Daniel Snyder has been dipping his toe into the water of presumably promoting a portion or everything of his Washington Commanders franchise, which has millionaires and billionaires alike lining up for a possible run. One of these billionaires is New Jersey Devils co-owner Josh Harris, and he now has a notable millionaire alongside him as he makes his bid — Magic Johnson. The Los Angeles Lakers legend and Hall of Fame guard joined Harris’ bidding group as they appear to buy the franchise, in response to Sportico.
This isn’t the primary time that Harris and Johnson have teamed up in pursuit of an NFL membership. Johnson was additionally a part of Harris’ failed bid to buy the Denver Broncos final yr, and they’re giving it one other attempt right here with the Commanders sale looming. Johnson is claimed to be offering each cash and experience to the Commanders bid.
The 63-year-old owns a minority stake within the Los Angeles Dodgers, placing in $50 million of his personal cash into what was in the end a profitable bid that topped $2 billion. While Johnson’s contributions have been small within the grand scheme of that buy, he additionally was a public face for the group. He additionally has had different enterprise ventures since retiring from the NBA in 1996 together with stake within the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and LAFC, which is essentially the most beneficial membership in MLS. This newest report relating to the Commanders says it is unclear how a lot capital Johnson is contributing to the group.
Meanwhile, Harris is the co-founder of Apollo Global Management and is price $7.3 billion. Similar to Johnson, he is no stranger to proudly owning skilled groups. Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment personal the Devils together with the 76ers, and the Prudential Center. Harris additionally has a chunk of the English soccer membership Crystal Palace. Along with Johnson, Harris’ bidding group consists of Mitchell Rales, who’s the co-founder of Danaher and is price $6.6 billion, so there’s important capital, expertise, and title recognition with this group.
Sportico did report that this bidding group is likely one of the handful in talks with Snyder, who has been underneath scrutiny in recent times for quite a few accusations headlined by monetary impropriety and harboring a hostile work atmosphere. That has led some homeowners, like Indianapolis’ Jim Irsay, to publicly think about forcibly eradicating him because the proprietor of the Commanders by the use of reaching the mandatory 24 votes among the many different 31 homeowners throughout the NFL. However, a sale could be a a lot cleaner plan of action.
On that entrance, Sportico reported that after a stagnant few months, negotiations have progressed during the last week a few potential sale and famous that it’s attainable a deal may very well be reached forward of the NFL homeowners assembly in Arizona later this month.
On prime of the Harris-led group, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is claimed to be seeking to purchase the franchise as properly.
