Dan Snyder and his family will soon control 100 percent of the Washington Football Team after the NFL cleared the way for him to buy out the franchise's three minority owners, according to multiple media reports.
The other NFL owners unanimously approved a $450 million debt waiver so Snyder can purchase the 40.5 percent stake of the WFT owned by Frederick W. Smith (10 percent), Dwight Schar (15 percent), and Robert Rothman (15 percent) for $875 million.
Snyder, who first bought the franchise for $800 million in 1999, will regain total control of the franchise for the first time since 2003. He will have until 2028 to repay the debt.
News of an agreement between Snyder and his minority partners was first reported last week and the sale's approval ends nearly a year of public squabbling between the two parties.
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The dispute spilled into public once the three minority owners made their intention to sell their shares of the franchise and Snyder blocked the sale of their 40 percent stake. Several lawsuits in federal court, complete with nasty filings and leaks to the press, followed.
The sale, which is expected to close this week, will end the dispute between Snyder and the team's former co-owners, according to ESPN's Seth Wickersham.
The NFL owners' approval of the debt waiver and Snyder's purchase, however, does not spell the end to the league's independent investigation into the team after numerous sexual harassment allegations by former employees came to light during the last year. The investigation, led by attorney Beth Wilkinson, is still ongoing.
Attorneys representing some of the women who have accused the organization of allowing a workplace that tolerated sexual harassment ripped the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell for allowing Snyder to complete the purchase of the team before reviewing Wilkinson's investigation.
“We are shocked that you have not only ignored that recommendation, but have instead facilitated an arrangement that leaves Mr. Snyder," the lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, wrote.
In late February, seventeen named and three unnamed former team employees represented by Katz and Banks signed an open letter demanding transparency from the league. “Each of us endured and/or witnessed a sexually hostile work environment, bullying, and other mistreatment carried out or condoned by owner Daniel Snyder and other executives of the WFT,” they wrote.
Goodell has not committed to making the report public. A league spokesman told The Washington Post last week the Wilkinson investigation and the decision to allow Snyder to buy out the minority owners were “two separate matters.”
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