Dear Dan:
Many of us have read the off-season headlines about the Washington Commanders and that you may - or may not - be holding out for a $7 billion dollar bid to sell the team. We’ve read that you’ve rejected a Jeff Bezos bid around $6 billion and have blocked him from bidding. Other headlines say that he isn’t blocked – it’s all a ploy to keep interest high.
We’ve also read that the NFL league owners will meet, starting on March 26, and it is believed the other owners want you to complete a sale by that time to allow new owners time to take over Washington before the new season begins.
Growing up in central Ohio, I lived in the middle of fan rivalry between the Browns and Bengals – so I wasn’t always a Washington Football fan. But after moving to the DC area, Washington became my adopted team and I learned that people from all over the US felt Washington football belonged to them too. At a family wedding in Florida, a cousin who had spent his entire career as a cop in the heart of Miami Dolphins territory came up to me and said “You’re so damn lucky to be in DC -- the Redskins have always been my favorite team!” (the conversation predated the team’s name-change – and the team is still his favorite).
Perhaps because the Nation’s Capital is a transient place for representatives from all over the US – or perhaps because it is such a common part of our collective national identity and heritage, people from all over the country have similar feelings toward Washington’s football team – that it belongs to them too.
If you don’t want to depart with your majority stake in the team but you do have debt you may need to soon service, why not consider a third approach? Sell a fraction of the team to fans using Reg A+ Regulated Investment Crowdfunding (#RIC)? With RegA+, you could sell up to $75 million year-after-year in ownership to non-accredited investors - the fans! Luckily, Regulated Investment Crowdfunding is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) so it’s above-board and other owners shouldn’t object (in fact, they should embrace it too.)
It’s no secret that some passionate Washington fans want to see you gone. Here’s a social posting as an example. With crowdfunding, you can let passionate fans put up some money and join you as equity owners:
And selling to the crowd has been done successfully in NFL football. Between late 2021 and early 2022, the Green Bay Packers sold $65 million to their fans in a public offering which added about 175,000 small investors from all 50 states U.S. territories and Canada. Read about it here:
When you changed the name of the team to the Washington Commanders, you embraced a name that represents strength, honor, and integrity – positive values that Americans aspire to. By also extending ownership in a fraction of the team to investor-fans from all over the US, year-after-year, not only would it increase fan loyalty and engagement, it would allow Washington football to make a run at yet another title -- “America’s Team.”
Thank you for your consideration,
Brian Christie
Vice President of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA)
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There’s no reason that a late 70’s TV reference to a club from Dallas in the “Lone Star” state should have stuck as many years as it has. The cowboys never deserved that title.