Commanders President Jason Wright expected to be retained after sale
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Washington Commanders President Jason Wright, who was hired in 2020 to improve the culture and business operations of the franchise, will be retained and given a chance to earn a continued role under new ownership once Josh Harris’s $6.05 billion purchase of the club from Daniel Snyder is approved as expected by NFL team owners and finalized in late July, two people with knowledge of the new owners’ strategy said.
One of those people said Wright will “absolutely have the opportunity to perform in his role” and that no one should “expect or allude to any changes with his role at this time.” That person did not specify how long the commitment to Wright might last or make any longer-term proclamations about other Commanders executives.
Wright declined to comment.
The NFL has scheduled a special league meeting for July 20 at which owners are expected to vote to ratify the sale of the Commanders, people familiar with the sale process have said. Harris’s investment group — which includes Danaher co-founder Mitchell Rales, venture capitalist and Washington-area native Mark Ein, Basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and former Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt as limited partners — signed an agreement May 12 to purchase the team from Snyder.
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Harris, 58, agreed to make adjustments to the original deal, putting it on track to receive an expected recommendation for approval by the NFL’s eight-owner finance committee, according to multiple people with knowledge of the inner workings of the league and sale process. At least 24 of the 32 NFL team owners must vote in favor for the sale to be ratified.
Under NFL rules, Harris’s group is not permitted to speak with employees of the team about future changes until the deal is ratified.
Even with a quick closing on the sale following the approval vote, Harris’s group would take over the franchise with little time before the opening of training camp, scheduled for July 26. The league’s firing-and-hiring cycling for coaches long has passed, along with the bulk of free agency for players and the draft, leaving the core of the roster and the coaching staff basically set.
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“They realize this isn’t a first-season fix,” one person with knowledge of the group’s plans said.
Harris, the co-founder of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, made a career out of improving distressed investments, and over the past decade he has parlayed that into a growing sports empire.
Through Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the sports and property management company he founded with Blackstone executive and co-investor David Blitzer in 2017, Harris owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, the English Premier League’s Crystal Palace and a minority interest in Joe Gibbs Racing among sports investments. Harris and Blitzer must sell their minority ownership stakes in the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers once the Commanders purchase is finalized.
When he bought the 76ers in 2011 and the Devils in 2013, Harris also bought into lengthy rebuilds. That included “The Process” by which the 76ers and their fans endured growing pains as the team gradually retooled into being a championship contender. But Harris’s early approach was to assess each franchise’s operations before making any quick and significant change.
His approach to his first season with the Commanders looks to be similar. The focus is expected to be more on evaluating the franchise’s current strategy and personnel — in football and in business, according to those people with knowledge of the ownership group’s thinking.
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“We’ve had a lot of turnover the last 2½ years to establish new ways of working, expanding the workforce,” Wright said in May. “And anybody who’s coming to our organization needs to evaluate it top to bottom and assess our efficacy, but I do know that we have a good operation running. So we’re just going to keep on going. We’re just going to keep on going, and the best thing we can do is continue to build this … and really take advantage of this unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity to get us back where we need to be.”
Wright, a former NFL running back and once a partner at the McKinsey & Company consulting firm, became the first Black team president in league history when he was hired in August 2020 to improve the workplace culture of a franchise embroiled in controversy. Over the past three years, as he has navigated multiple league and governmental investigations of allegations involving the team and Snyder, Wright has overhauled senior business personnel (almost twice over) and led the organization through a rebranding.
Still, the Commanders have ranked at or near the bottom in the NFL in attendance the past two seasons. And Wright, 40, has drawn criticism for the team’s missteps in honoring the late Sean Taylor, a bounced raffle check and the tepid public response to its new name, among other issues. But some within the industry wonder whether Wright should be held accountable for such shortcomings occurring as he faced the turmoil and fan unrest of Snyder’s ownership.
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Over the past eight months, since Snyder announced he had retained Bank of America Securities to explore a sale of the team, Wright has said a change in ownership would be beneficial to the franchise and its fans but acknowledged it means he would have to prove himself.
“It’s a prove-it thing for everybody, so we all know that,” Wright said in March. “But also, you should already be doing those things because we are dedicated to bringing a Lombardi Trophy to D.C.”
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Source: The Washington Post
