IT’S 9:04 P.M. ON a steamy Monday in past due August, and pristine Washington Commanders proprietor Josh Harris is status in a sales space he by no means imagined he’d occupy, in between two legends he by no means imagined he’d meet: broadcaster Joe Greenback and Corridor of Repute quarterback Troy Aikman.

As Harris, all 5-foot-8 of him, prepares for a are living interview, the manufacturers have a catch 22 situation: Greenback is 6-1, Aikman is 6-4. They’re on the town to paintings ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast of the Commanders’ preseason competition in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens. If Harris stands between the two of them, the peak residue shall be discoverable.

How do you ask a person who simply spent $6.05 billion — the very best worth in historical past for any North American sports activities franchise — to … arise on a wood field?

To any person who old to paintings for Harris’ Commanders predecessor, Daniel Snyder, it’s extraordinary that Harris is even taking into consideration the field. Snyder hardly granted interviews right through his 24 years in rate and didn’t jerk kindly to remark on his peak. However Harris is trim another way. He frequently speaks about how being undersized as a child and wrestling in faculty at 118 kilos shaped his character, a relentlessness and scrappiness that has fueled his skilled era, too. And he has been relentless as hell comparing everybody and the entirety inside the group since he took over 9 weeks in the past.

Earlier than the sport, he was once taking yells concerning the pristine tone gadget and reviewing ingress and egress plans. Nearest that he was once at the garden shaking palms and doing photograph ops with head mentor Ron Rivera, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, franchise legend Joe Gibbs and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, who was once the primary primary company sponsor to signal on with the crew following the sale from Snyder.

“I’ve been around this long enough to know that people are impatient,” Harris says. “I’m impatient. The honeymoon is going to last a certain amount of time, and then it’s going to be on us and on me.”

So if he has to arise at the field to produce a just right first influence, he’s taking to arise at the rattling field.

Harris is among the maximum robust males in sports activities, proudly owning 3 groups use more or less $10.3 billion throughout 3 primary North American sports activities. Right through the nine-month-long bidding procedure for the Commanders, Harris admits he just about left the scene a part accumulation occasions however by no means may just. He knew how a lot the fan bottom had persevered the presen twenty years as a result of he persevered it too. He’d additionally discovered dried courses in his first decade within the sports activities international — and couldn’t repeat them.

This was once a $6 billion bidding struggle he needed to win.

The Commanders are Harris’ fatherland crew. And he is aware of that being out in entrance, the place crowd can see him, is only the start.

“It’s not something that I really relish or want to do,” Harris says. “I’m more famous than I ever thought I would be. I have a family. I have five kids. I want them to have as normal of a life as they can.

“However at the alternative hand, I noticed after I did this that I’ve a duty to the town, and a part of this is working out that the town desires to grasp who I’m as an individual. How do I produce selections? What do I arise for?”

This is why he’s on the box between Buck and Aikman, shaking hands even when there’s no shake to be had.

Yes, it’s time to talk about the handshake. Buck asks a question. Harris answers it. Only Buck is also holding his hands out. Harris sees Buck’s outstretched hand and goes in for the shake.

It misses. A total misread. A nightmare scenario on national television, but they both keep talking. Buck pulls his hand back quickly. Aikman smiles. And everyone on social media instantly starts clipping off the awkward clip, which goes viral by the time Harris leaves the booth and starts downloading with Commanders president Jason Wright and public relations specialist Dave Sholler.

The interview went well, Sholler tells him. Except for, well, the missed connection.

Harris, wearing Commanders burgundy, looks down at Sholler’s screen and watches the handshake that wasn’t.

Nobody likes going viral for something like this. But Harris has seen enough in his 12 years as an owner of the Philadelphia 76ers to know a little humility goes a long way.

He laughs and asks to see it again.

“What are you taking to do?” Harris says. “Idea he was once going for the shake.”

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SINCE IT OPENED in 1750, The Punchbowl public house in London’s Mayfair District has served as the site of many great deals and nights out on the town. Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. used to be regulars. Justin Timberlake has stopped in. Guy Ritchie and Madonna liked it so much, they bought it in March 2008. At one point it was even a stop for sightseeing tourist buses.

It is exactly the kind of place two American titans of private equity would go for dinner.

David Blitzer had lived in London for a decade when Harris moved to town in 2008. Blitzer was at Blackstone, Harris at Apollo Global Management. Their firms were hugely competitive, but the community of expats doing private equity at that level in London was a small one, and they became fast friends.

One night over a long dinner at The Punchbowl, the seeds of a future partnership were born.

“I will be able to nonetheless image that dinner,” Blitzer says, “and submitting away his pastime in making an investment in sports activities.”

Harris was nearing what would become a legendary private equity deal — a $2 billion investment in the multinational chemical company LyondellBasell during the pit of the financial crisis.

The company went through bankruptcy proceedings in 2009, but Harris believed in it more than ever. He thought it had competitive advantages in refining natural gas — which had become cheap and abundant as fracking techniques were developed — into polypropylene, a plastic used in everything from food and beverage packaging to textiles and the automotive industry. Where other investors ran from the distress, Harris and Apollo dove in and were rewarded handsomely. In just five years, the investment grew by 500%, to more than $12 billion.

Around the same time, Harris and Blitzer independently began studying another sector they felt might be undervalued: professional sports.

Eight NBA teams — the Charlotte Hornets, Golden State Warriors, Washington Wizards, Sixers, Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans and Toronto Raptors — became available between 2008 and 2012, creating something of a buyer’s market.

“I grew up a Sixers fan,” Blitzer says. “He going to Wharton. So I stated, ‘Josh, let’s purchase the Sixers, guy!’ He stated, ‘Oh, that’s humorous. I already bid on them.'”

They joined forces, eventually adding other limited partners like Jason Levien and a brash young businessman named Michael Rubin, who’d just sold his company GSI Commerce to eBay for $2.4 billion.

Rubin was a late addition to the group, he says, “positioned” there by former NBA commissioner David Stern.

The league was facing a long lockout, and Stern was still acting as the owner of the New Orleans franchise after George Shinn went bankrupt and was forced to sell it back to the league. Rubin was a guy the NBA had done business with since 1999.

“David stated, ‘Michael, I thought of this. You wish to have to journey in and be an actual spouse,'” Rubin recalls. “I stated, ‘Why?’ And he stated, ‘As a result of if anything else is going flawed, you’re employed for f—ing me and I will be able to keep an eye on you. And so that you’re f—ing doing this, as a result of I want anyone on this crew that I keep an eye on.'”

The Sixers were something of a distressed asset at the time as well, Blitzer says, losing approximately $25 million a year with a mediocre roster and a frustrated local fan base that routinely prioritized the Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies and Flyers in terms of attendance.

Harris and Blitzer studied the financials, taking more than six months to work through and close the deal. They badly wanted the team. But they’d made their careers — and their fortunes — by making the right investments, at the right time, for the right price.

The more they studied the NBA and the sports world in general, the more untapped value they saw.

And so in early July 2011, Harris and Blitzer put pen to paper. It is one of the great sports business success stories of the modern era — from a purchase price of $280 million to a $3.15 billion valuation in 2023.

“Disagree. 1 is the shortage worth,” Blitzer says. “They don’t produce extra of them. It’s like artwork in many ways.”

In a lot of ways, actually. About a year after Harris closed on the Sixers, Harris’ co-founder at Apollo, Leon Black, closed on a $119.9 million purchase of Edvard Munch’s “The Shout” at auction, a record at the time.

The second factor, Blitzer says, was the changing landscape of sports media rights.

“I’m no longer going to sit down right here and fake that I had some crystal ball and I noticed that the NBA media rights have been taking to journey up as dramatically as they did in 2014,” Blitzer says. “However indubitably I assumed they have been going up.”

Once they were in on sports, Harris and Blitzer did exactly what private equity guys do: They added to their portfolios.

In 2013, they bought the New Jersey Devils for $320 million. In 2015 they bought a $75 million stake in Crystal Palace of the English Premier League.

Two industry-changing deals confirmed their analysis that valuations on sports franchises were about to skyrocket: In 2012, Blitzer’s firm, Blackstone, handled the $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2014, Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion.

Since that Clippers sale, four of the five NBA franchises that have been sold went for at least $1.5 billion — most notably the Phoenix Suns, who sold for $4 billion this year.

“My simplest be apologetic about,” Blitzer says, “is we didn’t put money into each unmarried league again within the 2010 to 2015 time frame.”

HARRIS WOULD LOVE to say that he saw value in sports back in 2010 the way he saw value in LyondellBasell back in 2008.

But that return on investment is not what comes to mind when he looks back on his investments in the sports world over the past 12 years.

“In industry we’re fiduciaries for pension budget and traders and our process is to produce them cash,” Harris says from what has become his office at FedEx Field. The room is empty, save for a few items on the desk. There hasn’t been time to furnish anything yet. Just to work.

“In sports activities, you’ll be able to’t produce it about cash. It’s a must to produce it about successful and you have got to produce it about attractive with the town.”

In that respect, Harris hasn’t succeeded. The Sixers have won 248 regular-season games over the past five seasons, tied for second most in that span, but haven’t made a conference finals. The Devils have made the playoffs just twice in Harris’ tenure. And Crystal Palace hasn’t finished higher than 11th in the Premier League table.

It’s been humbling.

“You be informed such a lot as an proprietor,” he says. “You’ll be able to’t at all times keep an eye on the result. Similar to you’ll be able to’t essentially say, ‘I’ve assembled this tremendous crew, and it’s taking to win.'”

From the radical Sam Hinkie-era “Procedure” to the unraveling of Ben Simmons to the still-murky James Harden situation, the Sixers have taken as many big swings as any franchise in the past decade and still haven’t seen the kind of return Harris says is required in sports.

As an investor, Harris has a reputation as a monster workaholic. Eighty-, 90-hour weeks. Phone calls until 2 a.m., then back at it by 5 or 6 a.m. with calls on the way to and from the gym. He doesn’t golf or fish or travel the way men of his station usually do. He works.

But no amount of work and analysis could solve the kinds of issues that have come up during his time as owner of the Sixers. There have been personality conflicts, holdouts, mental health issues, philosophical differences on team building, even a high-profile burner account scandal.

“In sports activities, I’ve discovered you want to get underneath the hood as a result of the entirety performs out publicly and it will possibly wreck momentum,” he says. “I wish to produce certain Joel Embiid is feeling just right and he’s looked after. I’m chatting with him and ensuring that I’m getting his perspective with regards to a few of these selections. What’s notable to a mentor? What’s notable to a GM? And likewise no longer making selections too briefly. It’s a must to be informed all that.”

The public nature of sports ownership — the need he feels to be more forward-facing with the Commanders — has been the toughest learning curve.

“In sports activities, when your mom says function as if you happen to’re taking to examine it at the entrance web page of the paper, that’s truly true, actually,” he says. “So the way you function, despite the fact that it could produce sense to do something financially, perhaps you need to do some other factor as it’s your duty to the crowd who paintings within the group and the town. Or it’ll play games out in nation within the flawed method.”

That’s why he has been so public since taking over the Commanders. Right away he and minority owner Mitch Rales started scheduling lunches with groups of 10-12 players to build relationships.

“I’ve their [phone] numbers, I’m ready to speak to them. And that’s simply truly other as a way to have extra of a private dating,” says wide receiver Terry McLaurin. “And we now have some guys in there who don’t seem to be afraid to invite the cruel questions, but additionally give our fair evaluations. Most commonly [Harris and Rales] have been simply asking about how they can get better. From the warehouse room, the educational group of workers, the game-day revel in, how our households are handled. A accumulation of items, they only appear slight, however they upload up.”

There are bigger things Harris wants to tackle in the future, too. The team’s stadium and practice facility are both in need of upgrades. There are hundreds of organizational and staffing issues to evaluate in the next few years. Not to mention a beleaguered fan base that’s desperately hoping he is more than just not Dan Snyder.

It is a massive undertaking.

“Josh, he’s been humbled,” Rubin says. “He realizes that is more difficult than crowd suppose. He is aware of journey in, pay attention, be informed.

“This is not about an investment. This is about a chance. I had financial success in business and now I have a chance to buy my team I grew up with. And yes, he is going to make it a much better business. But his dream is to hold up a f—ing trophy and bring a Super Bowl to the region.”

IT’S NOT HARD to drum up fondness within the honeymoon level of a pristine dating. What’s dried is to maintain it when issues journey flawed.

Two years in the past, that’s precisely the place Harris was once. Formally, he stepped ill from working the daily operations of Apollo next clashing with co-founders Leon Dark and Marc Rowan over who must prevail Dark as CEO amid an investigation into Dark’s alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Unofficially, he misplaced the facility try with Rowan and was once driven out of an organization he’d spent 32 years construction into probably the most biggest personal fairness companies on the planet.

It harm him deeply.

“On a human level,” Harris says, “being untethered from something you had done for 32 years was unsettling.

“However at the alternative hand, it gave me a anticipation to truly take into consideration what I sought after to do,” he continues. “When I were given in the course of the emotional a part of it, I had a accumulation of alternatives.”

He went on a listening excursion, first speaking with those that knew him best possible — Blitzer, Rubin and adolescence buddy and fellow project capitalist Mark Ein. Nearest with crowd whose point of view he valued: Rales, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, former president Barack Obama, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and previous Milwaukee Greenbacks proprietor Marc Lasry.

Rales was once anyone he knew of however didn’t know individually in spite of their shared background in Washington. Ein sought after them to satisfy as a result of Rales have been via his percentage of private {and professional} reinventions.

“Mark said, ‘Would you do me a favor and spend some time with Josh?'” Rales recollects. “He’s trying to think through everything going on in his life. Everything with the firm was coming a little unglued. And he’s thinking about career and what he does next.”

Rales, who made his $5.4 billion fortune by means of construction plenty of companies, based the Glenstone artwork museum in 2006 in Potomac, Maryland, along with his moment spouse, Emily Wei Rales. He has since constructed its asset assortment to almost $4.6 billion, on par with the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in Brandnew York.

He’d additionally been via a near-death revel in in 1988 future on a fishing commute to Siberia that he says modified the process his era and priorities.

His recommendation to Harris was once easy: “‘Why would you want to be part of something that doesn’t necessarily want you to be necessarily part of it?'” Rales recollects. “‘You have a chance to really craft something incredible. You’re still a young guy. You’ve got one more great run left.’

“And certain plenty, that’s what he did.”

Harris found new purpose after his existential chats with Rales and others. In 2022, he founded a new private equity firm, 26North, which launched with more than $5 billion in assets and put together a group that was a finalist for the Denver Broncos before the Walton-Penner family paid $4.65 billion.

“My view at the Broncos do business in was once easy,” Blitzer says. “If Rob Walton and his companions made up our minds they wish to purchase the crew, they have been going to shop for the crew. And in the event that they don’t, Josh will purchase the crew.

“My view on the Commanders was my view of the Waltons and Denver. If Josh hangs in there, he’s going to end up figuring out a way to invest in the team.”

Harris have been construction a dating with Snyder for once in a while. He understood that Snyder would have the latter say on whom the crew could be bought to, if he in the long run made up our minds to take action.

For years Snyder maintained he would by no means promote. However over the process the presen 3 years, a layout of court cases and league and congressional investigations made it untenable for Snyder to proceed. That spiral started with a layout of stories by means of the Washington Submit into mistreatment of the crew’s feminine workers in the course of 2020. The ones allegations ended in an investigation by means of the NFL and next Congress. In February 2022, the NFL opened a moment investigation into the crew, led by means of former Securities and Trade Fee chair Mary Jo White, following the testimony of 2 former workers ahead of Congress. Snyder’s ultimate give up looked as if it would are available February of this pace next ESPN printed a tale detailing a federal investigation into allegations of monetary misconduct by means of Snyder and the crew.

Harris adopted the entire information from afar however was once near plenty to the status to be in place to bid at the crew when the pace got here.

“I met with Dan a few times,” Harris says. “Anytime that you’re in a deal like this, the seller has to want to do a deal with you. So I had to cultivate him.”

This was once no longer the primary pace he needed to manufacture a dating with the landlord of a distressed corporate. He’d made his occupation purchasing corporations like this.

“You have to be transparent, be direct,” Harris says. “Say what you’re going to do and then do it, be polite, be respectful. Sometimes when you’re in a process [like this], there’s agreements and lawyers and people can get angry. So communication is important.”

The threat of Snyder’s criminal status hung over the entirety. The ultimatum of former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — probably the most richest males on the planet — coming in on the extreme negligible and outspending them was once at all times there.

However next 9 months of past due nights and lengthy yells, Harris and Snyder had a do business in. A report for any North American sports activities franchise — no longer Harris’ conventional buy-low acquisition.

“Paying $280 million [for the Sixers] then, might’ve been a harder decision than Josh paying $6 billion for the Commanders, just because it was a different time,” says Rubin, who bought his stake within the Sixers extreme pace to steer clear of conflicts of pastime along with his corporate, Fans. “And because he didn’t understand sports then the way he does now.”

NFL regulations retain that almost all proprietor should retain over 30% fairness. Harris says he’s “well north of that” and that Rales is the second-largest shareholder, at round 10%. Ein could also be a minority spouse, together with Witchcraft Johnson.

Hours next the sale closed, Harris known as into an area radio station (106.7 The Fan) and purchased a spherical of beers for roughly 1,000 listeners on the Worn Ox Brewery in Ashburn, Virginia. Since next he has executed numerous photograph ops and interviews all over the place the District. The Commanders received their first house regular-season competition Sept. 10 in entrance of Embiid, D.C. local Kevin Durant and franchise legends like John Riggins, Champ Bailey and Sonny Jurgensen.

There hasn’t been a lot pace to soak all of it in. There were great moments, like protecting his daughter Bridget’s hand at the garden ahead of the primary preseason competition, in between photograph ops.

However there hasn’t been pace for a lot else. No longer even make-up ahead of his TV look with Greenback and Aikman.

“It’s not going to help,” Harris jokes. “Not at my age.” However there’s a bigger level he’s making.

The Commanders would possibly no longer finally end up generating the type of monetary returns Harris is old to handing over.

However that’s no longer the type of praise he’s next.

“People just start almost crying when they tell you about the memories they had of Washington football,” Harris says. “One of the most important people in government just emailed me and said they remembered being at a game with their dad. I remember being at games with my dad.

“So that is truly notable. It’s an excessively notable town, and it’s an excessively notable franchise.”

John Keim contributed to this tale.