HEADLINES

Jody Allen Unlikely To Sell Seahawks In Near Future

May 29th, 2022 at 8:16am CST by Rory Parks

Russell Wilson‘s new team, the Broncos, are on the market and are expected to sell for roughly $5 billion. Wilson’s former team, the Seahawks, are not expected to be sold anytime soon, as Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times reports.

Seahawks owner Jody Allen, 63, inherited the team from her brother, Paul Allen, who passed away in October 2018, and rumors of a sale have cropped up periodically since Jody took the reins. For instance, Condotta cites a story that NFL.com published a month after Paul’s death in which it was reported that the club would ultimately be sold, and that Paul had filed a succession plan with the league directing that the proceeds from such a sale be distributed to the Paul G. Allen Foundation.

A recent report from Portland-based writer and talk show host John Canzano has brought the conversation back to the foreground. Per Canzano, the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers — which Jody also inherited from Paul — are in line to be sold within the next six to 18 months, and the Seahawks could be on the auction block shortly thereafter.

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Jody has been selling other family assets in recent months, including a parcel of property in Los Angeles and a nearby compound, which fetched a combined $110MM. That, according to Canzano, is in keeping with the directive of Paul’s trust, which provides that all assets, including his sports franchises, must be sold.

Even if Jody does eventually sell the Seahawks, nothing is imminent on that front, according to Condotta’s own source. The team is not currently for sale, and that is not expected to change in the near future.

Like her brother, Jody had kept a low profile during her first several years as owner, but she began to reverse course as her franchise neared a crossroads late in the 2021 season. As the ‘Hawks were entering the home stretch of an uncharacteristically poor campaign, Jody became “very involved” in the team’s operation, which signaled that major changes could be on the horizon.

At the time, the Seattle futures of head coach Pete Carroll, GM John Schneider, and Wilson were decidedly uncertain, as Jody reportedly did not believe that the Seahawks’ poor 2021 performance was a mere blip in the radar. Ultimately, of course, Wilson was traded to Denver while Carroll and Schneider were retained, and Carroll said during last month’s draft that Jody told him and Schneider that they are “back in your wheelhouse,” meaning that they again have the necessary draft capital and salary cap space to build a legitimate championship contender.

Indeed, although Jody has still not given an interview, her statement in the team’s press release following the Wilson trade — in which she indicated that Wilson himself wanted out of Seattle — was a strong one. And she was plenty visible at the draft, when she was seen in the Seahawks’ war room during the first round and in photos posted on the team’s website.

All of that paints a picture of an owner who is engaged and in no hurry to sell. Plus, as Condotta posits, there is absolutely no reason for her to be in a rush. Per a piece published by Forbes Magazine last fall, the value of NFL teams has increased by 14% over the past five years, and the fact that the Broncos are poised to sell for around $5 billion — more than double what the Panthers sold for in 2018 — suggests that Jody should be content to wait to put the Seahawks on the market.

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