On Thursday, July 20, NFL owners gathered during a special session to unanimously approve the Washington Commanders sale of $6.05B from the Snyder family to the Harris Group who is led by Josh Harris.
Which means Dan Snyder is no longer the owner of the Washington Commanders and fans everywhere are rejoicing.
Snyder had a questionable tenure as owner that included being fined for workplace misconduct, along with investigations of sexual harassment, among other accusations.
Snyder also didn’t do enough to create a winning team and give fans something to root for, including a failed rebranding of the team.
Josh Harris is from Maryland and is a long time Washington football fan, so the sale with him leading the way should be a signal of hope for Washington diehards. The Harris Group includes NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, Billionaire Mitchell Rales (who is also from Maryland) and 20 other partners.
Leading up to this sale, Harris and Snyder had entered into an exclusive agreement on May 12, but according to reports, the NFL’s financial committee wanted Harris to adjust the offer made on the team to fit better with the NFL’s guidelines.
However, this is not Harris’s first rodeo at owning a team.
Along with David Blitzer as part of the Harris-Blitzer Sports Entertainment Group, Harris has partial ownership in the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.
The Commanders had last won a playoff game in 2005 so the new ownership should do wonders for the team. Harris stated that his first and main priority is to create a top-caliber championship winning team, which will finally give Washington fans something to root and cheer for.
The future seems bright for the Commanders as we await to see what this new ownership does.