Billionaire Harris, NBA icon Johnson team in bid for NFL’s Commanders: reports

A group led by billionaire investor Josh Harris and NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson has submitted one of two multi-billion-dollar bids for the NFL’s embattled Washington Commanders, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The Post was among US media outlets citing unnamed sources saying at least one formal bid had been submitted.

According to the newspaper, Harris’s group includes Maryland billionaire businessman and philanthropist Mitchell Rales as well as former Los Angeles Lakers great Johnson.

Harris, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, already owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and is a co-owner of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and a general partner of the English Premier League’s Crystal Palace.

ESPN reported the Harris-Johnson group is offering to pay the $6 billion that has been reported as the price sought by Commanders owner Dan Snyder.

Snyder and his wife Tanya announced in November they were exploring purchase deals for the club.

Snyder, who purchased the Commanders — then the Washington Redskins — in 1999, has been at the center of multiple investigations into the running of the team.

A US Congressional report released in December said that Snyder “permitted and participated” in a toxic workplace culture and tried to dissuade witnesses from cooperating with a 14-month investigation launched by the league.

In 2021, the NFL fined the club — then going by the name of the Washington Football Team — $10 million and required Snyder to relinquish day-to-day operations for several months.

The Post and other outlets reported that Canadian billionaire developer Steve Apostolopoulos, the managing partner of Triple Group of Companies and founder of the Six Ventures private equity fund, had also bid for the club.

Any sale of the club requires approval of 75% of the other 31 NFL clubs.