Another day and another twist in the saga of the sale of the Washington Commanders.
We know Josh Harris and Daniel Snyder have struck a deal, and that deal is currently in the hands of the NFL Finance Committee before taking to owners for a vote. Earlier this week, we learned late that vote could take place in late July or early August, meaning Harris and his partners could be in place as Washington’s new owners before Week 1.
Multiple NFL owners and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke on the Commanders’ sale at NFL owners meetings, and all said there was work that needed to be done, but things were trending in a positive direction.
On Friday, Mike Ozanian of Forbes reported that Harris’ group would need to change financing in order for the NFL owners to approve the deal.
Some of the league owners are concerned that as the deal currently stands, Harris’ group would finance the purchase with a down payment of $5.85 billion that would include $3.75 billion of equity, $1.1 billion of secured debt and $1 billion of unsecured debt. In addition, Snyder would get 50% of the incremental increase in the Commander’s gross revenue over the subsequent two years that will be paid out of the team’s cash flow. (Snyder thinks the two parties will split $400 million while Harris believes $200 million will be split down the middle.) Add that all up, and you get the total purchase price of $6.05 billion.
Then there was this:
Another concern: The NFL limits the number of investors in a team to 25—a general partner who must own at least 30% of the team (in this instance, Harris) and 24 limited partners. As the deal is currently configured, there are more than 24 limited partners when the investors within the various LP groups are counted, according to people familiar with the agreement.
In Ozanian’s story, someone close to the Harris group offered the following statement on the number of investors.
A person close to the Harris group who refused to respond to questions from Forbes prior to this article’s publication subsequently responded by saying “there is no unsecured debt and there are 21 individual investors, including Josh Harris.”
It’s worth noting that Ozanian is the one who first reported that Snyder had put the Commanders up for sale in early November.
Shortly after, A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports, who has also accurately reported on the Commanders’ sale multiple times, said any “tweaks” to Harris’ $6.05 billion agreement to buy the team aren’t expected “to derail the timeline of approval.”
“Any adjustments required to the bid are modest and manageable,” Perez wrote as he received the quote from a source.
Another update from Perez noted that Harris has 20 partners [21 with Harris], which is under the NFL limit and in line with what the Harris source told Forbes.
Perez closed his story with another quote from one of his sources.
The bid was thoughtfully structured and compliant with NFL rules.
The stories from both Forbes and FOS match what the NFL owners and Goodell said earlier this week.
Washington fans are probably tired of hearing these updates and are just ready for this to be over with.
