Washington Commanders co-owner Dan Snyder has agreed to sell the NFL franchise to a group headed by American investor Josh Harris in a record deal.
The deal is reported to be worth about $6bn (£4.8bn), making it the world’s most expensive sports team purchase.
According to Forbes, the team is the joint-eighth most valuable in world sport and was bought by Snyder and his wife Tanya for $750m in 1999.
Harris’ group includes NBA legend Magic Johnson and billionaire Mitchell Rales.
Harris already co-owns the basketball’s Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA and ice hockey’s New Jersey Devils in the NHL, as well as being the minority owner of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers and a general partner of Premier League football club Crystal Palace.
Any sale of an NFL franchise needs to be approved by the league’s finance committee and ratified by three quarters of the league’s 32 club owners, who are scheduled to meet in Minneapolis from 22-24 May.
“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement for the sale of the Commanders franchise with Josh Harris and his impressive group of partners”, Tanya and Dan Snyder said in a statement.
“We look forward to the prompt completion of this transaction and to rooting for Josh and the team in the coming years.”
Harris would have to sell his shares in the Steelers if the Commanders’ takeover is completed due to NFL rules.
The sale of Premier League side Chelsea last year to American investor Todd Boehly and private equity firm Clearlake Capital was worth for £4.25bn.
The Snyders hired Bank of America Securities in November 2022 to consider a potential sale of the franchise.
A boyhood fan of the team, Dan Snyder had vowed never to change its former name, the Redskins, despite it long being criticised as offensive to Native Americans.
The NFL franchise retired its former name in July 2020 before announcing it would be known as the Commanders from February 2022.
During the Snyders’ tenure, the team was also investigated for having a “toxic workplace culture”, and a US report found that the team and the NFL had covered up decades of sexual misconduct.
A 79-page report said that 58-year-old businessman Dan Snyder “permitted and participated in the workplace misconduct” and “engaged in tactics used to intimidate, surveil and pay off victims”.
