Snyder to buy out other Washington owners, pending approval
Dan Snyder will soon be the sole owner of the Washington Football Team.
Snyder is buying out the team’s minority owners in a move that gives him total control and should end a lengthy, bitter court dispute along with any speculation that he’d be pushed to sell his boyhood team he bought in 1999.
An NFL spokesman on Wednesday confirmed that Snyder’s application for a debt waiver of $450 million was approved by the league’s finance committee and that the deal is pending approval from team owners. Three-quarters, or 24 of 32 teams, need to sign off during a vote at the annual league meeting next week to make it official.
Multiple messages seeking comment that were left for the team, a public relations firm representing Snyder and lawyers representing the minority owners were not immediately returned.
Fred Smith, Dwight Schar and Bob Rothman currently own 40.5% of Washington Football Inc. They sued Snyder in federal court in Maryland in November, seeking an injunction to allow them to sell their shares of the team.
This effectively settles that matter and puts Snyder completely in charge of the team, which Forbes most recently valued at $3.5 billion. Washington is in the midst of an organizational upheaval after dropping its name last year and launching an independent investigation into allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace by several former employees.
The NFL took over that investigation run by Washington-based lawyer Beth Wilkinson last summer. A league spokesman said that investigation is still ongoing, which is separate from Snyder buying out full control of the team.