The Washington Commanders franchise is going to be sold within the next six months, and growing sentiments around the league are Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos is the projected front-runner to become the franchise’s new owner.
Bezos along with rap mogul Jay-Z could be the ticket to hopefully right the wrongs the once proud franchise has had since current ownership purchased the team in 1999. The team is slated to sell for at least $6 billion and could fetch as much as $7 billion.
But there’s one caveat with the Bezos bid for ownership. Reportedly, Bezos and Daniel Snyder don’t have the greatest relationship because of the way the Washington Post, a national paper that Bezos owns, has covered stories of alleged sexual harassment and verbal abuse within the franchise that Snyder reportedly turned a blind eye to.
NFL analyst Peter King believes Snyder is looking to sell the entire franchise, despite reports that he may look to hold onto some control.
“What wingnut would be dumb enough to invest, say, $1 billion or more to go into business as a minority partner with the worst owner in NFL history? Not so fast, I heard over the weekend. I kept hearing, if anyone buys a minority stake, there has to be a clear path to buy out Snyder — in a defined number of years. And re: the hot candidate to buy the team, billionaire Jeff Bezos, I also heard this from a reliable executive well-versed on ownership matters: ‘It’ll never happen. Dan Snyder detests The Washington Post. No way he’d sell to the owner of that paper.’”
Jeff Bezos-Jay-Z bid to buy Commanders to get celebrity firepower: report https://t.co/VHgJAFZc4W
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 8, 2022
Would Snyder Turn Down The Amount Of Money Bezos Could Afford To Pay For Team?
The question that lingers is would Snyder’s disdain for Bezos cause him to turn down upwards of $7 billion to purchase the team? That amount would be nine times the $800 million the embattled owner paid in 1999 to become the majority owner.
If it were up to the other NFL owners, they’d love to have someone of Bezos’ stature amongst the ownership fraternity.
Source: Jeff Bezos Is 'Looking Into Buying' Washington Commandershttps://t.co/LMlkmSjVDR
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 3, 2022
Can Amazon Still Air Games With Bezos As An Owner?
With Amazon buying the rights to air NFL games on Thursday, that creates a possible conflict of interest that will have to be sorted out if Bezos becomes an NFL owner.
During an appearance on “Toucher & Rich” on WBZ The Sports Hub, Albert Breer of MMQB had this to say about that:
Bezos and Jay-Z to make an official offer to purchase the Commanders in January 👀 #HTTC https://t.co/3OL1he4ddy pic.twitter.com/EtAflDYUhk
— DC Sports 💯 (@_mattschoen_) November 5, 2022
But again, it comes down to Snyder’s willingness to sell his prized keepsake to Bezos, a man whose national and well-respected newspaper has continuously condemned Snyder in print.
