After a potential sale of the Washington Commanders was floated late last year, many viewed Amazon owner Jeff Bezos as a potential buyer of the franchise. However, Bezos has reportedly failed to place a bid on the club thus far.
Six bids have been placed to purchase the franchise, according to a report from A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports, with none of the bids exceeding $6.3 billion. The potential sale price of the franchise has wildly fluctuated depending on the source, but that number would shatter the record sale price of an American sports franchise. The Denver Broncos were sold for $4.65 billion in 2022.
According to Front Office Sports sources, Bezos’ failure to place a bid doesn’t indicate he isn’t interested in purchasing the franchise, but likely shows he was not interested in driving up the price of the sale via a bidding war. A potential difficulty in securing funding for a new stadium from the franchise could also be keeping Bezos away.
Many — including NBC Sports NFL reporter Peter King — has insinuated a deal between current Commanders owner Dan Snyder and Bezos would be unlikely.
“Dan Snyder detests The Washington Post,” an NFL source quoted by King in November said of the Bezos-owned news outlet. “No way he’d sell to the owner of that paper.”
Amazon Prime Video — also owned by Bezos — currently serves as the broadcaster of the league’s Thursday Night Football package. Last year, theMMQB.com’s Albert Breer claimed the streaming platform would have no issues continuing to broadcast the package if Bezos purchased a franchise, but noted the potential hurdles would be easier cleared if the billionaire stepped down as CEO from the company.
