Tom Brady’s bid to buy stake in Las Vegas Raiders hits unusual snag. What happened?
There are undoubtedly many reasons why any franchise would want the legendary QB to be a part of it, but you can’t just give him a stake, can you?
In his bid to acquire a stake in the Las Vegas Raiders, the former Patriots legend and Buccaneers’ savior has seen some road bumps, but this latest is as puzzling as it is unsurprising. It’s not to say there has been any wrongdoing, but there are likely to be questions asked.
Were the Raiders trying to ‘gift’ Tom Brady his stake?
“Tom Brady is the greatest player in NFL history.” That’s a line that’s normally stated at some point when it comes to conversations about the now-retired quarterback. Now, imagine you’re an NFL franchise and you have the opportunity to have such an individual become part of your establishment. You’d probably do anything required to make that happen. Imagine the knock-on effects of having Brady on board whether it’s commercial or team related. Indeed, that’s what it looks like the Raiders attempted to do, to the extent that they reportedly discounted the price of Brady’s stake by a significant percentage. Why is that an issue?
A Tom Brady discount isn’t a thing
Yes, the discount that was proposed for Brady is where the problem occurred. According to the Washington Post, “the deal would be unlikely to be ratified at the proposed price.” Further to that, the Post’s sources alleged that Brady was in line to receive as much as 70% off of the price for what is believed to be a stake worth between 5 and 10 percent. That is for a team, that was valued by Forbes as recently as August at $6.2 billion.
So what happens to Tom Brady’s bid to buy?
When it was reported back in May that Brady was set to buy a stake in the Raiders, most focused on the idea that it more or less confirmed that there would be no second ‘unretirement.’ Yet what they should have understood is that Tom Brady was, as usual, taking things to the next level, and a team was set to benefit from it. Again, the benefits of having Brady as part of the franchise can’t be overstated, and quite frankly the same applies to the NFL itself. So, how does this pan out? To be clear, there’s been no indication that Brady and Raiders owner Mark Davis will rework the deal such that the league’s finance committee accepts it. On the other hand, the Post also indicated that there is a belief that some within the league want the deal to be approved. Could there be a compromise coming? Who knows, but Brady has always been clutch.