Commanders close in on $6bn sale to group including Magic Johnson

Canadian billionaire ‘becomes SECOND interested party to submit fully financed $6b bid to buy the Commanders’ – hours after Magic Johnson teamed with 76ers owner Josh Harris to vie for NFL club

  • Josh Harris-led group has submitted a fully-financed $6bn bid for Commanders
  • Embattled current owner Dan Snyder has been exploring options since last year
  • Click here for all your latest international sports news from DailyMail.com 

The Washington Commanders have moved a step closer to new ownership after two separate groups have submitted $6billion bids, according to ESPN.

One offer was submitted by billionaires Josh Harris, Mitchell Rales and NBA legend Magic Johnson, while another was made by Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported there is a growing belief the team gets sold before the first round of the NFL Draft on April 27. 

The future of the NFL team has been up in the air since embattled owner Dan Snyder enlisted the Bank of America to explore a potential sale of the team last year, and until now, no interested party had reached his lofty valuation.

Harris already owns the Philadelphia 76ers NBA team and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, while he is a part-owner of Premier League soccer’s Crystal Palace as well. 

Rales, meanwhile, has no previous history of owning a sports franchise, but has an estimated net worth of $5.5b. Johnson is currently a part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. 


Magic Johnson (L) is teaming up with Josh Harris (R) in a bid to buy Washington Commanders

A $6billion, fully-financed bid has been submitted to current owner Dan Snyder (pictured) 

The 58-year-old Snyder has faced fans’ calls to sell the struggling team for years, but pressure has been mounting since 2020 following accusations of sexual harassment, financial impropriety, and obstruction against the team and Snyder himself. 

Sexual harassment allegations against team employees ranged from inappropriate comments to the creation of a lewd behind-the-scenes video from a cheerleader calendar shoot in 2008, according to the 2020 Washington Post report that first uncovered the claims. 

A former cheerleader also alleged that Snyder suggested that she join his ‘close friend’ in a hotel room in 2004 so they ‘could get to know each other.’

Snyder denied this claim in a 2020 statement: ‘I want to unequivocally state that this never happened.’

Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos

While the Commanders have fired many of the individuals accused of sexual harassment and paid a $10 million fine to the NFL, Snyder has defiantly denied accusations against him in the face of subsequent investigations. 

The Democrat-led House Oversight committee launched an investigation into the Commanders and the league probe after the NFL decided against compiling its findings in a formal written report, citing confidentiality concerns. 

The Committee investigation uncovered previously unknown allegations against the team and Snyder before it was ended when Republicans took control of Congress in 2022. 

Specifically, former team employee Tiffani Johnston claimed to the Oversight Committee that Snyder grabbed her thigh at a team dinner and pressured her to get into a limousine.

Snyder has denied this claim.

Redskins cheerleaders seen dancing as part of a 2004 event, where Tiffany Bacon Scourby claims Snyder suggested she spend some time with a close friend of his in a nearby hotel room

Ex-Commanders employee Tiffani Johnston claims Snyder grabbed her leg at a team dinner

Another woman, Melanie Coburn, said she was at Snyder’s home in Aspen when he hosted a party with prostitutes for male employees. 

‘I returned to Dan Snyder’s house only to be sent to my room in the basement and told to stay there,’ Coburn told the House Oversight Committee. ‘I later learned from a colleague that was there it was because the men had invited prostitutes.’

Both Snyder and the Commanders are also being investigated by former US Attorney Mary Jo White, who was appointed by the NFL to probe allegations that arose from a Congressional review into hostile workplace claims. 

On Monday, the Washington Times reported that Snyder has refused to speak with White, although a team spokesperson has declined to weigh into that when asked on the record. 

And those aren’t the only legal problems for Snyder, who faces other civil suits and investigations.

The Attorney General for the District of Columbia has filed a pair of civil suits against the commanders for an alleged scheme to cheat fans out of season-ticket security deposits and accusations that the club, Snyder and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell deceived fans about the initial investigation into hostile workplace claims. 

The Commanders have also settled with Maryland over the aforementioned security-deposit scheme, agreeing to pay a $250,000 penalty.  

The Snyders are exploring the possibility of selling the team, to the pleasure of many fans 

Goodall virtually testifies to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committeen

Following The Washington Post’s recent report that Snyder was seeking to be indemnified were he to sell the team, ESPN reported on March 1 that FBI and IRS agents are investigating claims that Snyder took out a $55 million loan without the knowledge of his then-minority partners.

After years of disputes, Snyder bought out minority owners Dwight Schar, a home construction executive, Black Diamond Capital CEO Bob Rothman, and FedEx founder Fred Smith in the spring of 2021. The trio had previously filed an injunction in hopes of being allowed to sell their 40.5-percent stake of the team, which Snyder ultimately purchased after the NFL approved a debt-limit waiver, allowing him to take out a $450 million loan from Bank of America.

Now a federal grand jury has issued subpoenas related to team finances, according to ESPN. 

The former minority partners had reportedly demanded an NFL investigation into the alleged $55 million loan during a confidential arbitration hearing, but at least one source with knowledge of the proceedings told ESPN that Schar, Smith and Rothman believed league commissioner Roger Goodell and general counsel Jeffrey Pash sided with Snyder. 

If Snyder did take out the $55 million loan without informing his now-former minority partners, it would have violated the team’s shareholder agreement, according to documents obtained by the AP. 

Bank of America officials repeatedly requested proof that the board had approved the loan, only to close on the deal without receiving any such confirmation. Documents obtained by the AP show one team lawyer acknowledging in a letter that the board approval was never granted. 

A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment to DailyMail.com. 

Fred Smit (pictured), the CEO of Fred Ex was a team minority owner until the spring of 2021 

Former Redskins minority owners Robert Rothman (left), Dwight Schar (middle) with Snyder

Less than a week after Schar, Rothman and Smith pushed NFL arbitrators to investigate the loan, the NFL moved to end the arbitration proceedings, documents show.

Frustrated, Schar, Rothman and Smith hesitantly agreed allow Goodell to mediate the dispute, according to ESPN.

The NFL did not conduct any investigation into the loan, and Snyder has never been penalized over the financial misconduct claims.

Commanders attorney John Brownlee did not respond to ESPN questions about the alleged $55 million loan, but did say the team is cooperating with the DOJ’s request for financial records. 

The team has been largely terrible since Snyder became owner in 1999. Washington, a three-time Super Bowl winner and five-time NFL champion, has reached the postseason only six times over Snyder’s tenure. The current head coach, Ron Rivera, is Snyder’s 10th since taking control of the team.

For decades, protestors have condemned the team over its use of the nickname ‘Redskins’ 

A hand-painted concrete barrier stands in the parking lot of FedEx Field in July of 2020

Throughout Snyder’s tenure, the team has been criticized for its now-former nickname, the Redskins, which is considered offensive to Native Americans.

The Washington team finally rebranded in 2022 as the Commanders after dropping its Redskins name in 2020 under a wave scrutiny following the George Floyd protests.

The team name had been an issue for decades.  

A 2016 Washington Post poll found that 90 percent of the 504 Native American respondents were ‘not bothered’ by the team name. Snyder ultimately wrote an open letter, defending his decision to keep the moniker by citing the study.

However, that survey and other similar studies have been slammed by journalists and social scientists as being unreliable.

‘The reporters and editors behind this story must have known that it would be used as justification for the continued use of these harmful, racist mascots,’ read a statement from the Native American Journalists Association. ‘They were either willfully malicious or dangerously naïve in the process and reporting used in this story, and neither is acceptable from any journalistic institution.’

In March of 2020, UC Berkeley revealed a study that found that more than half of its 1,000 Native American respondents were offended by the team name.

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