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Snyder Faced With Another Loss
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"In some cases the cause is macroeconomics," said Marc S. Ganis, a Chicago sports-marketing consultant who has followed Snyder's career as an NFL owner. "It's a labor dispute he has no control over. The Seattle Seahawks on Saturday were having a better day."
Ganis said he expected Snyder and his executive team to invest even more in the businesses, which include Johnny Rockets, a 1950s-themed restaurant chain in the midst of a major expansion.
"His character is to look at this chain of events and then add more to the plate and redouble his efforts," Ganis said. "This kind of thing just challenges him to do even more. He had major setbacks in his early 20s, and by 35 he owned one of, if not the most, important sports franchises in America. Check back next year."
Others aren't as optimistic.
"Six Flags is in really bad shape," said Stephen R. Howard, an attorney who specializes in investment management in private equity. "The Golden Globes is only as good as its image, and its image is going to be very badly tarnished. Those two are going to require a lot of management expertise to reverse."
Snyder, 43, made his first fortune as founder and chairman of Snyder Communications, a marketing company he sold in 2000 for $2.3 billion.
He has been assembling an entertainment empire since purchasing the Redskins for $800 million in 1999. Two years ago, he formed a $750 million private-equity fund, Red Zone Capital Partners II, concentrating on media and entertainment properties.
Snyder became chairman of Six Flags after a proxy fight in 2005, after which he threw out the old board and installed Six Flags chief executive Mark Shapiro, himself and Schar. Red Zone owns around 12 percent of Six Flags stock.
Around the same time, Snyder, Schar and Shapiro, working under a partnership called First and Goal, made a two-year deal with Tom Cruise's production company to pay $3 million to $10 million a year for the opportunity to finance Cruise's film projects.
Cruise was in Snyder's suite at Saturday's game in Seattle, and Snyder, Schar and Shapiro are listed as the executive producers on Cruise's movie "Valkyrie," which is scheduled to open this year.
And there are no signs that the fans have given up on the Redskins.
"Demand should continue to be strong next year," said Jeff Greenberg, founder and owner of ASC Ticket, a major online seller of tickets in the Washington region. "If Snyder makes a splash with a big-name coach like Bill Cowher or someone like a Jimmy Johnson type of guy, demand could be even better next year."
