We got some breaking news during the late afternoon on Monday: Josh Harris’ bid to buy the Commanders is officially submitted to the NFL, meaning that indeed, the sale is in its initial steps of motion towards Harris buying the team.
The news was broken by Sportico’s Scott Soshnick, and as it broke, Eben Novy-Williams, who broke news of the sale initially for Sportico, joined Craig Hoffman on The Team 980 with the latest.
“I think the big headline here is that this is an incremental step forward for the sale. If this was any other transaction we wouldn’t be taking about it, because it is pretty perfunctory, but in this sale, for all the reasons Commanders fans are all too familiar with, it’s a big step because it indicates that Dan is still going ahead with the sale to the Josh Harris group,” Novy-Williams said. “The NFL will look at this to make sure there’s nothing in the deal that is untoward or surprising or violates league rules. This is not the process that vets Josh and his limited partners, but this is a preliminary look at pricing and financing and who’s involved, etc. Once the NFL approves, the next step is putting names on paper, and then once the deal is signed, I think Commanders fans can really breathe a sigh of relief, but I think we’re getting closer by the day.”
Exactly what does that mean?
“The easiest way to describe it is to make sure the deal doesn’t violate NFL league rules in any way – like, for instance, the NFL doesn’t allow private equity funds to buy stakes in teams,” Novy-Williams said. “Pricing is another, as the NFL does care how much its teams sell for. Maybe $6 billion is less than some thought Snyder would get, but I don’t think it’s too low a price point to keep the deal from happening. And, the league wants to know the group buying the team has enough money, and they’re not taking on too much debt, and the control owner, which would be Josh, has a certain amount of equity.”
So what kind of timeline might be looking at? Perhaps the next set of NFL Owner’s Meetings in Minneapolis in May could be in play here.
“I think Minneapolis is definitely in play – I don’t know if this will take a day or a few days, but for many reasons, the league wants this sale to happen, and Josh is an established, well-known sports investor who is already a minority investor in the Steelers,” Novy-Williams said. “The league is familiar with him and wants to get this deal done, so for those two reasons, my guess is this won’t be a long process on the NFL side either this time, or when it’s time to vet Josh.”
Related
There’s one other big thing surrounding this deal, and the rumored $7 billion offer Brian Davis has made: indemnification, aka the new owner agreeing to take on any financial ramifications of any judgments passed against Snyder for transgressions while he was owner.
That could be under review in this phase, Novy-Williams said, and he wouldn’t be shocked.
“I haven’t had many conversations about that situation, and I always thought part of that was a decision that would be made when the thought of Dan leaving was on the table,” he said. “I assume we’re going to have some news on that fairly soon and what he’s leaving a far as legal qualifications, but past conversations I’ve had with other NFL owners, it was a non-starter for them. But that’s easy to say eight months before a deal is done as opposed to when it’s the final hurdle.”
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