The sale of the Commanders, while not complete at this point, has approached the finish line without any involvement from Jeff Bezos. The Amazon founder was consistently named as a suitor to watch with respect to new Washington owners, and he could still be on the league’s radar to purchase aa different franchise down the road.
The NFL is “lobbying Bezos quietly, but hard” on the subject of joining the league’s ownership club, reports Peter King of NBC Sports. The 59-year-old would easily become the wealthiest owner if he were to acquire a franchise, so that news comes as little surprise. The edge in terms of spending power he would have had over any competitors in Washington made him a favorite not long after it was learned Dan Snyder was considering selling the Commanders.
However, obstacles existed which would have made a sale to Bezos difficult. Chief among them was the latter’s ownership of the Washington Post, a source of personal tension between he and Snyder. Bezos was reportedly blocked from participating in the initial rounds of bidding, which cast doubt on his ability to make a last-minute offer on the team. Indeed, shortly before the Josh Harris-led group reached agreement on a $6.05 billion deal, it came out that Bezos would not submit any offer.
With the Commanders off the market, many expect the Seahawks to be next team to be sold. They could become a Bezos target, especially if the league remains highly interested in having him become an owner. However, a change of ownership in Seattle may not be coming in at least the short-term future.
As King notes, any Seahawks sale which takes place before May 2, 2024 would see 10% of the purchase price go the Washington state government. That would represent an obvious factor working against an agreement taking place within the next year or so, especially when coupled with the sentiment made clear by current owner Jody Allen last summer.
“As chair of both the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks, my long-term focus is building championship teams that our communities are proud of,” she said in a July statement. “As we’ve stated before, neither of the teams is for sale and there are not sales discussions happening… There is no preordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.”
Allen, who took over for her late brother Paul in 2018, has been linked to a sale throughout her ownership tenure. The above remarks represented her most definitive denial that one will be coming any time soon, though. If/when that changes, Bezos will remain a name to watch as a potential bidder.
Bezos should buy the Chicago Bears from the McCaskey’s. Virgina is 100 years old and all of the Grandchildren are going to want their own inheritance. Plus it comes with Arlington Park to build the new Amazon Stadium
The truth is that the NFL is approaching a real world limit to what any team can be worth if no one can actually put together a workable bid without having a huge and unwieldy ownership group.
As for Bezos, he is an awful human, thus the NFL should be careful about what it is wishing for.
NFL ownership is already chock full of awful humans. Bezos would fit right in.
Amen. Coming from a screwed over St. Louis Rams fan.
I think Kroenke is the worst of the lot, personally, but he’s got some competition from the Spanos family and the soon to be ex Washington owner.
Kraft may be a good owner in terms of not exploiting his fan base, but he’s not so much in terms of personal decisions. Mike Brown possibly, the Haslams definitely. The Bills’ owners tried to hold New York hostage for a new stadium (and succeeded), Tepper did a bait and switch with South Carolina (and then got minorly screwed by the county…just desserts), Amy Adams Strunk screwed over her siblings for ownership, and the 9ers owners and Jed York have actively interfered in local politics (not that the politicians were any more moral, but still) for years…I’m sure there’s more.
On the upside, the Rooneys and Arthur Blank seem like good enough billionaires. Bisciotti seems like a good guy. Lurie doesn’t seem so bad, and neither do the Hunts. Irsay seems like a total wild card. There’s probably even amounts of good and bad there. Total force of chaos.
And mike brown is just yelling “get off my lawn” at the kids throwing the footsy ball around. Who Dey tryin ruin my petunias?!?!
If there is a limiting value on what teams can be worth it would probably be because these franchises can not form mergers as major corporations often do in other market sectors. Perhaps the NFL could solve the unwieldly ownership issue by going public and launching an IPO…lol.
If I were Bezos (or any potential owner), Seattle would be a tempting landing spot. One reason; stability in the FO and with the head coach.
Pete is going to be 72 this season. What are you talking about “stability”?
It only makes sense bc Bezos lives in Seattle primarily
Boston2AZ, good point, wasn’t considering Pete’s age. That said; main decision makers have been in place for awhile now. Jeff, or whomever, would not be walking in to a chaotic mess like the new owner in Washington will be (IMO, of course).
Z-A 2 “Where there’s smoke there’s fire”. Reports of Jeff Bs interest in Washington and now this kind of news, does seem to indicate his interest in joining “the club”.
I disagree that Snyder blocked him from participating in the Commanders sale. Snyder’s no fool. IMO, cash is king and he would’ve jumped without hesitation if Bezos offered.
Bezos is where he is today because of his high end business acumen. When he makes a business decision, it’s about business. Emotional stuff like buying something because he lives there may come in to play a bit, but definitely a secondary consideration. He looked at Washington. Didn’t like what he saw and moved on.
I think that King’s reasoning is sound regarding Bezos and Seattle. The NFL becoming even more of a conglomeration of the year rich corporate upper crust is a little more than concerning for me personally, however. I doubt that that will change anything, but the NFL is getting even richer and even more corporate. It didn’t seem possible, but it’s somehow becoming even more distant from its fans. I’d expect the lip service that we get to be even more hollow and the strategies even more profit driven than they are now. After all, what more could a multibillion dollar tax exempt monopoly need than the world’s richest man?
I think the NFL is aware they are alienating American fans which is why they are eager to expand to foreign markets and start hoodwinking fans in those locations.
That actually is a good point. If true, it does point to the arrogance of the NFL that they could just treat this like a normal product to “introduce” to a global audience. Americans have been swallowing their B.S. for so long because we grew up with it, and it was a sport in those years, not a product. In its current form, there’s not much to hold a new audience, especially one who’s used to not having commercials during sporting events.
CEO, entrepreneur
Born in 1964
Jeffrey
Jeffrey Bezos
Isn’t Seattle where Bezos started Amazon and called home for much of his adult life?