NFL owners meeting for potential vote on Commanders sale set
The NFL took another step closer to making the sale of the Washington Commanders official. The league owners will vote next month on Josh Harris’ bid to take over the team from Dan Snyder.
On Thursday, the NFL notified all 32 franchises of a meeting set for July 20. That’s according to the Washington Post, which quoted an unnamed source about the date and potential vote.
“Everything is on track,” the source told the Post. “The team and the league and the Harris group all want to get this done. I don’t see any real problems there. … There’s every reason to believe it should get done by then.”
The NFL finance committee met last week to go over Harris’ $6.05 billion bid. The committee is likely to give the proposal its unanimous approval. With that kind of recommendation, it seems unlikely that the bid wouldn’t receive the required vote of at least 24 of the owners. The NFL also set a potential fall back date of Aug. 8.
“The sooner the Harris group can get in control, the better,” the source told the Post about the Commanders sale. “Everyone wants them to be able to get in there as soon as they can. … They want to get something done sooner rather than later, also. It just makes sense that it gets done then. I would expect unanimous approval.”
NFL could approve sale by time Commanders report to camp
By late July, all NFL teams will be starting preseason training camps. The Commanders kickoff preseason workouts, July 26.
A lot of fans already consider the change of ownership a done deal. When news first broke last November that Snyder was putting the team up for sale, the Commanders sold a season’s worth of stadium suites in a week. Meanwhile, Old Ox Brewery introduced a “Bye Dan” IPA to celebrate the transfer of ownership. Head coach Ron Rivera called it a relief.
“It really seemed like a load was lifted, because everybody was on pins and needles for the last couple of months,” Rivera told USA Today. “You kind of wondered what was going to happen.”
Harris made his fortune after co-founding Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm. He grew up in the D.C. area and loved the city’s sports teams. He is the majority owner of the NBA’s 76ers and the Devils in the NHL And he also owns a 15 percent stake in Crystal Palace F.C. of the England’s Premier League. Because he’s buying the Commanders, he has to sell his minority stake in the Steelers.
Fellow billionaire Mitchell Rales, who like Harris, grew up in the D.C. area, also is in the new ownership group. So is NBA icon Magic Johnson. The Harris group tried to buy the Broncos last year, but the NFL approved the $4.65 billion bid from an ownership group led by Rob Walton, the heir to the WalMart fortune.