Snyder selling the Commanders

[Jets Voice of Reason]

3 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

Rudderless franchise that turned its back on the fanbase. No one supports the new name.

It's pretty incredible that they had a few layup names rooted in the club's history and the community's desires and went with this. It's almost like they wanted to avoid any possible controversy and went with the most bland name possible.

[Matt39]

3 minutes ago, Jets Voice of Reason said:

It's pretty incredible that they had a few layup names rooted in the club's history and the community's desires and went with this. It's almost like they wanted to avoid any possible controversy and went with the most bland name possible.

With a team with as much history there should have been a compromise to maintain things while coming up with a new name. Something like Natives could have worked while maintaining the history and the uniforms. Now you just have a disjointed mess.

[92ShaunEllis92]

Feds investigating CRIMINAL charges for Financial improprieties.
 

 

Sources: U.S. attorney's office investigating Commanders over alleged financial improprieties

The U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia has opened a criminal investigation into allegations that the Washington Commanders engaged in financial improprieties, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.

The sources said prosecutors are focused on several areas, and that the inquiry was triggered by a letter the House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent to the Federal Trade Commission and several attorneys general in April that alleged deceptive business practices. Attorneys general in Virginia and Washington, D.C., also are investigating allegations of financial impropriety.

Team spokeswoman Jean Medina did not immediately comment but provided a statement from attorney John Brownlee of Holland & Knight, who represents the Commanders.

"It is not surprising that ESPN is publishing more falsehoods based solely on anonymous sources -- given today's announcement," the statement said. "...We are confident that, after these agencies have had a chance to review the documents and complete their work, they will come to the same conclusion as the team's internal review -- that these allegations are simply untrue."

Asked Wednesday if the league is aware of the federal criminal investigation, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said: "We will decline comment."

"The NFL in April engaged former SEC chair Mary Jo White to look into this matter," McCarthy said. "The review is ongoing."

White is leading the NFL's second investigation into matters involving alleged sexual misconduct in Snyder's organization, including the owner's own alleged sexual assault of a woman on his plane in April 2009. It's not clear when White will wrap up. The first investigation, led by Beth Wilkinson, resulted in a $10 million fine and a suspension for Snyder but produced no written report.

The U.S. attorney's office did not respond to a request for comment, and the FTC declined to comment.

The House committee said in its letter to the FTC that it found evidence of deceptive business practices over the span of more than a decade, including withholding ticket revenue from visiting teams and refundable deposits from fans. The committee outlined through the testimony of former employees and access to emails and documents a pattern of financial impropriety by owner Dan Snyder and team executives. At one point in 2016, the team retained up to $5 million from 2,000 season-ticket holders while also concealing sharable revenue from the league, according to the committee.

One former employee testified before Congress, saying the team had two separate financial books: one with underreported ticket revenue that went to the NFL and the full, complete picture. According to testimony, Snyder was aware of the numbers shared with the league while also being privy to the actual data. The business practice was known as "juice" inside Washington's front office.

According to other testimony, financial misconduct included making it intentionally difficult for season-ticket holders to recoup refundable deposit money, counting some of those leftover funds as a different kind of revenue that doesn't need to be shared with the league, and shifting money from ticket sales for NFL games to other events at FedEx Field as a way of hiding that money from the league. The committee in the letter shared spreadsheet data showing evidence of deposits that were not returned. Citing emails and the testimony of Jason Friedman, a longtime vice president of sales and customer service, the letter said ticket sales from Washington games were shifted to a 2013 Kenny Chesney concert and a 2014 Navy-Notre Dame college football game as a way to "juice" revenue and keep it off the books shared with the NFL.

"The Washington Commanders have fully cooperated with federal and state investigators since the House Oversight Review Committee sent its letter to the FTC on April 12, 2022 -- now nearly 7 months ago," the statement from Brownlee said. "The team has produced tens of thousands of records in response to the requests. The investigations, which ESPN's anonymous sources have mischaracterized, are premised on the same baseless allegations made by a disgruntled former employee, Jason Friedman, who also is represented by the law firm of Katz Banks."

Also on Wednesday, Dan and Tanya Snyder announced that they have hired Bank of America Securities to explore potential transactions involving the team. It's not clear what those transactions might be, whether it was the sale of the team or they are pursuing minority partners.

ESPN senior writers Seth Wickersham and Tisha Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

[More Cowbell]

8 hours ago, peekskill68 said:

I could see Jeff Bezos doing this...

Bozos probably can't  afford to buy a little league team after the bath he took on Twitter 

[Ghost420]

Let me pull out by check book. 

[Jetsfan80]

8 hours ago, Matt39 said:

Honestly they should move that franchise. 

Can't see it.  It's still one of the 5 most valuable NFL franchises, and a lot of that has to come from being in the DC Metro area. 

And it would be very weird for DC to have Pro Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, and MLS but no NFL team in the area.

Where would you move them to?

[Jetsfan80]

6 hours ago, Warfish said:

Not going to disagree per se, but pretty much only billionaires own NFL teams.  

Unless they go the Packers route and become a publicly held nonprofit corporation.

That would be cool.  

[ACourseinMiracles]

8 hours ago, Warfish said:

Literally everyone here thinks/wants/dreams about it being Jeff Bezos.

More money than God could lead to a pretty killer DC-based Stadium, at least.

And perhaps a better management system, both purely operationally, and of course, no abusing and/or discriminating against half the employees.

Bezos business model at Amazon is abusing employees. Lol.

[Warfish]

2 minutes ago, ACourseinMiracles said:

Bezos business model at Amazon is abusing employees. Lol.

So don't buy from them.

I'm not a Bezos fanboi.  

[Warfish]

9 hours ago, Matt39 said:

Honestly they should move that franchise. 

Wut?  Why on Earth would they do that?

You're not getting a better sports market than D.C.

[ACourseinMiracles]

Just now, Warfish said:

So don't buy from them.

I'm not a Bezos fanboi.  

I don't. And I actively help to unionize his workforce.

You stated there wouldn't be employee abuse under Jeff. 

That's a false statement as it already occurs.

[Warfish]

1 minute ago, ACourseinMiracles said:

I don't. And I actively help to unionize his workforce.

You stated there wouldn't be employee abuse under Jeff. 

That's a false statement as it already occurs.

I clearly meant a specific kind of abuse, the kind Snyder and his management are accused of.

Not interested in a political debate, sorry.  You'll have to grind your axe elsewhere.

 

[ACourseinMiracles]

4 minutes ago, Warfish said:

I clearly meant a specific kind of abuse, the kind Snyder and his management are accused of.

Not interested in a political debate, sorry.  You'll have to grind your axe elsewhere.

 

Wasn't looking for one either. Not grinding any axes. You weren't clear.

Enjoy your evening. 

[Jetsfan80]

26 minutes ago, Warfish said:

So don't buy from them.

I'm not a Bezos fanboi.  

It's becoming more and more difficult not to.  Even when you try to seek out businesses directly when making your e-purchases, there's a very good chance their products are sold through Amazon as well, meaning you're indirectly lining Amazon's pockets anyways:

 

Quote

More than 1.7 million small businesses sell in the Amazon store, making up close to 60% of Amazon retail sales, and contributing more than 2.2 million jobs globally.  Small businesses in the U.S. sell on average more than 4,000 items per minute.

 

[Matt39]

33 minutes ago, Warfish said:

Wut?  Why on Earth would they do that?

You're not getting a better sports market than D.C.

No one goes to the games. 

[Origen]

9 hours ago, Warfish said:

Literally everyone here thinks/wants/dreams about it being Jeff Bezos.

More money than God could lead to a pretty killer DC-based Stadium, at least.

And perhaps a better management system, both purely operationally, and of course, no abusing and/or discriminating against half the employees.

No Piss breaks during the game for the players tho.  Or they have to piss in bottles on the sidelines at best, you know how it is...

[Warfish]

35 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

No one goes to the games. 

Because of Snyder.  They'll come back post-Snyder.

I'll repeat, I don't think you're going to find a better market than D.C.

[Greenbloodblitz]

Just more woke BS! They never should have changed the name from the Redskins in the first place!

Any man on here over 30 years old played Cowboys and Indians when he was a kid! We didn't play Cowboys and Native Americans!

What's next are the Scandinavians going to sue because we have the Minnesota Vikings!?

Maybe the Nspca might Sue on behalf of Lions, Bears, Dolphins and Rams?

Get over it it's the name of a Goddamn Football team it's not really that serious!!!

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

So , when is Woody's turn to sell ?

[Kleckineau]

If Bezos buys just think how nice it would be to have you hot dogs and drinks delivered to your seat by drone.

[bla bla bla]

3 hours ago, Greenbloodblitz said:

Just more woke BS! They never should have changed the name from the Redskins in the first place!

Any man on here over 30 years old played Cowboys and Indians when he was a kid! We didn't play Cowboys and Native Americans!

What's next are the Scandinavians going to sue because we have the Minnesota Vikings!?

Maybe the Nspca might Sue on behalf of Lions, Bears, Dolphins and Rams?

Get over it it's the name of a Goddamn Football team it's not really that serious!!!

[RutgersJetFan]

9 hours ago, Warfish said:

 

I'll repeat, I don't think you're going to find a better market than D.C.

Sounds like someone has never been to Bismarck, North Dakota. 

[The Crusher]

22 hours ago, Warfish said:

Because of Snyder.  They'll come back post-Snyder.

I'll repeat, I don't think you're going to find a better market than D.C.

Yep. He failed, alienated and disgusted that fan base. All new owner has to do. 
 

1. Build new stadium 

2.Name  it Coach Gibbs stadium

3. Put a statue of him in front 

4. profit 

They will sell out every home game every time. Book it. The Snyder stain will be gone  forever. 

[Larz]

He hired a bank to explore the possibility 

[Warfish]

5 hours ago, Greenbloodblitz said:

Just more woke BS! They never should have changed the name from the Redskins in the first place!

Any man on here over 30 years old played Cowboys and Indians when he was a kid! We didn't play Cowboys and Native Americans!

What's next are the Scandinavians going to sue because we have the Minnesota Vikings!?

Maybe the Nspca might Sue on behalf of Lions, Bears, Dolphins and Rams?

Get over it it's the name of a Goddamn Football team it's not really that serious!!!

Sounds like you might want to take your own advice mate, and "Get over it it's the name of a Goddamn Football team it's not really that serious!!!".  

Imagine the Redskins name being the social issue hill you want to die on.....

By the way, his selling has nothing to do with "wokeness", it's because he's a corrupt thief of an owner who likely stole from his fellow owners, and has been running a sexual discrimination/assault side business pretending to be his org's management team for a long time.  He's mismanaged this team worse than any other owner, bar none, alienated the fans, alienated the localities, literally everything he has done has been a poopshow.  But the eight (I believe that's the latest count) legal investigations into him is likely what has finally proven fatal to him with the other Owners, especially the financial improprieties (i.e. stealing from the NFL).

 

 

[CanadaSteve]

21 hours ago, Warfish said:

And perhaps a better management system, both purely operationally, and of course, no abusing and/or discriminating against half the employees.

Yeah, you lost me on that one......

[Warfish]

37 minutes ago, CanadaSteve said:

Yeah, you lost me on that one......

That because many of you seem to be flogging the "Amazon abuses it's labor" kick.

As I said earlier, I'm not going to break forum rules and discuss politics, which this would inevitably degrade into, as almost every discussion of economics and labor does.

There is no question that Amazon, as a company, is better run and more successful at what it does than the Washington Commanders, as a company.  That was my point, nothing more, and certainly not an invite for Amazon/Bezos-hating axe-grinding.  If folks want to lament the treatment of low-paid, low-skill labor, there are several economics and political forums available for that kind of thing. 

Max has made it clear, JN isn't that place, and despite my love of discussion of those issues, I will not break his rules in this case.

[Matt39]

2 hours ago, Warfish said:

Sounds like you might want to take your own advice mate, and "Get over it it's the name of a Goddamn Football team it's not really that serious!!!".  

Imagine the Redskins name being the social issue hill you want to die on.....

By the way, his selling has nothing to do with "wokeness", it's because he's a corrupt thief of an owner who likely stole from his fellow owners, and has been running a sexual discrimination/assault side business pretending to be his org's management team for a long time.  He's mismanaged this team worse than any other owner, bar none, alienated the fans, alienated the localities, literally everything he has done has been a poopshow.  But the eight (I believe that's the latest count) legal investigations into him is likely what has finally proven fatal to him with the other Owners, especially the financial improprieties (i.e. stealing from the NFL).

 

 

The Commanders brand is lifeless. The stadium is empty and anyone who goes wears the old gear. Flipping over a historic franchise like that without any ode to its history was a shortsighted move. Woke or not, the fans would probably rather have kept Snyder and the history/brand than a new owner and a copacetic name. Natives should have been the choice. Kansas City is able to honor the tribes while maintaining its identity.

[Warfish]

29 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

The Commanders brand is lifeless. The stadium is empty and anyone who goes wears the old gear. Flipping over a historic franchise like that without any ode to its history was a shortsighted move. Woke or not, the fans would probably rather have kept Snyder and the history/brand than a new owner and a copacetic name. Natives should have been the choice. Kansas City is able to honor the tribes while maintaining its identity.

Commanders is indeed lifeless/soulless.  Coach Rivera had far too much influence, and the Fans far too little IMO.  Give it 50 years, maybe that would change, who knows.

I can guarantee you that the Fanbase would sell anything, including the name, to get rid of Snyder.  The Redskins name, and similar names like "Natives", was never going to fly in this day and age.  

Regardless, the current hope is a new owner will = a new name/new rebrand, along the lines of what the fans wanted last time, i.e. Red-Something, RedHogs, RedWolves, RedHawks, etc.  Something the be close to Redskins, but far enough away to eliminate the controversy "Natives" or "Warriors" would bring, and keeping their beloved fight sing and #HTTR hashtag.

I hope they get what they want.  As a Jets Fan, I feel for them.  They've had it pretty much as bad as us on the field, with a side dose of a 100x worse Owner and Stadium.

[VJphillyfan]

Hopefully new owner gives them a less offensive name like savages

[batman10023]

1 hour ago, Matt39 said:

The Commanders brand is lifeless. The stadium is empty and anyone who goes wears the old gear. Flipping over a historic franchise like that without any ode to its history was a shortsighted move. Woke or not, the fans would probably rather have kept Snyder and the history/brand than a new owner and a copacetic name. Natives should have been the choice. Kansas City is able to honor the tribes while maintaining its identity.

it's just a horrible name.

I think Hogs would have been good.

as an aside, why did the Indians change their name?  that didn't seem "bad" to me.  

[oatmeal]

If this was about Watson or Adams pushing that camera man this thread would be 100 pages by now 

[Warfish]

8 minutes ago, batman10023 said:

it's just a horrible name.

I think Hogs would have been good.

It's really funny honestly, Red Hogs would have been such an easy and popular choice.  Nice Angry Warthog-type Pig logo/mascot, keep the old Uniforms and colors, keep the old Script "R" logo, easy as could be and the Fans, in the majority, would have been pretty happy all things considered. 

All that had to go was the name and the NA-Profile Logo.

It takes real effort to screw these things up. Amazingly, the 'Ders is the 2nd team in DC to totally blow a rebranding, the Washington Bullets->Wizardslol was a poopshow of a rebrand as well, and it's only these days, many years later, that the Wiz isn'y quite as hated as it once was.

8 minutes ago, batman10023 said:

as an aside, why did the Indians change their name?  that didn't seem "bad" to me.  

First, Indians are people from India.  Not from North America. 

Second, their old logo was about as much a clear-cut "racist stereotype" as you get in current Sports.

 

[Viermoo]

I’m playing the $1.5 billion Power Ball tonight. I’ll be making my bid in the morning.


Sent from my iPhone using JetNation.com mobile app

[sciond]

I don't like the guy at all..

However I think it is BS that someone should be forced to sell a team...

If they could... can they get rid of Woody and fam...