Dan Snyder’s consolation prize for a ruined legacy: $6 billion

Dan Snyder stands to become billions of dollars richer on Thursday. If the NFL, as expected, votes to approve Josh Harris’ purchase of the Washington Commanders, the once-storied franchise will sell for $6.05 billion. After years of controversies and scandals, the embattled Mr. Snyder will walk away from his life’s dream with a return of almost 700% on the original $800 million he paid for the franchise in 1999.

The $6.05 billion is a record price for an NFL franchise and quite a consolation prize for an owner leaving the league under extreme pressure. Although Mr. Snyder won’t bear much of a financial penalty for his disastrous ownership tenure, he will pay a staggering amount for the damage to his legacy. Mr. Snyder is poised to go down as one of the worst owners in professional sports history.

Reviled by local fans, loathed on talk radio and mocked across the league, Mr. Snyder is set to join the rogues’ gallery of disgraced former team owners, including Donald Sterling of basketball’s Los Angeles Clippers, Marge Schott of baseball’s Cincinnati Reds and Jerry Richardson of the Carolina Panthers. No person has arguably damaged their professional sports team more than Mr. Snyder. His mismanagement fueled a sense of hopelessness that eroded local and regional support from a once-proud fan base.

Contrast that with the 25 years of majority ownership by Mr. Snyder’s predecessor, Jack Kent Cooke, whose teams delivered three Super Bowl victories, 10 playoff appearances (with 16 wins) and the league’s seventh-best regular season record.

Under Mr. Snyder? Zero Super Bowls. Six playoff appearances (but two wins). And the NFL’s sixth-worst regular season record.

“Snyder alienated the fans and his fellow owners,” said John Kent Cooke, Jack’s son and Washington’s former team president. “And that, to me, is more important than not winning, because you can’t win the Super Bowl every year. God knows we tried when we had it. But as long as you’re competitive and you make that attempt, then the fans will understand and they’ll follow your ownership.

“When you alienate your fans, as Snyder did, you destroy the franchise. Obviously, it wasn’t destroyed financially, but the reputation was badly harmed. Badly harmed.”

The controversy started almost as soon as Mr. Snyder bought the team. Although the Redskins went 10-6 and made the playoffs in the first season, the goodwill dissipated when he became the first owner to charge fans to attend training camp. The policy was so unpopular that Mr. Snyder had to reverse his decision and apologize.

Mr. Snyder, who declined to comment for this article, made decision after decision over the next two decades that puzzled and frustrated fans. He spent lavishly on high-priced, over-the-hill veterans, cycled through coaches and executives, and developed a reputation for interfering with football matters. He once left three melting gallons of ice cream on defensive coordinator Mike Nolan’s desk with a note about the coach’s play-calling, saying he didn’t “like vanilla.”

A wildly successful businessman when he bought the team, he expected results and promised fans success. Instead, the franchise sputtered and stumbled from one year to the next.

The value of the franchise continued to grow, but the near-constant turmoil took a toll on fans and the organization’s bottom line. ESPN reported that a financial prospectus that Mr. Harris’ group sent to solicit investors noted that the Commanders’ attendance revenue of $58 million last season was off by two-thirds when adjusted for inflation since 2008.

In that time, Washington had gone from the team with the best attendance (88,604) in the league to the worst (58,106).

“When we sold the franchise, we turned over to Snyder a list of over 50,000 names in the waiting list for [season ticket] seats,” Mr. Cooke said. “He erased that loyal fan base.”

No greater damage might have been done to Mr. Snyder’s reputation than the widespread workplace misconduct that came to light in the summer of 2020.

Just weeks after the announcement that the “Redskins” nickname would be retired, more than 40 former employees said they witnessed or experienced sexual harassment by team officials while working for the club. The allegations prompted several investigations, including by the NFL and Congress.

If not for that scandal, Mr. Snyder likely would still own the Commanders. The misconduct and its fallout alienated the billionaire from the league’s owners in a way that losing games did not. Mr. Snyder was personally accused when a former employee told members of Congress that he made an unwanted advance by touching her thigh at a charity dinner.

Mr. Snyder fiercely denied the allegation, but the NFL launched another investigation of the team. Months later, Indianapolis’ Jim Irsay became the first NFL owner to publicly call for Mr. Snyder’s ouster by telling reporters that the franchise had “merit to remove” him.

By the time Congress concluded its investigation in December, the Democratic-led House Oversight and Reform Committee said Mr. Snyder “permitted and participated in” a toxic culture and worked to obstruct multiple investigations into the matter.

“His legacy will be a terrible football team, a terrible workplace and a community that wanted nothing more than to be rid of him,” said Lisa Banks, a lawyer representing more than 40 former Washington employees who accused the organization of misconduct and harassment.

According to a long-running joke, a championship-style parade would march down Constitution Avenue once Mr. Snyder sold the team. Nothing has been scheduled, but fans have made it clear that they plan to celebrate Mr. Snyder’s departure.

At Old Ox Brewery near the team’s headquarters in Ashburn, Virginia, brew makers crafted “Bye Dan” beer. The can says it “tastes like 23 years of bitterness.” The first batch of 8,000 beers sold out within 75 minutes.

Jason Woodmansee, a San Diego resident who grew up a Washington fan, plans to throw a “Good Riddance Dan Snyder” party on Thursday. He said he is inviting “everyone I know,” hanging burgundy and gold streamers throughout his house and popping champagne for the party. Mr. Woodmansee and his wife were married the same week that Mr. Snyder bought the team in May 1999. When they moved out West two years later, they remained fans of the franchise “despite our best judgment,” he said.

“My kids are 20, 18 and 14, and all have some level of attachment to the team,” he said. “We’ve said that Dan selling is like a Super Bowl.”

Mr. Snyder’s next phase is unclear. He and his wife, Tanya, listed England as their primary residence in November, and they have reportedly left their $48 million River View estate along the Potomac River.

Although Mr. Snyder may be finished with the NFL, multiple investigations into Mr. Snyder and the Commanders continue.

The league has yet to release a report from investigator Mary Jo White, a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Officials insist they will, even if the findings are published after Mr. Snyder’s departure. The U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares also are investigating allegations of financial improprieties.

Melanie Coburn, a former Washington cheerleader and marketing director who participated in several investigations related to the team’s misconduct, said she would like Mr. Snyder to use a portion of his earnings from the sale to donate to the community or help victims of sexual harassment.

“My true hope for him is redemption,” Ms. Coburn said. “I hope he has learned his lesson and now he can do some reflecting and potentially change the way he treats people.”

If there’s a person who can best relate to Mr. Snyder, Mr. Cooke might be the one. After his father died in 1997, Mr. Cooke assumed control of the Redskins. Ultimately, Mr. Cooke was forced to sell the team because of details in his father’s will that called for the team to be put into a trust and sold to the highest bidder.

Mr. Snyder topped Mr. Cooke’s $720 million offer to retain control of the team. Mr. Cooke said he was “extremely disappointed” when he and his family lost the franchise.

“I did not cry,” Mr. Cooke said, “but I came awful close to it.” In the subsequent years, Mr. Cooke started to focus on his other interests and became “perfectly content with my luck.” He owns a winery and a farm and sits on the board of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

Mr. Snyder might have to learn how to deal with that same kind of disappointment.

Owning the team, he once said, was a lifelong ambition. As a child growing up in Silver Spring, he attended games with his father while wearing a customized No. 9 Redskins jersey with “DANNY” on the back. As an adult, Mr. Snyder watched his childhood team from the owner’s suite that overlooked midfield.

The next time he watches a Commanders game — if he does at all — will be from a much different location and with a much different perspective.

“A person’s reputation is more important than money,” Mr. Cooke said. “All right. The reputation stays and goes on. It’s called a legacy. And the money comes and goes.”