Commanders fans can’t catch a freakin’ break.
With current owner Daniel Snyder by all appearances ready to sell and Josh Harris ready to buy, everyone involved wants to turn the page. It could be easier said than done.
Via the Washington Post, members of the NFL’s finance committee — which consists of eight owners — raised concerns on Wednesday about Harris’s $6.05 billion bid for the team.
The report, citing three unnamed sources, points to concerns arising from: (1) the size of the group of limited partners; (2) Harris’s ability to be the principal owner of the team, from a liquidity standpoint.
It’s one thing for Harris to have the money to personally own 30 percent of the team. It’s another for him to have the money to run the business as a going concern.
Momentum persists for approval of the deal, if only to rid the NFL once and for all of Snyder.
“Everyone wants it to get done,” an unnamed source told the Post. “I’m not saying it can’t get done. I don’t know. We’ll have to see.”
The reality is that it might take more time. That it might not be ready for an approval later this month in Minneapolis, when all owners meet. At least 24 of them must approve of the transaction.
The fundamental problem continues to be that, as the value of franchises continues to spike, fewer and fewer people have the money necessary to become the controlling owner of an NFL team. At some point, the basic rules might need to be changed, in a major way.
If nothing else, the Harris situation highlights the struggles to come for the NFL when it comes to finding more qualified buyers to purchase teams. For now, it might be that, in order to finally move on from Snyder, the NFL might have to ignore some of its own rules.