Daniel Snyder

Washington Redskins / Football Team / Commanders ownership (1999–2023)

In May 1999, Snyder purchased the Washington Redskins and Jack Kent Cooke Stadium for $800 million from the estate of Jack Kent Cooke, the team's former owner who died in 1997. At the time, it was the most expensive transaction in sporting history. The deal was financed largely through borrowed money, including $340 million borrowed from Société Générale and $155 million debt assumed on the stadium. To pay down the team's debt, in 2003, he sold 15% of the team to real estate developer Dwight Schar for $200 million, 15% to Florida financier Robert Rothman for a like amount; and 5% to FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith, leaving him with a 65% ownership interest. Over the years, Snyder served on the NFL's broadcast, business ventures, digital media, international, stadium, and Hall of Fame committees.

In late December 2019, Snyder announced that team president Bruce Allen and several other front office members were fired after a dismal 3–13 season.

In 2020, Snyder blocked the minority owners from selling their combined 35% ownership stake to an outside party by exercising his right of first refusal, only offering to buy back the 20% held by Rothman and Smith but not the 15% owned by Schar.

In March 2021, after a period of litigation, the league approved Snyder for a debt waiver of $450 million to acquire the remaining ownership stake held by the three in a deal worth about $875 million. Due to financial problems and increasing pressure from the NFL and other parties, he hired BofA Securities in November 2022 to explore selling the team. Snyder began negotiating with a group headed by Josh Harris in April 2023, and agreed in May to sell the franchise for $6.05 billion. The deal was unanimously approved by other NFL owners on July 20, 2023, and closed the following day.

Other ventures

Snyder owned expansion rights to an Arena Football League team for the Washington, D.C., market before the 2009 demise of the original league. He purchased the rights to the team for $4 million in 1999. The team was going to be called the Washington Warriors and play their games at the Comcast Center in 2003 but the team never started.

In 2005, Snyder bought 12% of the stock of amusement park operator Six Flags through his private equity company RedZone Capital. He later gained control of the board, placing his friend and ESPN executive Mark Shapiro as CEO and himself as chairman. In April 2009, the New York Stock Exchange delisted Six Flags' stock as it had fallen below the minimal market capitalization. Two months later, Six Flags announced that the company was delaying a $15 million debt payment and two weeks later, Six Flags filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As part of the reorganization, 92% of the company ended up in the hands of their lenders, with Snyder and Shapiro being removed from their positions.

In July 2006, Snyder launched Red Zebra Broadcasting with the purchase of a trio of sports radio stations in Washington, D.C. He purchased three other radio stations in the mid-Atlantic region, and broadcast coverage of Redskins games on all of his stations. In 2017 and 2018, Red Zebra sold off all of its radio stations and ceased doing business.

Also in July 2006, Snyder and other investors signed a deal to provide financing to the production company run by Tom Cruise and his partner, Paula Wagner. This came one week after Paramount Pictures severed its ties with Cruise and Wagner. Snyder is credited as an executive producer for the 2008 movie Valkyrie, which starred Cruise.

In February 2007, it was announced that Snyder's private equity firm Red Zone Capital Management would purchase Johnny Rockets, the 1950s-themed diner chain. RedZone Capital Management sold the company to Sun Capital Partners in 2013. From 2007 to 2012, Snyder also owned entertainment company Dick Clark Productions.

Snyder is a backer of the film production company Kinematics, which was founded by filmmaker Mark H. Rapaport. The production company financed the 2024 film The Apprentice, which is a portrayal of Donald Trump early in his business and real estate career in New York City. According to ESPN sources, Snyder invested in the film believing it would portray Trump favorably. When the film was screened in his home in February 2024, Snyder reportedly became upset about the negative portrayal of Trump. The film was shelved before Kinematics sold its stake in the film in the summer of 2024.

Defamation suit

Threatening a lawsuit in January 2011, Snyder demanded the dismissal of sports writer Dave McKenna, who had written an article for the Washington City Paper titled "The Cranky Redskins Fan's Guide to Dan Snyder", creating a list of controversies involving Snyder. McKenna had been needling Snyder for years in his columns, and the front-page of the article had a defaced picture of Snyder with devil's horns and a beard, an image Snyder claimed was antisemitic. Other sportswriters have come out in support of McKenna. In a statement released by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, while acknowledging that public figures are fair game for criticism, said the artwork used by the City Paper was reminiscent of "virulent antisemitism going back to the Middle Ages" and urged the City Paper issue an apology. Mike Madden of the City Paper issued a statement saying they take accusations of antisemitism very seriously and said the artwork was meant to "resemble the type of scribbling that teenagers everywhere have been using to deface photos" and the cover art was not an antisemitic caricature. In February, Snyder filed a lawsuit against the City Paper before dropping it in September.

Environmental

In 2004, Snyder brokered a deal with the National Park Service to remove old growth trees from the 200 feet (61 m) of national parkland behind his home to grant him a better view of the Potomac River, on the condition that Snyder would replace the trees with 600 native saplings. Lenn Harley, a real estate broker who was not involved in Snyder's purchase of the estate but was familiar with the area, estimated that the relatively unobstructed view of the river and its surroundings that resulted from Snyder's clearing could add $500,000 to $1 million to his $10 million home's value. The clearcutting was started without approval from Montgomery County, Maryland, and without environmental assessments, as required by law. As a result, Snyder was fined $100 by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in December 2004. Snyder's neighbors also filed complaints regarding his clearcutting of scenic and historic easements behind his home.

The NPS ranger who investigated the complaints of Snyder's neighbors and clearcutting along the Potomac was transferred multiple times due to his continued pursuit of the complaints and the Snyder property. Eventually, the NPS ranger filed a whistleblower complaint regarding the Snyder case. Later, the ranger's anonymity as a whistleblower was lost, potentially leading to extreme harassment and a trial of the park ranger, ultimately ending the ranger's career.

Workplace culture

In July 2020, The Washington Post published a series of articles alleging that over 40 women who were former employees of the organization, including office workers and cheerleaders, had been sexually harassed and discriminated against by Snyder and other male executives, colleagues, and players of the team since at least 2006. That December, it was also reported that Snyder had settled a sexual harassment claim with a former female employee for a sum of $1.6 million. The alleged incident had occurred on his private plane while returning from the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2009. Two private investigations at the time, hired by the team and an outside law firm, failed to substantiate the woman's claim, and it was reported that Snyder paid the sum to avoid any negative publicity. A year-long independent investigation into the team's workplace culture, led by lawyer Beth Wilkinson, was concluded in July 2021. It found that incidents of sexual harassment, bullying, and intimidation were commonplace throughout the organization under his ownership. The NFL fined the team $10 million in response, with Snyder also voluntarily stepping down from running the team's day-to-day operations for a few months, giving those responsibilities to his wife Tanya Snyder.

On July 28, 2022, Snyder voluntarily testified before the congressional House Committee on Oversight and Reform regarding its investigation into Washington's workplace misconduct. Following a 14-month probe, the Oversight and Reform committee published a report in December 2022 that found that Snyder gave "misleading" answers when he testified about his team's workplace issues. The report also accused Snyder of paying former employees hush money so they would not come forward with their allegations of abuse, which included "sexual misconduct, exploitation of women, bullying of men, and other inappropriate behavior," describing it as "commonplace, and that he was a hands-on owner who had a role in nearly every organizational decision." The report also stated the NFL "has not protected workers from sexual harassment and abuse." Former cheerleader Melanie Coburn testified before Congress that she was sexually harassed up to 200 times during her employment with the team, with a former video production manager for the team testifying that Snyder requested that lewd footage of a cheerleader photo shoot, without their consent, be compiled into a video. Snyder was also alleged to have hired private investigators to gather damaging information on team and NFL employees, including commissioner Roger Goodell and other team owners.

Financial improprieties

In 2021, the U.S. House Oversight Committee looked into reports that Snyder may have under reported ticket sales to the league, a move that would have allowed him to keep more ticket revenue. On April 12, 2022, the Committee sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission alleging Snyder had been keeping two separate financial ledgers since at least 2012: one that he would submit to the NFL and one that showed the actual numbers, which were much different. Congress also alleged that Snyder would drive up prices by selling cheaper tickets in bulk to third-party vendors, causing the remaining tickets to become far more expensive. This would in turn force fans who wanted to attend games at FedExField to either join an expensive waiting list or buy expensive tickets.

A criminal inquiry by the Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia alleged that Snyder possibly committed bank fraud after learning he was granted a $55 million line of credit in November 2018 without the knowledge and permission of the team's board of directors. In February 2023, a federal grand jury issued subpoenas for a cache of documents related to the team's finances.

In October 2022, attorney general of Washington, D.C. Karl Racine filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Snyder and the NFL. The criminal inquiry began after the US House Committee on Oversight and Accountability sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission detailing that it had 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.

A $55 million loan became the primary focus of federal prosecutors, which initially was discovered as a footnote in an April 2020 financial report. The team had taken out the credit line 16 months earlier without the knowledge and required approval of Snyder's minority partners, Robert Rothman, Dwight Schar, and Frederick W. Smith, who owned 40% of the team collectively. Bank of America officials repeatedly asked team executives for proof that the board had approved the loan, but team executives ignored all requests before the loan closed. According to arbitration documents, the partners demanded that the NFL investigate the origin of Snyder's loan, yet neither NFL commissioner Roger Goodell nor the NFL arbitrator investigated the allegations. Four days after the partners asked the NFL to seek proof that the loan was legally obtained, the NFL shut down arbitration proceedings.