Jerry Jones believes Commanders, Josh Harris deal is as good as done
Count Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, as someone who believes the Washington Commanders sale will get done. The numbers may need to be massaged, but there’s a deal in sight.
“I would anticipate it,” Jones told reporters as the NFL conducted its meetings outside Minneapolis.
“These are outstandingly qualified owners,” Jones said of Josh Harris, who leads an ownership group wanting to buy the Commanders. “That always rules the day on getting it ruled and cleared with the NFL.”
Earlier this month, Dan Snyder announced that he had reached a sale with Josh Harris to purchase the Commanders. Harris, and his group of investors, offered $6.05 billion for the team that Snyder bought in 1999 for $800 million,
After the NFL finance committee goes through the paperwork, the next step is for the NFL owners to vote on the sale. It won’t happen this week. The NFL announced last week there would be no vote.
And Jones said he’s not worried about the deal.
“Not if it’s structured — if it’s structured right, which it will be,” Jones said. “And it’s too important to have the right structure for them coming in, because they’ll benefit from the way it’s been structured for everybody else in the past that have come in. And so structure is important.”
Owners say the Commanders sale gets done, but not this week
Harris would seem to be the perfect owner of the Commanders. After all, he grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, which is a Washington, D.C. suburb. And he already owns the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. He owns a $140 million stake in the Steelers, but would need to sell those shares before he can buy the commanders. Harris built an ownership group last year to buy the Broncos. Although he lost out to Rob Walton and Greg Penner for Denver, the NFL did vet his finances.
Snyder and his wife, Tanya, the Commanders’ co-CEO, aren’t attending the owners meeting this week.
Jim Irsay, who owns the Indianapolis Colts, said everyone wants to see this deal get done. But there’s more vetting to do.
“It’s just, being on the finance committee and representing the ownership, there’s certain criteria that [have] to be met. I mean, that’s just the way it ism” Irsay told reporters. “And it’s not there yet. But it doesn’t mean that it can’t get there. It’s complicated. … We’re trying to do everything we can do to make the deal work.”
He added “everyone wants to get it done, and it’s just seeing that it complies with league policy. It’s a complicated deal. So we’re trying to just work through it, and we’re hopeful that we can get it done. It’s going to take probably several more weeks of discussions before we see if we can reach the goal line there. But everyone’s — they’re hopeful, and we want to keep working in that direction.”
A year ago, the owners didn’t approve the Broncos sell until August, so there’s still plenty of time to get the Commanders deal done before fall.