The Washington Commanders’ long national nightmare is finally over. Daniel Snyder will sell the club to Josh Harris for $6.05 billion after the NFL’s owners voted on July 20 to unanimously approve the transaction. Harris emerged as the frontrunner to buy the Commanders earlier this year and entered into an agreement with Snyder on May 12.
Josh Harris To Become New Washington Commanders Owner
Harris is no stranger to professional sports franchise ownership, which made him an attractive candidate when the rest of the NFL owners convened to approve his bid. He is currently the owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. Harris also owns a 15% stake in Crystal Palace F.C. of the Premier League.
Additionally, Harris already has his foot in the door of NFL circles. In 2020, he spent $140 million to acquire a stake of less than 5% of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Harris will be required to sell his portion of the Steelers now that he’s been approved as the Commanders’ new owner.
In 2022, Harris attempted to purchase the Denver Broncos. He was reportedly willing to pay $5 billion if guaranteed majority ownership but was never given that assurance. The Broncos were eventually sold to the Walton family for $4.65 billion.
Former NBA star Magic Johnson, who also has stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Sparks, and Los Angeles FC, joined Harris’ ownership group in March. Johnson was part of Harris’ bid to purchase the Broncos last year, while he reportedly explored buying a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders in October.
How Did Josh Harris Make His Money?
After graduating from Penn and Harvard, Harris worked in mergers and acquisitions at Drexel Burnham Lambert before co-founding the alternative investment firm Apollo Global Management alongside billionaires Mark Rowan and Leon Black in 1990.
As of Sept. 2020, Apollo reportedly had roughly $433 billion in assets under its management. This includes “credit, private equity, and real assets funds invested across a core group of nine industries where Apollo has considerable knowledge and resources.”
Harris stepped down from day-to-day duties at Apollo in 2021. In Sept. 2022, he founded a new asset management firm called 26North, which reportedly has more than $5 billion in assets under its control.
Josh Harris’ Net Worth
Harris’ net worth is debated, but he’s clearly worth enough to buy the Commanders. While Bloomberg pegs Harris’ net worth at $7.63 billion, Forbes has him closer to $6 billion.
Either figure would place Harris in the middle tier among the NFL’s richest owners. If Harris is worth $7.63 billion, he’d slot in as the league’s 12th-richest owner, just behind the Atlanta Falcons’ Arthur Blank. If the $6 billion figure is correct, he’d be slotted in at No. 14 between the Baltimore Ravens’ Steve Bisciotti and the San Francisco 49ers’ York family.
