Snyder has agreed to sell the team to a group led by the 76ers co-owner. Here’s what you need to know about the Commanders sale.
After 23 years, the once-proud franchise in Washington will be under new ownership.
Dan Snyder and his wife Tanya have officially agreed to sell the Washington Commanders to a consortium led by Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Joshua Harris for a reported $6.05 billion, per a Friday afternoon press release. The new ownership group will also include Magic Johnson and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
“We look forward to running a world-class organization and making significant investments on and off the field to achieve excellence and have a lasting and positive impact on the community,” Harris said in the release.
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The Commanders sale is expected to be approved when the NFL’s spring meetings kick off on May 22 in Minnesota.
An earlier ESPN report from Friday said Snyder was pressing the NFL to limit the scale and scope of how the league releases a long-awaited report from former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White into allegations of sexual misconduct and financial wrongdoings in the organization. A Commanders spokesman has since denied the report. That appeared to be the biggest remaining issue before the league announced an agreed sale and it will likely remain a point of contention before owners formally vote to ratify.
The NFL hired White in February 2022 to look into Snyder and the Commanders, and she reportedly expects the entire report to be made public, not just a list of its findings. A previous investigation into the Commanders under Snyder’s watch — conducted by lawyer Beth Wilkinson — never released specific findings to the public. That was in part due to a “common interest agreement” where both Snyder and the NFL had to agree on any information before it was released to the public. That’s an outcome Snyder wants repeated. In July 2021, a brief summary of the report was released, Snyder was fined $10 million, and he transferred day-to-day control of the team to his wife.
You can’t put it past Snyder to try delaying the approval until all parties agree to keep the report confidential or scuttle it all together. It would only be fitting if Snyder’s scandal-ridden reign as Washington’s owner ended with him kicking and screaming out the door. Regardless, his days as an NFL owner are almost over.
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