Some interesting news recently came to light about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Glazer family. According to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico, the Buccaneers rejected a $6 billion proposal to buy the team.
"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers recently turned down a proposal to buy the franchise for a tick above the $6.05 billion that a group led by Josh Harris paid for the Washington Commanders last year, according to someone familiar with the details who was not authorized to speak publicly. If accepted, it would have set a record for the transaction of an NFL team and a global record for a control sale of a sports team."
While Badenhausen said that Sportico wasn't able to identify who the potential buyer was in this situation, it was noted that "The interest to acquire the two-time Super Bowl champions from the Glazer family came from someone deemed a “qualified buyer” in NFL parlance, i.e., they could write the check."
The Glazer family bought the team in 1995 and since then, the Bucs have won two Super Bowls and had the greatest quarterback of all-time playing for them for a handful of seasons before retiring. According to the Sportico article, the Bucs are in the middle of the pack when it comes to valuation in the league, sitting right at 16th with a valuation of $5.5 billion. Badenhausen noted that this is above average.
"The average NFL franchise is worth $5.93 billion, a number boosted by the scarcity value. There are only 32 teams in the league, and they rarely sell, with only four control transactions in the past 12 years. The average NFL ownership tenure is 41 years."
Buccaneers rejected what would have been record-breaking proposal
As Badenhausen mentioned, it's not often that we see NFL teams get sold off in this day in age. The most recent was Josh Harris buying the Washington Commanders in 2023 and Rob Walton buying the Denver Broncos in 2022.
It's great that the Bucs didn't join the list of teams getting bought out but it's wild that this news seemed to come from out of nowhere. Will this be the last we hear of this mystery buyer?