Seth Wickersham
Brady Henderson
Brady Henderson
ESPN
Brady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Nation and covers the Seattle Seahawks for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2017 after overlaying the workforce for Seattle Sports activities 710-AM.
A number of Authors
The Seattle Seahawks will go up on the market after Tremendous Bowl LX, league and possession sources acquainted with the association informed ESPN, ending years of questions on when the workforce would search new possession following the 2018 dying of former proprietor Paul G. Allen.
Sale discussions have taken place at possession and league ranges for a minimum of the previous week, the sources stated.
The Seahawks and NBA’s Portland Path Blazers have been owned by Allen’s property for the reason that former proprietor and Microsoft co-founder died in 2018 from problems of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. His sister, Jody Allen, has managed the groups because the executor of the belief, with a directive from her brother to finally promote each and donate the proceeds to charity.
Editor’s Picks
2 Associated
A spokesperson for the NFL declined to remark. In an announcement, a spokesperson for the Paul G. Allen property stated the group does not touch upon rumors or hypothesis and that “the workforce isn’t on the market.”
“We have already stated that can change in some unspecified time in the future per Paul’s needs, however I’ve no information to share,” the spokesperson’s assertion stated. “Our focus proper now’s successful the Tremendous Bowl and finishing the sale of the Portland Path Blazers within the coming months.”
The Seahawks at the moment are past a date whereby a sale would have triggered sharing 10% of the proceeds with the state of Washington.
If the Seahawks are put up on the market, it will likely be the primary time within the Tremendous Bowl period that a complete workforce that performed within the championship recreation will get put available on the market shortly afterward. In February 1991, Preston Robert Tisch bought 50% of the champion New York Giants.
The Seahawks face the New England Patriots on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California.
Paul Allen agreed to purchase the Seahawks from Ken Behring in 1996, with the deal changing into official in 1997. The deal saved the workforce from a possible relocation to Southern California. If offered once more, the franchise may set a document for an NFL workforce sale value coming off a Tremendous Bowl look and probably a championship.
The Seahawks have made the playoffs in seven of the previous 10 years. They’re based mostly at legendary Lumen Subject, which opposing gamers have stated is without doubt one of the hardest stadiums to play at and which is receiving almost $20 million in upgrades forward of the 2026 World Cup. The franchise additionally has one of many NFL’s best-regarded basic manager-head coach mixtures in John Schneider and Mike Macdonald.
Sports activities groups valuations have been hovering in recent times. Sportico values the Seahawks at $6.59 billion, the 14th highest within the NFL, in response to its rating. The latest NFL workforce to promote was the Washington Commanders, which a gaggle led by Josh Harris bought in 2023 for a document $6.05 billion. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers offered a majority stake within the workforce at a $10 billion valuation in June.
One workforce govt informed ESPN that the Seahawks may fetch $7 billion to $8 billion.
The Path Blazers are within the strategy of being offered to a gaggle of traders led by Tom Dundon, who agreed to purchase the workforce for greater than $4 billion. Dundon owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.
Jody Allen, who raised the 12 flag earlier than the NFC Championship Sport in honor of her brother, sometimes has not granted interview requests throughout her time working the workforce, and her first spoken feedback got here on stage at Lumen Subject on Sunday because the Seahawks have been receiving the NFC championship trophy: “I am extremely proud to be standing right here in the present day and accepting this on behalf of all of the 12s right here, all of the 12s throughout the nation and all of the 12s throughout the globe.”
She launched an announcement on the possession scenario in July 2022, saying that though neither the Blazers nor the Seahawks have been on the market on the time, they finally could be. That was after Nike founder Phil Knight and Los Angeles Dodgers minority proprietor Alan Smolinisky made an unsolicited provide to purchase the Path Blazers for greater than $2 billion.
In her 2022 assertion, Allen stated the groups would finally be offered “given Paul’s plans to dedicate the overwhelming majority of his wealth to philanthropy, however estates of this measurement and complexity can take 10 to twenty years to wind down. There is no such thing as a pre-ordained timeline by which the groups should be offered.
“Till then, my focus — and that of our groups — is on successful.”
Probably the most important resolution Allen has made since assuming management of the workforce was to maneuver on from legendary coach Pete Carroll after the 2023 season, which elevated Schneider into the position of the workforce’s prime decision-maker. Schneider employed Macdonald, who has led the Seahawks to 10- and 14-win common seasons and now the fourth Tremendous Bowl look in franchise historical past.
“The factor that stands out to me about Jody was her enthusiasm about the place she wished our workforce to be and our franchise to be as a imaginative and prescient of the Seattle Seahawks,” Macdonald stated Friday throughout workforce media availability. “That was throughout our interview course of. Actually, that is actually the place I used to be like, ‘OK, that is one thing I really feel actually strongly about that I really feel like I may assist create that.’ So every part, I feel, has been via that lens. It’s extremely clear what kind of workforce she desires, and she or he’s been extremely supportive. … She’s been superior.”
