The Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is apparently serious in his plans to buy Washington Commanders despite the fact that the NFL franchise has a staggering $7 billion selling price. However, reports are emerging that the billionaire is ready to sell the Washington Post in order to release funds for his purchase of the football team.
It comes after the close of a season where the Commanders finished bottom of the tough NFC East but still made some improvements over their dismal recent form. With a playing record of 8-8-1 the Commanders are out of the odds for the Super Bowl at the sportsbooks featured at wetten.com, but the early signs are that Washington have turned a corner
Are the Commanders ready for a change in ownership?
It all comes at a pivotal moment in the history of Washington Commanders. Last November saw the controversial team owner Dan Snyder making the shock announcement that he was hiring a team of financial experts to consider how he could sell the team. Rumors were that Snyder was willing to even accept a minority shareholder even if someone didn’t want to buy the whole franchise outright.
Snyder has been the owner of Washington’s NFL franchise for over 20 years and his tenure has been littered with controversy. Most of the team’s fans will be more than unhappy with an abysmal record in the league that makes it over 30 years since Washington last won the Super Bowl.
This has been coupled up with multiple accusations of how Snyder has engineered a toxic workplace culture at the Commanders and it’s hoped that a new owner could help Washington enter a positive new era.
Why is Bezos so keen on buying the Commanders
While Jeff Bezos is synonymous with the Seattle-based ecommerce giant Amazon, he has ties with the Washington area and has long been considered to be a future owner of the NFL franchise. Recent years have seen such speculation intensify and things came to a head when he recently launched a joint bid with the rapper Jay-Z.
Estimates vary for how much the Commanders are worth but the asking price is widely believed to be somewhere between $5.6 billion and $7 billion. Such a large figure is still just a fraction of Bezos’ personal fortune which is thought to be over $120 billion.
While Bezos has money to spare, he is still considering selling the Washington Post newspaper in his bid to own the football franchise. Much of this is based on speculation since a video leak emerged hinting that there would be potential redundancies at the newspaper in the early months of this year.
Although Bezos is still clearly keen for the deal to get pushed through, it would still need the approval of the NFL before the sale could be made. This would mean that at least 75% of the owners of NFL franchises would need to give the green light to Bezos making the purchase.
If the sale went through, it would mark a huge turning point for the troubled football team. While the recent name change from the Redskins to the Commanders was a positive move for many, it’s clear that much needs to be done to bring the team’s efforts on the gridiron up to standard.
Washington are widely regarded as something of a sleeping giant in the NFL and many believe that it’s only a matter of time before the franchise is back to its best. With the likes of Bezos waiting in the wings, such a transformation could soon become a reality.