Billionaire Mitchell Rales is reportedly joining a bid to buy the Washington Commanders, as a sale seems up in the air.
Rales is joining on a bid with Josh Harris, who owns the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, according to a report by ESPN's Adam Schefter.
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The co-founder of the Danaher Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, Rales has a net worth of $5.6 billion and lives in Potomac, Maryland.
Harris has been seen as one of the top bidders, and the reported joint bid with Rales would boost his chances of securing the Washington football team. He was spotted visiting the team's facilities in Ashburn, Virginia, earlier this month. The details of the initial offer Harris made are unknown. He attempted to buy the Denver Broncos last year but was outbid by Walmart heir Rob Walton.
Several reports suggest the Commanders are attempting to get a sale done within the next couple of weeks, before the annual league owners meeting, which is scheduled for March 26-29 in Phoenix, Arizona. A sale of the team would require three-fourths of teams in the league, 24 of the 32, to approve the selected bid, and getting a winning bid before the meeting would expedite the sale process.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been discussed as a bidder for the team, having reportedly hired a firm to explore a bid into the Commanders, but it is unknown if he will be able to place a bid on the team after conflicting reports suggesting current owner Dan Snyder may block him.
The current bids have reportedly fallen short of the $7 billion mark Snyder is allegedly hoping to get for the Commanders, reaching a peak of $6.3 billion in the first round of bids in December.
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The team has been publicly exploring a sale since November 2022, when Snyder hired Bank of America to "consider potential transactions" regarding ownership. Reports suggest Snyder may still walk away from the bidding process and not sell the team if the price is too low.
The NFL has increasingly pressured Snyder to make changes to the team in recent years. In 2020, Snyder announced the team would retire the "Redskins" name, opting to be called the "Washington Football Team" for the 2020 and 2021 seasons before rebranding as the "Commanders" in 2022.