The Washington Commanders are for sale, but they are reportedly not for sale to anyone.
According to The Athletic and the New York Post, billionaire Jeff Bezos has been told by Bank of America, the team’s banker, that he is barred from making a bid for the embattled NFL team. The ban has reportedly been known for months, but that didn’t stop Bezos from recently hiring an investment firm to review an offer.
The reason Dan Snyder’s camp is reportedly preventing one of the richest men in the world from bidding billions of dollars for the team seems pretty personal. According to The Athletic, Snyder has believed for years that the Washington Post, which Bezos has owned since 2013, is working to oust him.
It was the Post’s unabashed reporting that exposed much of the rot that pressured Snyder, already one of the NFL’s most disliked owners, to sell the team.
Given what has been reported about Snyder’s personal pettiness, like a certain story about Milch and the Washington Nationals owners, it’s no wonder Snyder would hold a grudge in the way of what is likely the biggest possible offer for his team.
Dan Snyder doesn’t like Jeff Bezos. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
Dan Snyder is reportedly not getting the award he wanted for Commanders
Aside from Bezo’s ban, the bidding process for the Commanders is reportedly not going the way Snyder wanted, unless he never seriously wanted to sell the team he’s owned since 1999.
Snyder is said to have originally been targeting a price tag of $7 billion, which would easily break last year’s record $4.56 billion for the Denver Broncos.
The first round of bidding without Bezos reportedly saw a hefty price tag of $6.3 billion, but the Post reports that Snyder didn’t even get that high, with a top bid of $5.5 billion before that one ended week has been received. The Athletic also reported that all bids were under $6 billion.
However, Snyder is under no obligation to sell at what he considers a low price, so he could just get on with his team and hope the NFL’s current investigation doesn’t hit him any harder than the last one.
Once one of the most valuable franchises in sports, Snyder’s ownership has caused the Commanders’ value to slip to sixth place in the NFL at $5.6 billion, according to Forbes’ most recent estimate. The team hasn’t won a playoff game since 2005, while participating in the team’s widely maligned FedEx Field grew increasingly embarrassing.