Bezos, 58, owns The Washington Post - which is published in Washington, DC - a 27,000-square-foot mansion in the city’s Kalorama neighborhood which he bought for $23 million in 2016, and is currently working on building a second Amazon headquarters across the river in Arlington, Virginia. Now, Bezos is reportedly looking to purchase the Washington Commanders following news of their possible sale. The team’s owner, Dan Snyder, has been confronted by a scandal related to rumors of workplace sexual harassment.
In 2019, an American news source first reported Bezos’ interest in buying a sports team, though none were available for purchase at the time. In a report by UBS and PwC in 2017, coauthor John Mathews said he often advises billionaires against buying sports teams, as it’s the “fastest way to become a millionaire,” but adds that billionaires deciding to purchase sports teams is no longer just a play to boost their egos.
But Bezos probably isn’t interested in buying the team for financial prosperity or as an ego play. Mathews suggests that buying a team can help a billionaire network and “establish a legacy as the person who took the community’s sports club to great success.” In 2018, a DC news outlet reported that Bezos spent more time in Washington than any other city outside of Seattle. Clearly the mogul loves the nation’s capital, but the question is, why?