Josh Harris, the private equity billionaire, is nearing an agreement to buy the US National Football League’s Washington Commanders in a deal that values the franchise at close to $6bn, according to people familiar with the matter.
A $6bn price tag would make the Commanders the most expensive sports team ever sold, trumping last year’s $4.6bn sale of the NFL’s Denver Broncos to Walmart heir Rob Walton. Professional clubs’ valuations have appreciated rapidly amid rising revenues for media rights and an influx of private capital into leagues and teams around the world.
The agreement between Harris and current Commanders owner Dan Snyder would make the former Apollo Global Management co-founder the preferred bidder, though any transaction would be subject to NFL approval, the people said.
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and owner of the Washington Post, had earlier explored a bid for the Commanders with rap and entertainment mogul Jay-Z.
The transaction would give Harris a crown jewel in an expanding sporting group that also includes majority ownership of the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76ers, the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils, and the English Premier League’s Crystal Palace. Harris and Blackstone executive David Blitzer control the portfolio through their privately held sports management firm, HBSE.
Harris’s bid for the Commanders includes a minority investment from retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Magic Johnson, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
News of the agreement was earlier reported by Sportico.
The potential sale would also end years of controversy over Snyder’s ownership. In 2020, he agreed to change the team’s name after years of campaigning by American indigenous groups who said the use of its previous moniker, the Redskins, was a racial slur.
Snyder has simultaneously been the focus of investigations into what a US House Oversight Committee report alleged was “a deeply entrenched toxic work culture under the leadership of team owner Daniel Snyder”.
Among its findings, the committee determined that Snyder had inappropriately touched a former employee at a work dinner, commissioned “sexually suggestive” video footage of cheerleaders without their consent, and interfered with the NFL’s own independent investigation into such claims.
A spokesperson for Snyder has called the House investigation “a politically charged show trial”.
Following the outcome of the NFL’s investigation in 2021, Snyder “acknowledged his personal responsibility for [his] failure” to uphold a fair and respectful culture within the club. He turned over day-to-day operations of the club to his wife Tanya.