Minority Owners Attempt to Force Snyder Out -

Another day, and another dose of bad news in the nation’s capital.

In a recent post from the Wall Street Journal, a collection of minority owners are looking to remove Dan Snyder of ownership from the Washington Football Team. This comes off the tails of weeks of unrest in DC, including a name change and sexual harassment scandal shared by the Washington Post.

Breaking: The minority partners of Washington's NFL team are pressuring Dan Snyder to sell the franchise, people familiar with the matter say https://t.co/9ExpG65dL5

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 13, 2020

According to the report, three minority owners, notably Dwight Schar, Fred Smith, and Bob Rothman, are working on a coup to remove the majority owner of the team.

For those that have followed the situation, there has been friction for quite a while. Many of the issues have spawned from Snyder’s commitment to former Team President Bruce Allen for nearly 10 years. Under the leadership of Allen, the team earned a record of 45-83-1 and fell to the abyss of NFL standings. Allen was largely viewed in a negative light by fans as well, prompting an overwhelming trend of #FireBruceAllen hashtag on social media. This year, Allen was removed from his duties, when the team seemingly hit rock bottom.

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In addition to Allen, the minority group has shown a lack of affection for the Redskins moniker, whom many found derogatory and offensive. Despite constant pressure to change the name, most notably from FedEx Corp owner Fred Smith, Snyder was steadfast in maintaining the name against all odds. In fact, in a USA Today interview in 2013, he shared that “he will NEVER change the team name, and you can put that in ALL CAPS”.

This friction has led to the minority owners attempting to sell their stakes in the team, however they have struggled to find potential suitors. In theory, with Snyder removed from the picture, the team would be more desirable to potential buyers, because they would not have to “check-in” with Snyder or any other majority owner. Hence, making a larger profit for all sellers. At this time, if the minority owners were to sell their 40% stake, it would be at a reduced rate.

Altogether, it would be very hard for Snyder to be removed from his position. Likely making these arguments moot. He would need a ¾ majority vote from his fellow owners, and that would be hard to come by. As insiders have shared, it’s easy to “not like someone” but it’s a whole other issue to remove an owner from their position. It would create a precedent in which all owners would be vulnerable to removal. And as we have seen over the years, all owners seemingly have skeletons in the closet.