The Seahawks are not expected to be put up for sale until 2025 at the earliest, according to Mark Maske of the Washington Post. If the franchise were to be sold before May 2024, the club would owe 10% of the sales price to the state of Washington pursuant to the terms of a 1997 referendum that funded the construction of Lumen Field. That provision is no longer applicable after May 2024, which led some to believe that owner Jody Allen would begin looking for a buyer next year.
However, Allen has yet to give any indication that she intends to sell the team in the foreseeable future. Allen inherited the ‘Hawks from her brother, Paul Allen, who passed away in October 2018, and while Paul’s estate plan calls for his assets to be sold and the proceeds donated to charitable causes, Jody has made it clear that there is no deadline for such a sale.
“A time will come when [a sale is consummated] given Paul’s plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthropy, but estates of this size and complexity can take 10 to 20 years to wind down,” Jody said last year. “There is no preordained timeline by which the teams must be sold. Until then, my focus – and that of our teams – is on winning.”
That statement followed a report from May 2022 indicating that Jody had no immediate plans to sell, and her position seems unchanged, despite the forthcoming expiration of the 1997 referendum provision. And, as the value of NFL teams continues to soar, it stands to reason that she would be in no hurry to put the Seahawks on the market.
The eventual price tag could be driven even higher if the league ultimately relaxes the requirement that a buyer of a team must come up with 30% of the purchase price in cash. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk observed last month, that rule — along with the rule that limits the amount of debt that a buyer can take on, even when there are sufficient assets to support the debt — has limited the number of bidders in previous sales, which in turn has prevented the seller from maximizing their profit. If less liquidity and more debt is permitted, then more buyers can get in the mix.
As we have written before, the league wants Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to join its ownership club, and Maske says that some owners are hopeful Bezos will be involved in the bidding for the Seahawks. However, when Bezos or any other prospective purchaser will have the opportunity to make an offer remains an open question.
She’s probably having her lawyers look for a loophole so she can retain ownership of the team.
That’d be a smart option as acquiring prices are soaring. Besides bozo isn’t my idea if a NFL owner
He’s nobody’s pick-except other rich folks.
They want the financial security he provides, much like Walton did. Of course, having a personal connection with one of the richest people in history-in a unique setting where he is equal in power to the notably less rich others-is probably attractive as well.
In my opinion? The NFL is already incredibly far removed from its target demographic. Adding richer and richer business people only further moves that needle.
Bezos bought the Washington Post for the sole purpose of forcing Dan Snyder to sell the Redskins, but he didn’t count on a closed bid process and got caught out by a stupid high bid by the Josh Harris group.
Yeah, don’t get me started on the Post…those headlines look like they’re written by middle schoolers, and it only gets worse by the year. It wasn’t great before, but it’s completely turned into an online business for click-counting and low level reporting.
I suppose Bezos could only do so much to an NFL team, and likely nothing that hasn’t been done before, but I don’t see any appeal to giving him control over yet another facet of modern American society (“news”, shopping, entertainment?). This is why I try to stick to football on this site. I suppose that I should make a better effort.