NFL Approves Redskins Sale

December 23, 1998 / 7:33 PM EST / AP

Daniel Snyder cleared a big hurdle Wednesday in his bid to own the Washington Redskins, all but ending a dispute involving one of the league's most prominent teams.

The NFL's finance committee voted unanimously to recommend that the team be sold to Snyder for a record $800 million.

The recommendation by the eight-member committee, meeting in New York and chaired by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, is crucial. The full ownership votes on the sale at a league meeting in Atlanta on Tuesday.

The previous record price for a professional sports franchise was $530 million, paid by Al Lerner last year for the expansion Cleveland Browns.

If the sale is approved, it would then take up to a week to close the deal and make Snyder, the 34-year-old head of Snyder Communications Inc. in Bethesda, Md., the youngest majority owner in the league.

Twenty-four of the 31 owners must approve the sale, but none has expressed the kind of reservations or opposition that last month derailed New York banker Howard Milstein's attempt to buy the team.

Milstein, who had Snyder as a junior partner, withdrew his $800 million offer after the finance committee split 3-3-1 on the bid and it became apparent he did not have 24 supporters among the full ownership.

On Monday, Milstein sued Redskins president John Kent Cooke and general manager Charley Casserly, claiming they conspired to form a bloc of owners to oppose his bid. The suit does not seek to stop the sale of the team to Snyder.

The finance committee discussed the sale for 2@1/2 hours Wednesday, with Snyder and partner Fred Drasner present for about 45 minutes to answer questions and address the group. Snyder left without comment.

Snyder's bid was more appealing to the committee because it contains more than $350 million in unborrowed cash, compared with $50 million for Milstein's bid. Snyder and members of his family are putting up more than $200 million, and minority partners Drasner and Mort Zuckerman are supplying about $150 million.

The team is being sold by the trustees for the estate of Cooke, who died in 1997 and ordered in his will that his assets be sold to fund a charitable foundation.