Daniel Snyder will remain with the Washington Commanders for at least a few more months.
The deal Snyder struck last week with 76ers majority owner Josh Harris is simply too new for the league’s 31 other owners to vote on during next week’s Spring League Meeting in Minnesota.
But that should not be taken to mean the sale is in any way in danger of not going through.
Washington Commanders Sale Update
Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications, revealed the league’s plans to hold off on vote during a news conference Thursday.
Last week, Harris entered into an agreement to buy the Commanders for an estimated $6 billion. But there’s far more that goes into such a massive transaction than one side raising the money and the other agreeing to accept it. Significant vetting is involved, and the league simply hasn’t had enough time to get through it.
“There’ll be an update for the membership on the purchase-and-sales agreement,” Miller said Thursday “… There will not be any votes at this time.”
Once the NFL signs off on the sale, it will take a three-quarters majority vote by ownership (at least 24 of 32) for the transaction to become official.
Harris is the face of a broad investment group that includes NBA great Magic Johnson, Mitch Rales, and David Blitzer.
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“I want to express how excited we are to be considered by the NFL to be the next owners of the Washington Commanders and how committed we are to delivering a championship-caliber franchise for this city and its fanbase,” Harris said upon the news of the agreement.
Some have speculated that a potential holdup is due to Snyder’s reluctance to have the results of Mary Jo White’s inquiry into the Commanders’ workplace culture and Snyder’s detrimental impact on it made public.
But Miller reiterated Thursday’s the league’s position that “once [White] completes her review, we’ll release the findings of it, as we’ve said for some period of time. No other news to report there.”
The reported $6 billion price tag would make the Commanders the most expensive franchise in NFL history. The existing record sales price is $4.65 billion, which is the amount that Walmart heir Rob Walton ponied up for the Denver Broncos last summer.
That figure was the highest price ever for any sports franchise globally.