Dan Snyder has agreed to sell the NFL’s Washington Commanders to a group led by Josh Harris and Mitchell Rales, the team announced on Friday. The deal values the team at $6 billion, according to reports from ESPN and NFL Network.
“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement for the sale of the Commanders franchise with Josh Harris, an area native, and his impressive group of partners. We look forward to the prompt completion of this transaction and to rooting for Josh and the team in the coming years,” Commanders co-owners Tanya and Dan Snyder wrote in a statement.
The Harris/Rales group, which includes basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, was one of multiple suitors interested in purchasing the Commanders. Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta and Amazon
AMZN,
founder Jeff Bezos also reportedly considered buying the Commanders.
Harris owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s New Jersey Devils, and brought on Rales, a billionaire who also grew up in Maryland, just outside Washington, earlier this year. Johnson also has ownership experience with Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers.
Harris has a net worth of $7.69 billion, and Rales has a net worth of $6.47 billion, according to Bloomberg.
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Snyder led a group that bought the team in 1999 for $800 million, but the Commanders are estimated to be worth $5.6 billion now, according to Forbes.
The deal was agreed to, but still is subject to NFL approval.
Assuming the Commanders are sold, it would be the most lucrative sale of a sports franchise in North American history, topping the 2022 sale of the NFL’s Denver Broncos to Rob Walton of Walmart Inc.
WMT,
for $4.6 billion.
Here are the top five most expensive sports franchise sales in U.S. history:
- $4.6 billion, Denver Broncos, sold to the Walton-Penner group in 2022
- $4 billion, Phoenix Suns, sold to Mat Ishbia in 2022
- $2.4 billion, New York Mets, sold to Steve Cohen in 2020
- $2.35 billion, Brooklyn Nets, sold to Alibaba’s Joe Tsai in 2019
- $2.275 billion, Carolina Panthers, sold to David Tepper in 2018
Last fall, with multiple ongoing investigations into the team’s workplace culture and finances, Snyder and his wife Tanya hired Bank of America
BAC,
to explore selling part or all of the team.
Snyder and the team are still under investigation by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who was retained by the league to look into various aspects of the organization stemming from a congressional review into workplace misconduct that also included a referral to the Federal Trade Commission for potential business improprieties.
A sale would allow Snyder to avoid speaking to White. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell previously said the findings of White’s report will be made public at the conclusion of her investigation.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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