednesday, a person familiar with the process said Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who hired a New York investment firm, to help him evaluate a potential bid, had no plans to submit one.
It is not immediately clear whether an issue related to the indemnification of Snyder against future legal liability and costs has been resolved. Three people with direct knowledge of the league’s inner workings and the views of the owners said in February that Snyder was seeking such indemnification from a buyer or from the league and other owners. Snyder had threatened to sue if he wasn’t indemnified, according to those people, who had said the other owners were angered by the demand. They had described the issue as a potential complication to the completion of the sale.
The deal must be vetted by the owners on the NFL’s finance committee and then put to a ratification vote by the owners. In the case of the Broncos sale last year, that process took approximately two months, and investors were added to the incoming ownership group even after the initial deal was struck. At least 24 of the 32 owners leaguewide must approve the sale. It is not clear whether the ratification timetable might be accelerated in this case, given the unique circumstances surrounding Snyder and the Commanders.
If the sale is approved, Harris and his business partners will face a variety of issues ranging from repairing the franchise’s relationship with its fan base to reviving efforts to secure funding and identify a site in the region for a new stadium to replace FedEx Field in Landover, Md. Many within the NFL and throughout the region would like to see the team return to the District at the RFK Stadium site.
The new owners also would have to address the status of the franchise’s current leadership, including team president Jason Wright and Coach Ron Rivera. Sean Payton, the former Super Bowl-winning coach for the New Orleans Saints whom the Broncos hired in January, said in February that multiple prospective Commanders ownership groups had approached him about his interest in being their coach. He did not identify which groups.
Harris grew up in Chevy Chase and attended the Field School in Northwest Washington. He was the co-founder of Apollo Global Management and is a general partner of the English Premier League’s Crystal Palace Football Club. Harris has an estimated net worth of $5.9 billion, according to Forbes. He is a limited partner in the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers and will have to sell that stake to buy the Commanders. He made a failed bid last year to buy the Broncos.
Rales, the co-founder of the Danaher Corporation, has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $5.6 billion. He is also well known in the art world as a collector of modern and contemporary art, which is displayed at Glenstone, a private art museum he founded in Potomac that is curated by his wife, art historian Emily Wei Rales.
Harris’s group is “nearing a deal” but it is “not yet final,” according to that person, adding that an agreement still must be finalized and submitted to the NFL. The group’s bid is for about $6 billion, another person with direct knowledge of the process previously said.
The deal would have to be ratified by the NFL’s team owners, who are scheduled to meet in Minneapolis in May. If it is approved, the sale would end Snyder’s tempestuous ownership of the franchise he bought in 1999 from the Jack Kent Cooke estate for $800 million.
The sale price would be a record for an NFL franchise, surpassing the $4.65 billion a group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton paid last year to purchase the Denver Broncos from the Pat Bowlen Trust.
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The Harris group declined to comment through a spokesman. The Commanders and the NFL also decline to comment.
Both Harris, the owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, and investor Mitchell Rales, a businessman and philanthropist based in Potomac, Md., have roots in the D.C. area. Former NBA great Earvin “Magic” Johnson is an investor in Harris’s group.
Harris-Rales partnership gives Daniel Snyder a strong non-Bezos option
Canadian commercial real estate developer and private equity executive Steve Apostolopoulos visited the team’s facilities and submitted a bid for the franchise. Bidders also included Tilman Fertitta, the owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets. Fertitta said in a televised interview Wednesday with CNBC that he had bid $5.6 billion for the team. On Wednesday, a person familiar with the process said Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who hired a New York investment firm, to help him evaluate a potential bid, had no plans to submit one.
It is not immediately clear whether an issue related to the indemnification of Snyder against future legal liability and costs has been resolved. Three people with direct knowledge of the league’s inner workings and the views of the owners said in February that Snyder was seeking such indemnification from a buyer or from the league and other owners. Snyder had threatened to sue if he wasn’t indemnified, according to those people, who had said the other owners were angered by the demand. They had described the issue as a potential complication to the completion of the sale.
The deal must be vetted by the owners on the NFL’s finance committee and then put to a ratification vote by the owners. In the case of the Broncos sale last year, that process took approximately two months, and investors were added to the incoming ownership group even after the initial deal was struck. At least 24 of the 32 owners leaguewide must approve the sale. It is not clear whether the ratification timetable might be accelerated in this case, given the unique circumstances surrounding Snyder and the Commanders.
If the sale is approved, Harris and his business partners will face a variety of issues ranging from repairing the franchise’s relationship with its fan base to reviving efforts to secure funding and identify a site in the region for a new stadium to replace FedEx Field in Landover, Md. Many within the NFL and throughout the region would like to see the team return to the District at the RFK Stadium site.
The new owners also would have to address the status of the franchise’s current leadership, including team president Jason Wright and Coach Ron Rivera. Sean Payton, the former Super Bowl-winning coach for the New Orleans Saints whom the Broncos hired in January, said in February that multiple prospective Commanders ownership groups had approached him about his interest in being their coach. He did not identify which groups.
Harris grew up in Chevy Chase and attended the Field School in Northwest Washington. He was the co-founder of Apollo Global Management and is a general partner of the English Premier League’s Crystal Palace Football Club. Harris has an estimated net worth of $5.9 billion, according to Forbes. He is a limited partner in the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers and will have to sell that stake to buy the Commanders. He made a failed bid last year to buy the Broncos.
Rales, the co-founder of the Danaher Corporation, has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $5.6 billion. He is also well known in the art world as a collector of modern and contemporary art, which is displayed at Glenstone, a private art museum he founded in Potomac that is curated by his wife, art historian Emily Wei Rales.
