The Seattle Seahawks have begun the process of selling the franchise, in an operation that is on track to be the biggest deal in history involving a National Football League (NFL) team.
The Seahawks hired investment bank Allen & Co. to conduct the sale, according to an announcement made this Wednesday (18), weeks after the team’s victory in Super Bowl LX.
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The franchise is controlled by the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who died in 2018. His sister, Jody Allen, is the executor of the estate, worth about $20 billion at the time of his death, and is overseeing the sale of assets to raise money for philanthropy.
The sale of the Seahawks could become the biggest deal ever recorded in the NFL, likely surpassing the $6 billion paid for the Washington Commanders in 2023. Sportico values the Seahawks at $6.6 billion, the 14th largest franchise in the league. The biggest sports team control deal to date remains Mark Walter’s $10 billion purchase of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers last year.
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The test for the NFL will be finding a sufficiently wealthy buyer. League rules require the franchise’s controlling shareholder to personally contribute 30% of the capital required for the purchase.
Seattle is home to a good number of billionaires, and the banks involved have a long list of potential suitors. Many speculate that Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos may present a proposal. Bezos has already considered a bid for the Commanders. In early January, before the Seahawks’ Super Bowl title, he showed no interest in entering the contest, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Paul Allen built his West Coast sports empire by acquiring the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers in 1988 for $70 million from a consortium of local investors. About ten years later, he added the Seahawks to his portfolio in a transaction estimated at $200 million. His estate also holds a 25% stake in the Seattle Sounders, a Major League Soccer (MLS) team.
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The sale of the Seahawks has been anticipated for some time. As early as 2022, the late owner of the Indianapolis Colts, Jim Irsay, predicted that the team would be traded by 2024. In 2025, Bert Kolde, college teammate of Paul Allen and vice-chairman of the Seahawks, told Sports Business Journal that “it’s not a forever story.”
Although Jody Allen is seen as a popular and committed owner of the Seahawks, NFL officials and other team owners had been pushing for the sale, the report revealed. Bloomberg last month.
The estate has focused its efforts on selling other assets. It recently reached a $4.2 billion deal with financial services magnate Tom Dundon to sell the Trail Blazers, a deal expected to be approved by the league in March.
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The decision to sell the Trail Blazers first before the Seahawks angered some NFL owners, who believed the Seahawks — considered the crown jewel of Allen’s sports portfolio — should have gone to market sooner. The league’s finance committee discussed the Seahawks’ situation on multiple occasions last year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Allen’s estate maintains a close relationship with the investment bank Allen & Co., which advised on the sale of the Trail Blazers. Despite the common name, the bank, founded more than a century ago, has no relationship with Paul Allen’s family. In addition to Allen & Co., the trust hired Latham & Watkins to handle the legal side of the transaction.
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