Washington Commanders Reportedly Get Low Bids For Ownership After Jeff Bezos Does Not Submit Offer
Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder hired a bank to explore the sale of the franchise in November. Now, two months later, the offers coming in are reportedly lower than previously thought.
In addition, one expected high-profile bidder — Jeff Bezos — has not submitted a formal offer.
Multiple reports in November said that the Amazon founder was set to make a combined bid with Jay-Z. That could still happen, but has not yet.
According to Front Office Sports, Bezos did not place a bid for the Commanders ahead of last month's deadline. It could not confirm who did submit bids to Bank of America, which is the bank handling the process on behalf of Snyder, but it could confirm that he was not one of them.
Snyder purchased the franchise for $800 million in 1999. It could reportedly sell from anywhere between Forbes' $5.6 billion evaluation and $8 billion.
For now, the numbers are on the lower end.
Per FOS, the highest of the half-dozen bids that were submitted at/before the first-round deadline on Dec. 23 was $6.3 billion. That is considered a low-ball number compared to what Snyder hoped to see.
A large reason for that number stems from Bezos' lack of involvement. He and Shawn Carter did not come in hot with a big offer, which would have sparked a bidding war.
Instead, the duo chose to hold off.
Other interested suitors may be timid to go any higher because of the stadium situation. FedEx Field is a problem. It has to go.
However, building a stadium could cost upward of $3 billion and public financing could be difficult. That new stadium cost may have factored into the bids.
Washington will not comment on any potential transactions. This conversation could be entirely moot and Snyder could chose not to sell. It's all up in the air, but Bezos isn't in the mix at the moment.