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Qatar Investment Authority Attempting To Purchase The Phoenix Suns And Mercury Franchsies For $3 Billion.

After Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver was suspended for a year, with a $10 million fine, due to a racism, sexism, and sexual harassment scandal, the NBA world decided in unison, that the punishment wasn’t enough.

With a lot of pressure from within the NBA, its front office and its players, Sarver decided that it was in everyone’s best interest to sell the Suns and Mercury franchises.

After the first reports of Sarver selling the team, the top of the list of potential buyers included some well known names, that were headlined by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and even former President Barack Obama, who was rumored to be involved in one of the groups considering a bid to buy the Suns.

Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Qatar wants in on the Suns and Mercury franchises, as  two venture capital companies, Thiel Capital and Shasta Ventures, have made a $3 billion bid to buy the teams. Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, is part of the bid by Thiel Capital.

Last year, Forbes had valued the Suns at $1.8-billion, but the asking price will reportedly be in the $3 to $4 billion range – a price tag that is more than affordable of many of the names in consideration.