The Bombshell

[Neophyte]

And an attitude.

 

[DixieFlatline]

Today, we are all Admiral Ackbar.

I thought you were going this route.

 

[Chris]

Or Stevie A. If you are a professional reporter that can’t pronounce. Phonics can be your friend.

 

[Boone]

**** Adam Schefter. That is all.

 

[Boone]

I'm so proud of this tweet.

 

[Bulldog]

The NFL has to approve the sale so Snyder is incentivized to sell to a group which is likely to gain immediate approval from the Finance Committee.

Harris has already been vetted by the NFL during the sale of the Broncos, so he's the sure thing here.

 

[Rhino-Rhino]

Don't know how reliable the source was, but 106.7 just quoted a "guy in the know" who says that Bezos is not planning on placing a bid. Doesn't surprise me. If true, Dan played this really badly. Did he really think Bezos would make him an offer he couldn't refuse for a team that needs a new stadium and needs to rebuild the fanbase almost from the ground up? Even if Snyder didn't want to sell Bezos the team, you don't run people off.

Hopefully, this report is confirmed and Dan takes the Harris bid. I don't see a better offer on the horizon and if Dan doesn't grab the offer the next one will probably be less just like Maryland and Virginia's stadium bids kept going down instead of up.

You’re all over the place on this imo . Dan just sold the team for a record breaking 6billion plus which is 2 billion more then the broncos deal a year ago seems pretty good to me . And as far as you saying you hope Dan takes this offer because your afraid is he doesn’t he’ll make less ?? I thought we hated Dan so why would you want to see him make more money . If the buyer can get the team for less money maybe he could invest that extra money on I don’t know a stadium

 

[SilentThreat]

You’re all over the place on this imo . Dan just sold the team for a record breaking 6billion plus which is 2 billion more then the broncos deal a year ago seems pretty good to me . And as far as you saying you hope Dan takes this offer because your afraid is he doesn’t he’ll make less ?? I thought we hated Dan so why would you want to see him make more money . If the buyer can get the team for less money maybe he could invest that extra money on I don’t know a stadium

I think his point is that if he doesn't take this one.. he's not likely to get another one he's willing to accept.

 

[SilentThreat]

Good ol' Dan Snyder...




Cash grab as he makes his way out the door.

 

[Bulldog]

It appears the Commanders sale may drag into the summer as the number of limited partners Harris is adding is causing some questions with the league about dilution of ownership.

That was a report from CBS sports that the Junkies ran with this morning.

I thought all along that Harris might have to divest himself of his share of the Devils to help finance this. Evidently, his solution was to bring on board and then increase the share of a number of limited partners.

The Broncos deal went through because the financing was transparent, Walton put up the money and self-financed the purchase from his existing assets.

The structure of the Harris group reminds me of the old Oakland Raiders that had 20 plus owners with Al Davis as the managing partner.

The NFL has always been against having ownership fractionalized to that degree but with the Raiders it was all part of the package deal with the merger in 1970.

 

[SilentThreat]

This is likely a jumping off point for them to amend a lot of the language surrounding debt waivers and requirements. Those bylaws and things that were written, were done when the pool of people who could buy teams wasn't exactly lacking. Now you don't even have to take your 2nd mitten off to count how many people in the US have the liquidity to buy an NFL team. The NFL likely will push this through, and things will be changed going forward with this being a new norm.

 

[Boone]

Lot of click bait posts from both the Washington Post and 106.7 as if the ‘deal is in trouble’ which more reputable sources like AJ Perez have refuted. It’s obviously more complicated with so many minority ownership candidates and ST did a good job of explaining this is probably the new norm.

 

[Neophyte]

This is likely a jumping off point for them to amend a lot of the language surrounding debt waivers and requirements. Those bylaws and things that were written, were done when the pool of people who could buy teams wasn't exactly lacking. Now you don't even have to take your 2nd mitten off to count how many people in the US have the liquidity to buy an NFL team. The NFL likely will push this through, and things will be changed going forward with this being a new norm.

Agreed. Been saying this all along.

The price of NFL teams has skyrocketed in the last 2 decades and, in our current Bread and Circuses country, they aren't likely to stop going up. If the Commanders franchise, with all it's current baggage and investment needs, is worth over $6B in 2023, I have to think that the Seahawks, a franchise in a much better position in terms of infrastructure and fan support, will be worth more when the Allen Estate gets around to selling in 2024 or 2025. The Chargers are another franchise that could be on the market in the next few years and it could be worth more than Seattle with the new SoFi stadium and SoCal market.

It may sound crazy but we could see teams selling for $10B or more by the end of this decade.

Per Forbes's current list of the richest Americans, there are only 153 people who are worth the $6B that Washington is selling for now. There are only 63 people in the US worth $10B or more. And that is just net worth - not, as Derek has pointed out, liquidity. I have no experience in the world of high finance but I have to think that a person would have to be worth a lot more than the asking price of the team to have the liquidity to buy one.

And as we have seen with Bezos, just having the money isn't enough. They have to actually want to. Guys like Gates, Buffet, Balmer, Musk, Ellison, and others have all had the financial muscle to buy an NFL team for years. None have ever been reported as even vaguely interested. Granted, I'd never heard Rob Walton's name mentioned in connection with an NFL team before last year either but you have to think he is probably an outlier.

All this tells me that Derek's point is well made. The NFL is either going to have to change the rules of ownership or allow the super-rich from foreign countries into the club.

And sooner rather than later.

 

[Boone]

 

[Chris]

 

[Boone]

 

[Chris]

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

Please let the door hit them and knock them over so they fall on their face.

 

[Boone]

 

[Boone]

Pretty clear that I was correct on the Mary Jo White report - it's been complete for awhile - they were simply holding it until the deal was finalized to avoid lashback from Snyder, and (more cynically) so that the positive wave of enthusiasm for the team sale would muffle the impact of it.

The most damning aspect of what has been leaked so far is that the Commander's organization ran cover for Snyder and did not cooperate fully as Front Office leaders have insisted numerous times over the past year.