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.
2. Todd Boehly
Boehly is a billionaire business man and investor with massive ties to the sports universe. He’s the co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, maybe MLB’s most successful franchise over the last decade. The club has made the playoffs for 10 years running and have appeared in three World Series during that span, including winning one in 2020.
Already a part owner of the Dodgers and Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, Boehly became co-owner of English soccer giant Chelsea this summer and funded one of the biggest transfer spending sprees in Premier League history upon his arrival.
Boehly is always looking to grow his brand and there’s reason to believe he’ll bid on the Commanders. Not only did Boehly grow up in the D.C. area, but he attended The Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland. His redevelopment of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles received universal praise — a rarity for stadiums — and we all know Washington needs a new home with FedEx Field’s lease expiring after 2027.
Valued at $5.3 billion by Forbes, expect Boehly to be in the mix to succeed Snyder in the coming months, though he wouldn’t become an outright owner.
1. Josh Harris
The primary owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, Harris is also the general partner of Premier League soccer club Crystal Palace. Despite those roots, Harris, like any billionaire businessman, looked to expand his investment capital over the summer when he made a serious run at buying the Broncos.
Harris ultimately lost out to the Walton-Penner family ownership group, but Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported Harris would have paid $5 billion for the Broncos if he knew that would get the deal done. The Commanders will likely go up for up $7 billion, but a $5 billion down payment (just typing that is crazy) with a partnership group coughing up the rest of the cash is more than feasible for Harris.
Check out Florio’s reporting on Harris’ ambition to own an NFL team.
"So why didn’t Harris go to $5 billion and force Walton-Penner to go higher? Harris, we’re told, intends to pursue another NFL franchise. Thus, there was no reason to drive up the price of the Broncos, when that becomes the precedent for the next transaction. The bottom line is that Harris is ready to pay $5 billion to buy an NFL franchise. He didn’t officially offer $5 billion for the Broncos because they couldn’t guaranteed it would have gotten him the team. If another team wants to sell to Harris for $5 billion, now’s the time to give him a call."
If we had to put our money on it — let’s call it a cool $5 — we’d say Harris is the most likely candidate to rival Bezos to buy the Commanders. Having said that, don’t rule out Ishbia or Boehly, or another potential late bloomer
Let the bidding begin!