After three months in command, Commanders owner Josh Harris speaks out about his goals.
Josh Harris, the new owner of the Washington Commanders, believes that his $6 billion recovery effort necessitates a two-track approach: one for the numerous current concerns and one for the substantial long-term strategic challenges.
On the near term, he’s already racked up a slew of huge wins: Significantly increased attendance, the return of significant sponsors, and a rise in interest in creating a new stadium from three different governments. But those are the kinds of things that should be happening at any NFL team. For Harris, whose $6.05 billion purchase of the club was completed in July, the immediate victories only emphasise the importance of the big picture.
“The city’s responding, but to be fair, it’s responding off a low base,” Harris said during an interview with Sports Business Journal near his three-month milestone as owner. “In order to keep it going, we need to up our game pretty much every step of the way
“Not everyone is going to make it,” Harris hinted at staff changes. At the same time, I discovered a very sincere, hardworking bunch of people that are eager to take on the challenge. Right now, we’re attempting to encourage everyone while simultaneously raising expectations and holding people accountable. So we’ll have to wait and see where it goes. But for the time being, everything is operating perfectly.”
Harris described how officials from Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and his own investment firm, 26North Partners, are involved in the Commanders’ operations for the first time.
Harris and 26North effectively treat the Commanders as a portfolio company, with partner Evan Zemsky overseeing a group that ensures strategic alignment between the football team and the firm while giving important guidance.
“The Commanders are very important to my family and therefore the resources that I have here, which are substantial, I’m taking a bunch of those resources and saying, ‘focus on this,’” Harris said.
He described a similar approach with HBSE, which, he noted, is “effectively, in a very complicated way, an investor through me” in the Commanders. While the football team is not part of HBSE — and its $6 billion asset value is larger than the 76ers, Devils, Prudential Center and the rest of HBSE combined — there are synergies to be gained by having CEO Tad Brown work closely with Commanders leaders.
Wright, for example, recently inspected Prudential Centre to get a sense of how that 16-year-old arena has been updated — a primer for future upgrades at the decaying, 26-year-old FedEx Field.
“So there’s sort of that 26North sponsor role, and then there’s the mutually symbiotic relationship between two affiliated sports businesses that are in the same area that can help both,” Harris went on to explain.
There have been ongoing conversations since Harris purchased the Commanders to plan a future in which Harris, either personally or through HBSE, owns two big arenas, a significant stadium, and three teams within 240 miles. (HBSE is also working to build a new arena in Philadelphia, with the goal of evicting the 76ers from the Wells Fargo Centre.) “So we’ll have a huge franchise for events and concerts,” he went on to say.
One area of focus for 26North has been premium sales, which generated a quick return: The Commanders sold the suites that Wright had been using for his executive team. “I’ve never been so happy to be evicted in my life,” Wright said.
According to Harris and Wright, there is little friction between short-term and long-term work. While there are limits to the investment and effort they might put into FedEx Field knowing that a full-fledged replacement will arrive as soon as possible after their commitment to play at FedEx expires in 2027, Harris said that tension would keep him from investing “hundreds of millions,” rather than the “10, 20, 30, or 40 million” dollars worth of work already underway. And, most importantly, the current effort can inform future stadium planning while providing an immediate return.
Wright and Harris discuss the stadium and how the small details add up to the larger vision. Maintaining the honeymoon period associated with a new owner is dependent on providing better, bigger premium spaces, better and faster concessions, no more leaks from overhangs, updated mobile connectivity, and better traffic movements throughout the stadium when supporters return.
All of this (plus some wins on the field), according to Wright, leads to stronger season-ticket renewals, which he thinks will return the team to the correct major-market NFL team income baseline. Forbes magazine has estimated the Commanders’ 2022 income to be $545 million, tying them for 16th place. Harris stated that his goal is to become a “top five” team in all criteria; the Giants were fifth on that list at $639 million.
“We’ll be in a better position after next offseason,” said Wright, who speaks with Harris every day. “I don’t think we’ll be quite where we want to be in the future, but we’ll be in a very healthy position, which affects what you decide to invest in.” Between now and then, incremental improvements to the guest experience will have a very direct ROI for season-ticket holders.”
The Commanders are spending what Harris called “hundreds of thousands of dollars” on consultants and preliminary plans as they think about their stadium options right now. Since August, former Atlanta Hawks COO Thad Sheely has been leading this work as a stadium adviser, and meets with Wright three times a week. The team’s official construction partner, Clark Construction, is also closely involved in the strategizing.
It’s difficult labour. Every economic and construction element of a potential new development is dependent on the specifics of a given plot of land, but no site can be guaranteed until an inherently unpredictable political process is completed. But no one, notably Harris, is willing to wait for the political process before delving into specifics. “In a way, you do triple the work up front,” Wright explained.
While little is known about what the Harris-era Commanders want internally, the most widely speculated possibilities include rebuilding at the FedEx site in Landover, Md., returning to the classic RFK Stadium site in Washington, D.C. (though this is uniquely politically difficult), or a new site somewhere in the Northern Virginia suburbs.
While the stadium problem is essential strategically, it is not so pressing that it is influencing business decisions today. According to Wright, sponsorships signed today do not include contingencies for a new location. The Verizon sponsorship includes updated FedEx equipment, although much of that equipment could be relocated to a different location. However, there is a handshake agreement about the importance of returning now, before the dazzling new arena opens.
“We’re going to really appreciate and remember the people that are there early, and there’s loyalty, right?” Harris stated.
Harris stated that since purchasing the Commanders, his work week has climbed from 60 to 90 hours, and he expects that intensity would fade with time. But it’s not there yet, with Harris still learning and Commanders workers learning how Harris operates.
“I’m hoping that over time, as people understand my cadence and expectations, that it’ll get a lot easier, but I think it’s natural that it’s not there yet three months after we start,” he went on to say.
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