Brian Davis, who has submitted a $7 billion bid for the Washington Commanders, vouched for the legitimacy of his offer Wednesday by saying “my money comes from White people.”
The former Duke basketball player-turned-businessman told The Sports Junkies that his bid is receiving funding from people “who are Jewish, who are Italian and who are Sicilian — White people … those are my partners.”
The comment was in response to a report from Front Office Sports that suggested Davis is being backed by financiers from Saudi Arabia, who have used sports to try to cleanse the theocratic kingdom’s global image.
“That capital is coming from private investors who are located here in America who are domestic,” Davis told WUSA on Tuesday. “I have a great amount of respect for the Saudi Arabian people and Arab people in Islam in general. I love them. But the money’s not Saudi Arabian and I’ve never been to Saudi Arabia in my life.”
Davis, a 52-year-old native of Prince George’s County, Maryland, hasn’t been considered a serious contender to own the franchise since he submitted his $7 billion offer on March 21.
While the bid is higher than Josh Harris’ $6.05 billion offer, which has been tentatively agreed to by the Commanders, a source close to team owner Dan Snyder told WUSA that Snyder doesn’t believe Davis has that kind of money.
NFL rules require that Davis personally cover at least 30% of the offer in cash as the principal owner — meaning he needs $2.1 billion in the bank for the bid to move forward.
Davis told The Sports Junkies that he has a net worth of more than $1 billion and has $20 billion in a holding company. He previously told WUSA that he made $50 billion from selling the intellectual property for his smart-city concept in which solar panels generate power and then sell excess energy back to power companies.
Junkies co-host Eric Bickel pressed Davis on the $50 billion valuation by saying, “I could just imagine you being on ‘Shark Tank,’ and Kevin O’Leary just laughing that someone is saying their company is worth $50 billion.”
Davis replied: “He can laugh, but I’m an operator in the trenches,” and then explained that the valuation is “10 times revenue” in scale.
Davis said that since the smart-city concept generates $5 billion in revenue per year, at 10 times the annual revenue, it’s worth $50 billion. He used as an example the Commanders’ yearly earnings. The franchise is valued at $5.6 billion — or 10 times its annual revenue of $560 million.
Davis has been sued multiple times over financial issues.
Davis and former Duke teammate Christian Laettner were sued by former NBA star Scottie Pippen for failing to repay a loan that was supposed to go toward a majority stake in the Memphis Grizzlies, according to ProFootballTalk.
Former NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman also sued Davis and Laettner for failing to repay a $3 million loan he gave them for their real estate business. The loan eventually defaulted, and Merriman was awarded nearly $4 million in court.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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