Josh Harris’ group shared the terms of his $6.05 billion bid to purchase the Washington Commanders with the NFL in recent days, sources told Front Office Sports. 

Although Harris and Commanders owner Dan Snyder have agreed to a framework of a deal, the transaction still isn’t final, which leaves an opening for another bidder. 

Sources close to Brian Davis told FOS that the former Duke men’s basketball player also forwarded his documentation to the NFL in an effort to bolster his mysterious $7 billion bid. 

Bank of America — the firm handling the sale on Snyder’s behalf — hasn’t commented on Davis’ bid or much else since Snyder put the franchise on the market in November. 

If successful, Davis would be the first Black controlling owner in NFL history. 

Sources told FOS that the funding appears to have originated from the Middle East, although there are still those with firsthand knowledge of the process who aren’t taking Davis’ bid all that seriously. 

“It must be a typo,” one source quipped to FOS. “They probably meant $7,000.”

The NFL’s full vetting process doesn’t begin until a winning bidder is selected and the application — which must be accompanied by a certified check for $25,000 — is sent to the league office. That kickstarts a review of the bidding group that typically takes more than a month before an ownership vote is scheduled. 

A three-fourths vote (at least 24 owners) is required for approval. 

The Atlanta area is planning for a potential mixed-use development to rival The Battery in Cobb County — and the $1 billion arena at its center is fueling rumors of the NHL’s return to ATL.

Local businessman Vernon Krause is reportedly in the planning stages to transform a 100-acre lot in Forsyth County into a residential and entertainment area larger than The Battery (2.25 million square feet), site of the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park.

The new project, tentatively named The Gathering at South Forsyth, will feature shops and restaurants, a business hotel, and residential spaces. The whole development is projected to cost “$1.5 billion to $2 billion,” according to Carl Hirsh, managing partner of Stafford Sports, which is representing Krause.

But the centerpiece of the plans is a $1 billion, 18,000-seat arena capable of hosting any number of sports and entertainment events. “It will be a multipurpose arena that has whatever you’ve seen in arenas, wherever you’ve been — we will be able to accommodate [it],” Hirsh said.

Speculation is growing that the NHL could return to the Atlanta area, despite commissioner Gary Bettman saying in March that the league is “not in expansion mode right now.”

The Atlanta Flames and Thrashers both played in the area for a time — but each ultimately moved north to Calgary and Winnipeg, respectively.

“We’re hoping to make this the entertainment hub of North Georgia,” said Hirsh. “If the NHL at some time decides they want to expand, we would love to talk to them about that.”

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has finally been tracked down by a Florida law firm representing thousands of investors in a lawsuit against the collapsed crypto exchange FTX. 

The Miami-based Moskowitz Law Firm tweeted that O’Neal had been “running from us for three months” as lawyers tried to serve legal papers to the “NBA on TNT” analyst for his role in promoting FTX. The firm said lawyers stood outside TNT’s Atlanta studios all week hoping to hand their legal complaint to Shaq, but security didn’t allow them in the building. 

On Sunday, the firm said it served legal papers to him outside his house, an encounter captured on video surveillance cameras. 

“We made it very clear that he is not to destroy or erase any of these security tapes, because they must be preserved for our lawsuit,” the law firm tweeted. 

Moskowitz said O’Neal was the only FTX celebrity endorser evading them and “all other FTX celebrities have agreed to receive their complaints.” 

Shaq, Tom Brady, and Steph Curry were named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit filed against FTX in Florida last November claiming U.S. consumers sustained over $1 billion in damages from the collapse. 

A video uploaded in June 2022 to FTX’s Twitter account introduced Shaq as the company’s newest partner. O’Neal helped promote FTX despite telling CNBC that he didn’t understand cryptocurrency.

Shaq told FOS in 2021 that he tried to avoid crypto partnerships.