Report: Jeff Bezos is “looking into buying” the Commanders

Posted by Mike Florio on November 3, 2022, 1:43 PM EDT
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It’s happening. Perhaps.

According to People.com (yes, People.com), Amazon mega-billionaire Jeff Bezos is “looking into buying the Washington Commanders.” Per the report, Bezos would make the purchase “possibly in partnership” with Jay-Z.

Bezos has a net worth of $115 billion, per Bloomberg. He would become the richest owner in the league, besting new Broncos owner Rob Walton by more than $40 billion. Other than Walton, the richest current owner is David Tepper of the Panthers. He’s worth roughly $100 billion less than Bezos.

Amazon has an 11-year deal to broadcast Thursday Night Football. Bezos and Commissioner Roger Goodell were hobnobbing at the Week Two game between the Chargers and Chiefs, the first regular-season game streamed by Amazon.

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94 responses to “Report: Jeff Bezos is “looking into buying” the Commanders”

  2. Not sure why he wouldn’t wait for the Seahawks.

    .. unless he knows Jody Allen plans on purchasing the team.

  3. I’m sure the D.C. community will be fully on-board using public funds to finance a new stadium of a team owned by Bezos.

  5. Walmart…Amazon…just what we need – the NFL getting even more corporate. Goodell must be doing cartwheels.

  6. As long as the players do not have to work in 120 degree warehouse heat, urinate in empty water bottles, and relieve themselves in blue plastic grocery bags, all will work out just fine. Talking to you, fellow Amazon vats.

  7. This would be pocket change for him and a good move to get rid of Snyder. But wouldn’t this be conflict of interest regarding TNF on Amazon?

  11. Wonder if that would impact Amazon’s TNF deal. Kind of a conflict issue, at least you’d think so.

  12. The boogeyman has stepped in the building. I have no idea why so many people are scared of Bezos owning a football team but they are. Meanwhile how many pro sports teams does the Walmart family own?

  14. Soon you will be able to watch Washington lose and pick up a new pack of socks all in the same place. Perfect.

  15. This makes sense. Bezos can buy it with cash if he so desires. And he has a track record of hiring the right people and standing back to let them do their jobs. Plus, Amazon Prime members get a 10% discount on concessions!

  16. How would this be a conflict of interest? The interests are perfectly aligned.

  17. This makes me appreciate Mark Davis so much more.
    Driving around in an old Caravan with that goofy haircut

  21. Same guy who owns the Washington post. The same guy who has influence over politicians in Washington.

  22. Lots of Blue trucks in the parking lot. Order your cat food and they’ll delivery right to your car while you tailgate.

  23. Deal has probably been done for awhile. Or as someone else posted on it yesterday until Goodell knew he had 24 votes.

  26. After decades of oppression, our savior Beezus has come to save us football fans in DC….SAVE US BEEZUS!!!

  28. If you don’t think the owners would love to “negotiate” broadcast rights with a fellow owner who has a vested interest on both sides of the deal, you are a new fool.

  29. Wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest with his company broadcasting Thursday games?

  31. Iam looking into a food order for the house ,hot dogs ,pasta ,frozen pizza etc ,,, you know all the stuff us little people survive on !

  33. Many people have a difficult time even comprehending the kind of numbers we’re talking about with Jeff Bezos’ wealth. Consider that Aaron Donald’s new contract pays him an average salary of 31.67 million dollars a year. At that rate, it would take Aaron Donald 3,631 years to save up 115 Billion dollars. Meanwhile, for someone making 50k per year, it’ll take you 2.3 Million years to save up 115 Billion dollars.

  35. AMZN down a couple bucks today. Bezoar loss today would go a long way toward paying for the team.

  36. People have been worried about this for awhile, but just like the Walmart Broncos, I suspect these guys will just try to hire the right people and step back while someone else runs it. They’ll demand results, won’t be scared to fire people with loads of money left on their deals and the teams will probably be better for it.

  38. bearaholic1 says:
    November 3, 2022 at 2:26 pm
    Ok, but why bring J Z on board…why why why ???
    ___________________________________________________________________

    Bezos could buy it all himself, but he can have less skin in the game, make Jay Z a 10-25% owner and then the league will feel good about themselves for having more minority owners. I suspect these ownership transactions are going to come down to more than money for awhile, with a major emphasis on minority ownership.

  41. Most here won’t get this, but assuming a person’s net worth based on their company’s stock price is misleading. If Bezos dumped all his Amazon stock, I can assure you his net worth would be far less than 100 billion.
    That’s just a fact.

  42. Well DUHHHHH.

    Who did you think was behind the push to get Snyder out for the last half decade? He’s already bought EVERYTHING else in DC. Including pockets. This is just something light for fun.

  43. Wonder if that would impact Amazon’s TNF deal. Kind of a conflict issue, at least you’d think so.

    —

    Bezos doesn’t work for Amazon anymore.

  49. Nothing to say about the deal, but extra credit to whoever found THAT photo of Bezos for the story. Well played sir (or madame), well played.

  50. When is Elon Musk gonna get in on this? He dropped $44 billion on Twitter, he cant afford $5 billion on the Washington Commanders, and then build a brand new stadium (Tesla Field) in DC?

  51. tigerpork says:
    November 3, 2022 at 2:35 pm
    I do hope Bezos would change the team name to the Washington Prime
    ////
    I don’t know if you’re joking or not, but that is a lot better than now. Also, not sure why anybody would care who buys the team. We can’t comprehend the dollars involved.

  58. jamesf240 says:

    November 3, 2022 at 2:09 pm

    Same guy who owns the Washington post. The same guy who has influence over politicians in Washington.
    —————

    Hate to be the bearer of bad news but all wealthy people have influence over politicians in Washington. Pretty sure it’s been that way since day 1.

  59. The Washington Amazon, playing at Roc Nation Stadium…and with Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders as coach!

  60. helicopterpilot13 says:
    November 3, 2022 at 2:37 pm
    Most here won’t get this, but assuming a person’s net worth based on their company’s stock price is misleading. If Bezos dumped all his Amazon stock, I can assure you his net worth would be far less than 100 billion.
    That’s just a fact.
    **************************
    Actually that is not a “fact”, assuming by “fact” you mean something that is objectively true.

    A quick search shows that Bezos currently owns about 11% of Amazon, and its market cap is $919 billion. Market cap = the market price per share multiplied by the number of common shares, so that would nominally mean his Amazon stake is worth $101 billion. If what you mean is that he could not, as a practical matter, just sell all of his stock in one swoop, that would probably be correct, but he would never do that unless the company was being sold in its entirety. But the usual scenario is to sell gradually, so he might well recoup the overall total, or near it, assuming the stock price does not drop. Of course if the price goes up, then he would get more than that. Also, I am sure he has other assets acquired over the years that add to his net worth.

    Why people are so afraid of him being a team owner I do not understand. I suspect it has more to do with knee-jerk opposition to what they think are his politics than actual business management.

  62. The worst part about sports franchises: out of touch billionaire owners. What’s Bezos connection to the Commanders franchise? And why would he want to partner up with anyone? To develop some street cred? Will Amazon have to cut ties to Thursday night football as he still has still has shares in it?

  63. Bezos is another example of the NFL needing to change its ownership policy. As owner of Amazon, Bezos has been involved in a litany of very serious issues; many of which would correlate to owning an NFL.

    There has to be a standard for being a majority owner.

  66. So why all the hate about Bezos buying the team. Obviously a billionaire is going to buy any team up for sale from now on. Does it really matter which one. At least he started a business and made a fortune, Walton was born into money.

  67. If Bezos buys them.. doesn’t that void the Thursday Night Football contract Amazon has with the NFL? He’s no longer the CEO, but he’s still the biggest stock holder of Amazon by a wide margin… this would be a massive conflict of interest.

  68. All the NFL is today is billionaires buying teams and making more billions, all off the back of us common folk who just want to have some entertainment. This is why I won’t give a dime to the NFL.

  69. If fans are unhappy with games can they return them to Kohls? We will have Wal-Mart owning the Broncos, Amazon owning the Commanders. The Lions act as if their ownership is from Dollar Tree.

  70. ogre4nerds says:
    for someone making 50k per year, it’ll take you 2.3 Million years to save up 115 Billion dollars.
    —-
    So you’re saying there’s a chance?

  71. Maid was cleaning the house and found $6 billion between the cushions of the sofa. Hey, why not buy a NFL franchise

  74. Let’s not call Jay-Z a partner of Bezos. Bezos will run the show. Jay-Z will be a cheerleader.

  75. Maybe Snyder is the real smart one. If he sells now, it will be an amazing profit for him even though he ran a once proud franchise into the ground.

  76. Here’s breaking news, you won’t know how someone will be as an owner, until they own the team…. if you have billions, you did something right.

  79. I’ll take Bezos in Cleveland right now and then he can simply trade the Browns for the Commanders. Jimmy Haslam would fit right in with D.C. corruption.
    Cleveland Commanders has a nice ring to it.

  80. Actually that is not a “fact”, assuming by “fact” you mean something that is objectively true.

    A quick search shows that Bezos currently owns about 11% of Amazon, and its market cap is $919 billion. Market cap = the market price per share multiplied by the number of common shares, so that would nominally mean his Amazon stake is worth $101 billion. If what you mean is that he could not, as a practical matter, just sell all of his stock in one swoop, that would probably be correct, but he would never do that unless the company was being sold in its entirety. But the usual scenario is to sell gradually, so he might well recoup the overall total, or near it, assuming the stock price does not drop. Of course if the price goes up, then he would get more than that. Also, I am sure he has other assets acquired over the years that add to his net worth.

    ********************************************************************************************

    In theory that’s correct but insider trading is public information & market participants don’t like to see insiders, especially CEO’s, dumping their stock. If Bezos began consistently selling his stock the stock price would crater as other shareholders would think there must be a reason why & they’d sell their shares too. The price would go to zero (or close) by the time he completely liquidated. Bezos is effectively stuck with most of his amazon stock.

    Net worth based on stock holdings is fluid & there are examples of holders going from billions in net worth to zero. There was a time when Sears & Roebuck WAS the amazon of its time. They IPO’d in 1908 & the market cap increased 1200x. A little more than 100 years later they went completely bankrupt.

  81. I’d guess that at least nine owners (it takes 24 votes to approve a sale) would be uneasy with an owner also controlling a channel for broadcast or streaming distribution of games. They’d likely see it as a step toward greater inequality of the franchises. Of course, if the contract for Thursday Night Football was terminated and those rights sold to a different network or streamer, the problem is solved.

  83. No way Snyder sells to Bezos unless its for a huge premium. Bezos’ Washington Post has made it their mission to take Snyder down, some believe just so that they become available and Bezos can buy them. Snyder is a spiteful person as we all know. He won’t sell to him unless his hand is forced.

  87. It’s not like Bezos gets to pick which teams appear on Thursday football. It could not matter less that he makes money off the games.

  89. Bezos is not clean by no stretch just ask any Amazon worker. Both, labor groups and Amazon workers, have claimed that the company offers its hourly employees not enough break times, puts too much reliance on rigid productivity metrics and has unsafe working conditions. No one who has reached the billionaire status is clean. They have all stepped on someone to get where they are

  90. On a day we get lots of news about Jeff looking into buying an NFL franchise, we also get news an ex employee of Jeff’s is accusing him of being a racist. And here we go.

  91. Hmmm. Jeff Bezos has the financial muscle to exorcise Dan Snyder from the NFL. Jay-Z has the sports awareness lo help bring proper front office and on-the-field talent to Washington, and the marketing brilliance to turn the Washington franchise into a social media giant. I see a lot of upside here.

    There might need to be some kind of business barrier with Amazon to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest between Bezos/Amazon and Bezos/franchise owner. And there might also need to be a review of Jay-Z’s client list and any player. But those are easy to be dealt with.

  93. I’ve been a fan for 35 years but have lost a good bit of interest each and every year for the past 10 or so. Jeff Bezos buying the team will be the day that the last of my interest disappears forever. I could never root for another team so I’ll just call it quits on the NFL altogether.

  94. va22 says:
    November 3, 2022 at 11:47 pm

    I’ve been a fan for 35 years but have lost a good bit of interest each and every year for the past 10 or so. Jeff Bezos buying the team will be the day that the last of my interest disappears forever. I could never root for another team so I’ll just call it quits on the NFL altogether.

    ______________________________________________________________________________________________

    Why? Do you believe all other 31 owners are saints or something.

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