A group led by Josh Harris and Mitchell Rales, including Magic Johnson, has reached a tentative agreement to acquire Dan Snyder’s Washington Commanders for US$6 billion, a record sum for a North American professional team, according to what the Associated Press has learned.
This source requested anonymity since the agreement has not yet been finalized. Another source told the US agency that the proposal has not yet been submitted for NFL approval.
A Commanders spokesperson said the team was unable to comment at this time. The league declined to comment.
Once the deal is approved, Harris will own shares in three North American professional teams. He and David Blitzer have owned the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA since 2011 and the New Jersey Devils of the NHL since 2013.
The transaction was first reported by Sportico.
The price paid for the Commanders is far above the $4.65 billion paid last year by Rob Walton’s group for the purchase of the Denver Broncos. Johnson, a Basketball Hall of Famer and minority shareholder of the Los Angeles Dodgers, was also part of Harris’s group that tried to buy the Broncos.
Rales, co-founder of the Danaher conglomerate, and Johnson were late additions to the group led by Harris. Rales and Harris, who grew up in suburban Bethesda, bring local roots to the ownership group.
The sale of the Commanders will be subject to a vote by NFL team owners, with 24 of 32 owners having to approve the transaction, which should only be a formality: the sale of the Broncos was unanimously approved and Snyder is no longer in the good graces of the circuit.
Snyder bought the team in 1999 for $750 million and, despite mounting criticism, always claimed he would never sell it. The tone changed after several investigations by the league and the US Congress into allegations of workplace misconduct. The congressional investigation demonstrated that Snyder had helped install a toxic culture.
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was the first to suggest in October that removing Snyder from the team might be beneficial, an unprecedented situation that would also have required the support of three-quarters of the owners . instead, Snyder and his wife Tanya hired Bank of America to sell the club.
