Report: Bezos, Jay-Z could buy Washington Commanders

Other suitors include entertainment mogul Byron Allen

Published November 4, 2022 by Kate Andrews

Could Beyoncé become a regular presence at Washington Commanders games? It’s within the realm of possibility. According to The Washington Post, Amazon.com Inc. founder and Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos and billionaire rapper Jay-Z (Beyoncé’s husband) may team up to buy the Ashburn-based NFL team, currently owned by Dan and Tanya Snyder.

On Wednesday, the Commanders announced that the Snyders had hired Bank of America Securities to consider potential offers for the team’s sale, according to a news release. Dan Snyder has been under increasing pressure to sell the team in recent weeks, as both he personally and the team’s head office have been under investigation by the NFL and Congress for alleged sexual harassment and fostering a hostile work environment. Recent leaks from inside the group of NFL team owners indicated that some want Snyder to sell the team, which he’s owned since 1999. Tanya Snyder, his wife, took over as co-CEO of the team in 2021, following the NFL’s $10 million fine of the team, which was formerly known as the Washington Redskins and by the interim Washington Football Team moniker.

Also on Wednesday, ESPN reported that the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia has opened a criminal investigation into allegations that the Commanders engaged in financial improprieties.

As owner of The Washington Post, Bezos already has considerable ties to the Washington, D.C., region, where he owns a $23 million mansion in the city’s tony Kalorama neighborhood. This fall, Amazon Prime started carrying the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” games. The Post reports that Bezos is interested in bidding for the team, and that Jay-Z, who was part owner of the Brooklyn Nets NBA team and was allegedly eyeing the Denver Broncos NFL team last year, would be part of the bid.

Other people mentioned as having an interest in buying the Commanders are Entertainment Studios Inc. Chairman and CEO Byron Allen, who also tried to buy the Broncos; Tesla and SpaceX head Elon Musk, who took over Twitter this week for $44 billion;  Washington Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, who also are bidding on the Washington Nationals baseball team; and former Broncos bidders Behdad Eghbali and Jose E. Feliciano, according to the Post report.

The Commanders — despite a mediocre record since 1999, when Snyder purchased the team, including no championship wins — are assessed as being worth $5.6 billion, although the price could climb higher, according to estimates.

The announcement that the Snyders are considering selling the team did not specify whether they would sell the entire team or  minority shares in the team. Last year, Snyder purchased his former partners’ shares of the team for $875 million, taking on $450 million in debt, making him the full owner of the Commanders. He had been feuding with co-owners Dwight Schar, Robert Rothman and Frederick Smith, who bought into the team in 2003 but tried to sell their stakes last year, The New York Times reported.

Earlier this year, as Snyder and the team’s front office were accused of sexual misconduct and were the subject of NFL and congressional investigations, Virginia lawmakers backed away from offering a generous incentive package for the Commanders to build a new stadium in Loudoun County or Prince William County, and Maryland and Washington officials have similarly declined to welcome a new stadium to replace FedEx Field in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

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