Billionaire Jeff Bezos reportedly hired an investment firm in hopes of placing a bid on the sale of the Washington Commanders. However, the Amazon founder has been barred from bidding on the Commanders, according to Ben Standig and Dan Kaplan of The Athletic.
Bezos being unable to bid on the Commanders has been known for months. One report stated Snyder has “no intentions” to sell the team to Bezos.
Bids for the Commanders began in December, a month after Commanders’ owners Dan and Tanya Snyder, hired the Bank of America Securities to facilitate a potential sale. Bezos was not part of the initial round of bids. There was hope he would join the fray later in the process.
It’s not uncommon for suitors to be held out of late bids by a firm. Potential buyers must be vested by the firm and the respective league owners, in this case, the NFL.
Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris has long been considered the frontrunner for the Commanders. Harris and two other investment groups recently toured the Commanders’ team facility. But barring Bezos from the bid process is more about the tension between him and Dan Snyder. Snyder “detests” Bezos and the Washington Post, the newspaper Bezos owns.
The Post published several stories in recent years targeting Snyder. Several investigations into the Commanders’ workplace culture got sparked by a July 2020 report by the Post. The NFL conducted two probes into the team. So has federal authorities and the U.S. House Oversight Committee.
Pressure and fallout from those investigations may have prompted Snyder to consider selling the team. While Bezos may be the popular choice among fans, he may not have a chance to buy the Commanders.
“It’s a free country, [Snyder] can sell to whomever he wants,” a person close to the sale of the team told The Athletic.
There’s also a chance Snyder may opt to keep the team. There are conflicting reports on the state of the team sale. While The Athletic reports the sale of the team has “ramped up,” The New York Post says bids have fallen short of Snyder’s asking price. Early projections had the team going for north of $7 billion.
Yet, the initial round of bids reportedly did not exceed $6.3 billion. And the N.Y. Post says a $5.5 billion bid got placed this week. The range of reports may leave wishful Commanders fans pessimistic that Snyder may never sell the team.
