3 candidates who can challenge Jeff Bezos to buy Commanders
By Jerry Trotta
It still remains to be seen if Dan Snyder will sell the Washington Commanders — all signs are certainly pointing in that direction — but that hasn’t stopped billionaires and entrepreneurs from lining up bids in the event Snyder sells.
Less than 24 hours after Forbes’ bombshell report, Bloomberg reported media mogul Byron Allen is preparing a bid to buy the franchise. Of course, the lead candidate to succeed Snyder is currently Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.
Worth $115 billion and with ties to the D.C. as owner of the Washington Post, most folks believe the team is Bezos’ to lose, and the New York Post understands Bezos and hip-hop superstar Jay-Z will submit a joint bid to purchase the team in January.
The Commanders are currently valued at $5.6 billion, but a potential final sale could go for as much as $7 billion. The $5.6 billion would break the record for most expensive sale of a team in league history; just months after the Broncos sold for a record $4.65 billion over the summer.
While Bezos is considered the prohibitive favorite to win the sweepstakes, that doesn’t mean other business moguls won’t swoop in with bids of their own. With that in mind, let’s speculate who might pose the biggest challenge to Amazon’s executive chairman.
Who can challenge Jeff Bezos to buy the Commanders?
3. Mat Ishbia
Don’t sleep on Ishbia if Snyder puts the team up for sale. The president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, Ishbia has an estimated net worth of $4.7 billion and he fully intends on submitting a bid if Snyder sells the team.
"“The NFL is a great league and Washington is one of the elite franchises,” Ishbia told the Washington Post in a statement through a spokesperson. “I am interested in exploring this opportunity further in the very near future.”"
Ishbia’s doesn’t have major ties to the sports world, but he previously pursued purchasing the Broncos only to lose out to the group led by Rob Walton. Further, Ishbia made a record $32 million donation to his alma mater Michigan State’s athletic department in 2021. Most of that was aimed to fund a new football building.
Ishbia’s Michigan State contributions include signing the school’s entire football, basketball (men’s and women’s) and volleyball teams to name, image and likeness deals, and funding a $95 million contract for head football coach Mel Tucker.
Ishbia’s sheer willingness to invest in the Spartans makes you think he’d sign any check if it means helping Washington win football games.