Ten days after they won their second Super Bowl championship, the Seahawks announced that they are up for sale.
“The Estate of Paul G. Allen today announced it has commenced a formal sale process for the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise, consistent with Allen’s directive to eventually sell his sports holdings and direct all Estate proceeds to philanthropy,” the team stated. “The Estate has selected investment bank Allen & Company and law firm Latham & Watkins to lead the sale process, which is estimated to continue through the 2026 off-season. NFL owners must then ratify a final purchase agreement.”
The Seahawks have enjoyed stable ownership since Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, purchased the franchise for $200MM in 1997. Allen passed away in 2018, but the team has stayed in his family since then.
Jody Allen, Allen’s sister, has taken control over the past eight years. Rumors of a potential sale have persisted for a few years, most recently before the Super Bowl, making Wednesday’s announcement unsurprising.
Allen’s goal was for his sister to eventually sell the Seahawks and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers and donate the proceeds to charity. Jody Allen sold the Blazers for approximately $4.2 billion last August. The wheels are now in motion to offload the Seahawks at a significantly higher price tag.
Josh Harris bought the Commanders for a record $6.05 billion in 2023, but the Seahawks figure to blow past that number. They could cost anywhere from $9 billion to $11 billion. Recent reports indicated Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post and founder of Amazon, is not expected to vie for the Seahawks. Regardless, with the NFL pushing for a Seahawks sale sooner than later, bidders will begin lining up in short order.
This is a tough day. I have no fear of the team moving. Anyone that even suggests it is looking to get traffic to help their site get more clicks. Stadium fans etc etc are all too good for someone to buy it and move it. I doubt the owners would let it be moved either.
The tough part is Paul was an awesome owner. Spent money when needed let the pros run the team for everyday decisions. Jody was the same way. She even made the tough call letting them fire Pete. Jody and Pete became good friends. She made the call to fire him and as you know they did.
I would love it if Jody could just donate a certain amount to Paul’s charities. She has enough money but will she do it? I doubt it. Not sure how much money she would have afterwards. Maybe start a group to buy the team led by her. Anyway we all knew this day was coming. Hopefully we get an owner that will continue what was started and keep this team at the top of the NFL. Not too worried about moving just don’t want a guy or group that is looking to turn a big profit over keeping the team competitive.
It is a tough day but you are right, we knew it would come some day after Paul’s death. I am not worried at all of team moving. The relocation fee would be at least 650 million and there is no way the NFL and owners would want to lose the presence in the Northwest. The Hawks have a huge market throughout the northwest.
I guess they’re all pretty full of themselves, but man, I hope it doesn’t end up in the hands of one of those “Look how big my rocket is” billionaires..
The good news is some of the worst of those guys would never open their books enough for the other owners to approve.
Maybe Big Al Schuster down at the local feed store will buy them. He might have to sell a cow or two to swing it though.
The sale will be interesting because if the team fetches 9 billion, there shouldnt be any more talk of taxpayers funding stadiums for an oligarchy. Let the owners collectively fund any new stadiums themselves! Its not like they really help any taxpayers in those areas anyway.
There should already be no more talk of it. It’s always been handouts for billionaires’ private businesses that don’t actually serve the taxpayers other than paying a ransom when owners threaten to move teams.
You do know when they set up the money for Lumen Field it had public money but there was a path to pay it back. They also paid off the debt years early. Plus they paid off the money owed for the Kingdome. That is right the Dome was destroyed and still owed money to taxpayers.
I also don’t understand why people think there is no benefit to the people. They employ how many people? They bring in concerts and other events. Those in turn give the businesses around them customers. There is definitely a bonus to having these stadiums in your City.
I will agree that no public money should spent on the stadiums. The only way it should use public money is if they set it up like Lumen field. I forget all the nuances in the contract but these articles have talked about some of the protections built in. The stadium could be built but after it is paid off the stadium goes to the City County State. Whoever loaned them the money. Not sure you can complain about that. Lumen Field was set up to benefit the people. Most others the owner or team take control of the stadium. That should never happen. There is a good blueprint for states to follow.
Too bad Nashville and Davidson County couldnt follow it.
The idea that stadiums are a public investment that benefits the local economy has been studied repeatedly and shown to be untrue. For one thing, unless someone is building a stadium in a place where there wasn’t already a stadium in the larger area (which is effectively never true in this era), those concerts, events, and jobs already existed. And most of the jobs created are part time, seasonal, and low paying. If there are added benefits, they’re outstripped by the cost.
But sure, a loan that’s paid back is an easier pill to swallow. There are also other ways municipalities can help these things. For example, New York reworked some of the subway lines and stations to go with the building of CitiField, which also benefited the tennis center and new projects that are underway now (not all of which are good ideas, but that’s another story). Those sorts of moves have greater benefit to cost ratio than just helping billionaires pay for fancier digs for their teams.
You can find studies to say anything. Are you really trying to argue that a billion dollar company brings no positive economic benefits to a region?
Benefits that aren’t outweighed by the costs or opportunity costs of doing something else with that money? Sure. Especially when we’re talking about handing significant amounts of taxpayer money to companies that are already in the region doing the very same business.
Talk about good timing. Just won a Super Bowl, good team, coaches and fans. This team will not be going anywhere. Seattle deserves to have a team especially this team.
Not just Seattle but they are really a Northwest region team. Fan base is huge throughout the entire Northwest.
There’s way to may incompetent owners in the league that have their hands dirty on how they want the franchise to run and eventually they turn into dumpster fires. Look at the Browns and Jets just to name a few. I hope the next Seahawks owner is not a middling one