Buying a sports franchise of any kind takes a lot of cash, which typically doesn’t all come from one investor. That includes the ongoing pursuit by the Josh Harris group to purchase the Washington Commanders football franchise.
While Harris is bidding to become the majority owner, others, such as Magic Johnson, yes, the basketball Hall of Fame legend, is also involved in the bidding process.
Earvin “Magic” Johnson has been associated with several off-court business ventures since he retired from the NBA, where he rose to fame with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he later became a partial owner of the team. He’s also currently part of the ownership group with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but this is the first time the 63-year-old has been linked to being a minority owner of an NFL team.
On Tuesday, Johnson opened up about his ties with the group led by Harris and Mitchell Rales, which reportedly submitted a $6 billion bid to purchase the Commanders.
“Our bid is in. We hope that we win. We don’t know what’s going to happen … We’ll see what happens with Mr. Snyder making that decision. But we’re excited about it.”
Magic Johnson on his involvement in purchase of Washington Commanders
Of course he’s excited. But as Johnson alludes to, there’s no guarantee current Washington owner Daniel Snyder will choose to sell, let alone to the group led by Harris and Rales. Still, Johnson confirmed many rumors which linked him to the bidding process. The biggest question now is whether their offer gets accepted and for how much.
If the Commanders are sold, it will shatter the previous North American sports franchise sales record, set in 2022 when the Denver Broncos sold for $4.65 billion to the Walton-Penner group.
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