Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was not allowed to bid for the Washington leadership position, the team’s banker, Bank of America, told the billionaire, a person familiar with the sale confirmed to the athlete.
The person added that preventing Bezos from bidding had been a reality for months.
Bezos owns The Washington Post, which ran a series of stories documenting a culture of sexual harassment on the team that ultimately helped fuel pressure for the sale. But then longtime team owner Daniel Snyder felt, those close to him over the years said, that the paper sought to oust him from the NFL.
“It’s a free country,” said the person familiar with the sale. “He can sell to whomever he wants.” Bezos, because he was barred from bidding, had no access to the team’s finances.
The New York Post reported on Friday for the first time Snyder should keep Bezos out of the sale, he added, adding that the Commander’s owner could decide to retain control of the franchise he has owned since 1999 if bids do not reach the asking price.
However, a person close to the situation said the athlete This activity with the potential sale “intensified”.
the athlete He also confirmed a Washington Post report that Bezos has been working with banking firm Allen & Co and is considering making a bid.
Chiefs coach Ron Rivera concluded a month-long search for an offensive coordinator last week. The new employee, former OC Eric Bieniemy, asked Rivera and team boss Jason Wright for clarification on the franchise sale during the meeting.
“That’s part of what I definitely had to answer,” Wright said Thursday after Bienemy’s inaugural press conference. “And that’s my job, isn’t it? I’m the closest to it all. Eric, just like the rest of us, sees the transition as something good for the organization… There’s nothing but a positive side to the organization, and we’ve already had a lot of success rebuilding the football side of Business from where we started when Ron took over.”
Bezos did not bid in the first round of bidding, which closed recently.
Those bids were reportedly less than $6 billion, though sports banking and law professionals said some could be higher than that number.
Previously, word in the market was that Snyder wouldn’t accept anything less than $7 billion, a number that now appears to have dropped to $6 billion. That’s still $1.35 billion more than what the Denver Broncos sold last year, which is a record for a professional sports team. While the Broncos are in a smaller market, the leaders’ presence and reputation in the market are among the worst in the NFL.
Under intense pressure to relinquish the club after waves of scandals and negative attention, Snyder announced in November that the club had retained Bank of America to run a process that could lead to a full or partial sale of the team, although doubts remained that he would follow suit. during.
Those suspicions will only further disqualify Bezos, and word that the bidding may not have gone as far as Snyder would have preferred.
“That goes to show exactly how many people they fear,” one sports attorney said of the scenario in which Snyder would create an unrealistic price cap, turn away the highest bidder, and not sell the team.
One of the bidders is the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils and Crystal Palace partner Josh Harris. Other reported potential bidders include some who failed to get the Bronco, including media investor Byron Allen, Clearlake Capital founders Bidad Igbali and Jose Feliciano. Harris was also offered to the Broncos.
the athlete I mentioned earlier that Harris recently toured the team’s facilities. Two rounds have been conducted with potential bidders, said a person close to the situation the athlete.
Beniemy asked questions about the Washington managers as much as the team sought information from the eventual new caller, Wright said.
“I mean, of course, the question about stability and regulation and the deal process and the sale and all this other stuff,” Wright said. “For someone who would be a close teammate and leader committed to getting us to a championship, it was important to be able to answer those.”
The captains and Snyder are subject to an NFL-led investigation into sexual harassment and misconduct in the workplace, as well as an investigation into concerns that he caused a dip in revenue that was to be shared with the other owners. Both are overseen by former SEC chair Mary Jo White.
It’s been more than a year since the NFL hired White to investigate, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said repeatedly that the league has no control over when its investigation is completed. Some view this assertion skeptically, believing that the results of the investigations might be sidelined if he sold Snyder, or threatened to release him if he stopped selling.
Colts owner Jim Irsay became the first of Snyder’s peers to say publicly that there was merit to a ouster at the league’s fall meetings last year, telling reporters in New York that there was “probably” enough support from other owners to remove Snyder.
It would take 24 out of 32 owners to vote to oust a peer, an event that has never happened in any league in the United States.
If it comes down to it, Snyder would almost certainly say he can’t get a fair price for the team because he’s forced to sell and the bidders know that, said one sports investment banker, who asked not to be identified because he has done business in the past with the team. . NFL owners will want to see a higher bidder because it affects their franchise ratings.
But it is unclear how Bezos’ exclusion fits into this narrative. And it’s always possible that the NFL will pressure Snyder to let Bezos bid.
Amazon Bezos is a partner in the NFL with its Thursday Football broadcast. There is even talk of the possibility of Bezos selling the newspaper, although whether that was enough for Snyder and his deep hatred of anything associated with the newspaper is uncertain.
(Photo by Jeff Bezos: Jay Bigerstaff/USA Today)
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