“Dan and Tanya Snyder and leaders of Washington today announced that they have hired BofA Securities to look into potential transactions,” the leaders said in their statement. “Snyders remains committed to the team and all of its employees and countless fans to putting the best product on the field and continuing to work to set the gold standard for workplaces in the NFL.”
After purchasing his minority partners in March 2021, Snyder and his family members own the entire franchise. Daniel Snyder led a group of investors who bought the team and its stadium in 1999 for $800 million from Jack Kent Cook’s estate. Forbes estimated in August that the leaders were worth $5.6 billion. A person familiar with the NFL franchise transactions said that Daniel Snyder had recently been interested in trying to sell minority stakes in the team but did not know if this was still his intent. Two others familiar with the inner workings of the NFL said it was not clear to them what Snyder intended to do.
“We are considering all options,” a spokesperson for the leaders said.
The group of buyers for a minority stake in any NFL team is small, given the rapidly rising franchise values. Based on a valuation of $5.6 billion, a 40 percent stake in the leaders would cost $2.24 billion. Minority stakes are usually discounted at around 20% because they have no power in the team’s decision-making process. Even with a 20 percent discount, $1.79 billion would be too high a price for buyers to pay for a minority stake in assets they have no control over.
Furthermore, any potential deal would require the approval of three-quarters of the team’s other owners, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday. Such a vote would take place at a time when Snyder is facing intense scrutiny and is under investigation by the NFL, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and attorneys general in the capital and Virginia. Before Snyder bought his Limited Partners last year, the last sale of a minority stake in the NFL franchise was a December 2020 deal between family members who own the Tennessee Titans.
The NFL declined to comment on Wednesday about the upcoming deal. In March, the NFL owners passed a resolution endorsing diversity in franchise ownership.
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said in recent weeks He and his fellow NFL team owners should seriously consider voting to remove Snyder Owned by leaders.
“I suppose we’ll have more and more discussions about that,” Irsay said last month, speaking to reporters at a owners meeting in New York. “It is a difficult situation. I think there is an advantage to removing him as the owner of [Commanders]. I think it’s something we should review. We have to look at all the evidence, and we have to be meticulous going forward. But I think it’s something that should be taken seriously.”
irsay And expanded in his statements in a phone interview Friday: “I’m not sure how this report was released. But what has already been found is very troubling, and I don’t agree with the process. And I probably don’t agree that we didn’t discuss something more serious like removing it as an owner. Like I said, that’s not something I’d say should be.” We have to do it. I say it’s something that should be taken seriously.”
It would take a vote of at least three-quarters of the owners to remove Snyder from ownership. Several owners told The Post in September that they think can be seriously considered to attempt to drive Snyder out of the league’s ownership ranks, either by persuading him to sell his franchise or by voting to remove it.
“It needs to be sold,” one of those owners said at the time. “Some of us need to go to him and tell him he needs to sell.”
It was not immediately clear on Wednesday whether any owner had urged Snyder to sell.
“I think there will be movement,” the owner himself said in September. “We need to get 24 votes.”
That owner then said that the NFL and its owners “need this to happen like it did in the NBA,” referring to Robert Sarver, owner of the Phoenix Suns, and Phoenix Mercury of the NBA. The NBA suspended Sarver for a year and fined him $10 million after an investigation found he used racial traits and treated female staff to different standards than their male counterparts, among other violations of that league’s policies. Sarver announced in September that it had begun the process of finding buyers for the two franchises.
The current investigation into the NFL is being conducted by attorney Mary Jo White.
“Mary Jo White continues to review her,” McCarthy said Wednesday. “We have no update on the timetable.”
The league launched the White investigation after Tiffany Johnston, the former cheerleader and marketing director for the team, said at a congressional roundtable in February that Snyder harassed her at the team dinner, put his hand on her thigh and pressed her toward his limousine. Snyder denied the accusations, calling them “blatant lies.”
In June, The Post reported details of An employee alleges that Snyder sexually assaulted her during a flight on his private jet in April 2009. Later that year, the team agreed to pay the employee $1.6 million, who fired him, in a confidential settlement. In court filing for 2020, Snyder The woman’s claims were described as “unworthy”.
In April, the House committee detailed allegations of financial wrongdoing by Snyder and the team in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission. Racine, the Democratic District Attorney, and the Republican Attorney General of Virginia, Jason Millais, announced that they would investigate. The team denied any financial wrongdoing.
Racine’s office is about to finish its investigations and Planning to take further action in the casea person familiar with the investigation said last month.
“News of today that Dan and Tanya Snyder are exploring the sale of the Washington leaders is a good development for the team, its former and current employees, and its many fans,” attorneys Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, who represent more than 40 former employees of the team, said in a statement Wednesday. “We’ll have to see how this happens, but obviously this could be a huge step toward recovery and closure for the many brave women and men who have come forward.”
The NFL has not said when White’s investigation will be completed. The association said White’s report, in contrast to the findings of an earlier investigation into the team’s workplace conducted by attorney Beth Wilkinson, will be made public.
The House committee is expected to announce its findings in the coming weeks. Daniel Snyder remotely testified before the committee for more than 10 hours in July. The former team boss, Bruce Allen, gave a remote statement for about 10 hours under a subpoena in September.
In March, Snyder bought his three limited partners — Dwight Shar, Fred Smith and Robert Rothman, who collectively owned about 40 percent of the franchise — for $875 million. That deal required his fellow 31-year-olds to give him a waiver to take over an additional $450 million in debta debt that must be repaid by 2028.
The Post reported in November 2020 that Snyder Partners Ltd. had received an offer of $900 million from Baghdad Ighbali and Jose Feliciano, the billionaire co-founder of Clearlake Capital, and Feliciano’s wife, Kwanza Jones. Sale bannedPeople familiar with the situation at the time said that Snyder was trying to exercise his right of first refusal by matching offers to Smith and Rothman but not to Shar. This has led to a dispute over whether Snyder is entitled to selectively exercise these rights.
Ighbali and Feliciano were reportedly among the bidders on the Denver Broncos, which the Pat Bowlen Trust sold in June to a group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton for $4.65 billion. This is the most paid for an NFL franchise. the owners Believe in buying Walton in August.
The team’s announcement on Wednesday also comes as public funding negotiations for a potential new stadium are stalled for the leaders. The state legislator, who led the effort to attract leaders to Virginia in June, said those efforts had stalled. Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslow (Fairfax Democrat) said at the time, “There were a lot of things a lot of people were saying, ‘Saslow, this thing needs to wait. “”
Prior to Wednesday, the leaders said Snyder would not sell the team. A team spokesperson said following Irsay’s original public comments: “We are confident that when given the opportunity to see actual evidence in this case, Mr. Irsay will conclude that there is no reason for Snyders to consider selling the franchise. Nor will they.”
In July 2021, the NFL announced The team was fined $10 millionbased on Wilkinson’s investigation, and that Tanya Snyder would oversee the day-to-day operations of the franchise for an indefinite period.
“Typical food guru. Problem solver. Devoted beer practitioner. Professional reader. Baconaholic.”