Commanders.com Was a Smart Acquisition

There has been a lot of speculation about the new team name for the Washington NFL team formerly named the Redskins. For much more than a year, people guessed what the NFL team would be called, and this morning it was revealed that the team would be known as the Washington Commanders.

Interestingly, it was a domain name transfer that put Commanders on the radar of many people. When Commanders.com transferred to MarkMonitor, the domain protection registrar used by the NFL and many of its teams, people speculated that it was because of the impending name change for the Washington Football Team. In fact, this proved to be accurate as Commanders.com is now the website used by the Washington Commanders.

When I wrote about the Commanders.com domain name transfer, I pointed out that Commanders.com had sold via Sedo in July of 2021 for $20,000. The sale was recorded on NameBio. Because of Whois privacy, I am not sure if the domain name was acquired by the NFL team, but I assume it was. At just $20,000, it did not come close to cracking the list of the top domain name sales of 2021. In fact, it wasn’t even in the top 10 public domain name sales the week it was reported, according to DNJournal.

Had the NFL team announced its new Commanders brand before securing the Commanders.com domain name, it likely would have had to pay substantially more. Jamie Zoch pointed this out today:

Commanders saved a couple hundred grand by doing the right thing… buying the exact match .com domain Commanders․com BEFORE they brand as it and making the term more popular. Got it for $20K instead of AT LEAST $200K or more. Startups should wake up and do the same.

— Jamie Zoch (@DotWeekly) February 2, 2022

I don’t think the Washington NFL team is known for making good decisions. In the case of its domain name acquisition, securing Commanders.com well in advance of the rebrand was smart.