A year after the collapse of the last attempt to sell D.C. United’s operating rights, club President and CEO Kevin Payne will announce Monday a new set of investors will purchase the team.
Anschutz Entertainment Group is selling the team’s rights.
Payne will lead the group, which includes Discovery Communications founder John Hendricks and former Duke basketball player and D.C.-area native Brian Davis, according to sources.
The group also includes real estate developer Victor MacFarlane, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.
Davis, managing partner of development company Blue Devil Partners, will attend Monday’s news conference along with Blue Devil Partners chief
operations officer Duane Sparks and management consultant Michael Sorrell.
The Monday morning news conference will also include MLS Commissioner Don Garber, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).
During the summer, Davis, who is part of a group also trying to buy the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, told The Memphis Commercial Appeal this summer he was close to a deal to buy United for $33 million.
Payne headed a group with local real estate investors Willi Lauterbach and Tim Kissler that made a $26 million deal for the team in 2005 before it fell through last winter.
The purchase will help pave the way for a proposed real estate development project at Poplar Point in Southeast D.C. that will include 27,000-seat soccer-only facility.
‹ The Associated Press contributed to this report
