Dan and Tanya Snyder, the embattled owners of the Washington Commanders, said Wednesday that they've retained Bank of America Securities to explore a potential sale of the NFL franchise.
In a two-paragraph statement, the team said the Snyders hired the bank to "consider potential transactions" but that the couple are committed to the team.
"The Snyders remain committed to the team, all of its employees and its countless fans to putting the best product on the field and continuing the work to set the gold standard for workplaces in the NFL," the statement read in part.
"Any potential transaction would have to be presented to the NFL Finance Committee for review and require an affirmative vote by three quarters of the full membership (24 of 32 teams)," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement.
“I can’t tell you, you know, what’s going on or why they’re doing it, mostly because any conversation have with them dealing with the organization is private between the two of us,” head coach Ron Rivera said. “But I do know, you know, their focus behind us preparing for this week to play the Vikings.”
“If we let the outside distraction affect the way we prepare, affect the way we come to work every day, then we’re going to look pretty bad on Sunday, which is not going to help the overall optics of everything, so we got a whole lot on our own plate inside this building,” star wide receiver Terry McLaurin said. “I think it’s pretty easy just to try to focus on that.”
The team, which has faltered on the field for years and has the lowest attendance in the NFL, has faced multiple investigations including a congressional probe and two NFL inquiries into toxic workplace culture and allegations of sexual harassment.
Dan Snyder has been a divisive figure for a large part of his more than 20 years of team ownership.
He long vowed to never change the team's former name. His position changed in July 2020 when the national reckoning on race prompted team sponsors to pressure the team to abandon the 87-year-old moniker. The team temporarily rebranded into the Washington Football Team as they worked on choosing a new name.
Three days after the name change announcement, the Washington Post published an investigation in which 15 former female Commanders staffers said they were sexually harassed while working for the team. That led to an NFL investigation into the team. That report was never publicly released.
The team's minority owners sued to sell their shares in the team, which the Snyder family eventually purchased.
As a result of the investigation, Dan Snyder was fined $10 million and agreed to transfer the day-to-day operation of the team to his wife, Tanya.
Calls for the NFL to release the findings of its investigation continued to grow through late 2021. Eventually, Congress got involved with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform pressing the team and NFL for documents related to its probe.
Shortly after the team announced its new name, the Washington Commanders, in the winter of 2022, a new allegation of sexual harassment was levied against Dan Snyder. The NFL hired a new investigator to look into the claims. The NFL has no update on the timeline of that review.
While the congressional probe continued to intensify, the team tried courting politicians in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia to help it build a new state-of-the-art stadium. Several local leaders said they would not engage in discussions about a new stadium so long as Snyder owned the team.
Dan Snyder eventually testified before Congress. Appearing virtually for 10 hours on July 28, he addressed all questions about workplace misconduct, his attorney said.
Just last month, ESPN published a lengthy report citing anonymous sources that alleged Snyder used private investigators to obtain potentially damaging information about fellow NFL owners and NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell. Snyder strongly denied the allegations.
While fellow NFL owners have avoided speaking publicly about Snyder, Colt's owner Jim Irsay was the first to say there is "merit to removing" him. Irsay's comments came after the annual NFL owners' meeting.
Following Wednesday's announcement, Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, attorneys representing 40 former Commanders employees, said they're interested to see how this moves forward but "could obviously be a big step towards healing and closure" for those who came forward about issues with the team's leadership.
“We don’t know if this is going to be selling a majority of the team or just trying to bring in some new investors to help out with a new stadium or things like that,” said John Ourand, sports journalist and DMV native.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser shared her initial reaction to the news before a morning event.
“There have been a lot of objections raised about the team coming back to RFK, where it played for many years, and the ownership was one, the name was one, so I think a number of the obstacles people have raised as criticism, those are the two big ones,” Bowser said.
Council member Charles Allen, who represents the residents in the neighborhoods surrounding RFK Stadium, released a statement saying while he’s encouraged is Snyder wants to sell the team, he still opposes putting an NFL stadium on the site. He wants more amenities for the neighborhood and the people who work and live there.
The federal government still owns RFK Stadium and the 190 acres around it. D.C. can only put a sports and entertainment venue there. If the District wants to do anything else there, the federal government would have to give its OK to do that or transfer the land.
Bowser has proposed putting an indoor recreation center in the area and would like to see new residential and retail development there but is reluctant to spend too much money since D.C. doesn’t own the land.
A statement from Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks expressed continued support for a new stadium in Largo, Maryland.
“A new Commanders stadium would be in the heart of downtown Largo and our Blue Line Corridor, which will include a youth sports complex, an amphitheater, a market hall, a civic plaza, and other amenities that will transform Largo into a sports and entertainment destination for the Commanders, Prince Georgians and visitors across the region,” the statement said.
"We encourage Commanders leadership to continue to build on the partnership that the state and Prince George’s County have developed with team President Jason Wright to lay the groundwork for a world-class facility on the Blue Line Corridor," Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's office said in a statement.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's office referred News4 to the governor's previous comments, which said, “If the Commanders are going to relocate, they should relocate to Virginia. We are the best state to live, work, raise a family, and have a professional sports team. But our legislators have got to do the work. Come back to me with a frame so that we then can negotiate the best deal on behalf of taxpayers. This is a moment where taxpayers have to be represented. And I feel I’m well-equipped to do that. But we need to get our legislators back and that’s not going to happen until January.”
Ourand told News4 the Washington Commander’s potential sale news was a “big surprise.” He said what is notable about today's press release is what is not in it.
“We don’t know if they want to sell a minority stake; we don’t know if they want to sell a majority stake or even the entire team, which is valued, I think Forbes had it between $5 and $6 billion, so it will command a lot of money,” he said. “What we do know is that Dan Snyder, in particular, has pushed backed very, very hard against any kind of insinuation that he’s going to sell the team in total, and so the fact that they did not specify that it’s going to be a minority stake or a majority stake suggests that this is as close as it’s been since the late ‘90s that we might see the local football team changing hands.”
“Any kind of change, that could bring a winning product to the field, is something I think most fans would welcome,” Ourand said.
