Sources: Seahawks to breeze up for sale after SB LX

The Seattle Seahawks will breeze up for sale after Huge Bowl LX, league and possession sources accustomed to the affiliation told ESPN, ending years of questions about when the team would stare new possession following the 2018 loss of life of used proprietor Paul G. Allen.

Sale discussions possess taken house at possession and league phases for no longer lower than the previous week, the sources acknowledged.

The Seahawks and NBA’s Portland Wander Blazers had been owned by Allen’s estate since the used proprietor and Microsoft co-founder died in 2018 from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. His sister, Jody Allen, has managed the teams because the executor of the belief, with a directive from her brother to in the slay sell both and donate the proceeds to charity.

A spokesperson for the NFL declined to statement. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Paul G. Allen estate acknowledged the organization does now not statement on rumors or speculation and that “the team is not for sale.”

“We’ve already said that will change at some point per Paul’s wishes, but I have no news to share,” the spokesperson’s statement acknowledged. “Our focus right now is winning the Super Bowl and completing the sale of the Portland Trail Blazers in the coming months.”

The Seahawks are in actual fact beyond a date whereby a sale would possess triggered sharing 10% of the proceeds with the inform of Washington.

If the Seahawks are save up for sale, this could increasingly be the main time in the Huge Bowl period that a entire team that conducted in the championship game gets placed on the market shortly afterward. In February 1991, Preston Robert Tisch purchased 50% of the champion Contemporary York Giants.

The Seahawks face the Contemporary England Patriots on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California.

Paul Allen agreed to buy the Seahawks from Ken Behring in 1996, with the deal changing into legit in 1997. The deal saved the team from a doubtless relocation to Southern California. If sold all once more, the franchise could well moreover house a file for an NFL team sale trace coming off a Huge Bowl appearance and doubtless a championship.

The Seahawks possess made the playoffs in seven of the previous 10 years. They’re based fully fully at legendary Lumen Field, which opposing avid gamers possess acknowledged is one in all the toughest stadiums to play at and which is receiving practically $20 million in upgrades sooner than the 2026 World Cup. The franchise moreover has one in all the NFL’s easiest-regarded regular supervisor-head coach combinations in John Schneider and Mike Macdonald.

Sports teams valuations had been hovering in recent years. Sportico values the Seahawks at $6.59 billion, the 14th best doubtless in the NFL, in line with its ranking. The most modern NFL team to sell modified into once the Washington Commanders, which a neighborhood led by Josh Harris purchased in 2023 for a file $6.05 billion. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers sold a majority stake in the team at a $10 billion valuation in June.

One team govt told ESPN that the Seahawks could well moreover gain $7 billion to $8 billion.

The Wander Blazers are in the project of being sold to a neighborhood of customers led by Tom Dundon, who agreed to buy the team for more than $4 billion. Dundon owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.

Jody Allen, who raised the 12 flag before the NFC Championship Sport in honor of her brother, usually has no longer granted interview requests throughout her time working the team, and her first spoken comments came on stage at Lumen Field on Sunday because the Seahawks were receiving the NFC championship trophy: “I’m incredibly proud to be standing here today and accepting this on behalf of all the 12s here, all the 12s across the country and all the 12s across the globe.”

She launched a statement on the possession enviornment in July 2022, announcing that even supposing neither the Blazers nor the Seahawks were for sale on the time, they in the slay would be. That modified into once after Nike founder Phil Knight and Los Angeles Dodgers minority proprietor Alan Smolinisky made an unsolicited offer to buy the Wander Blazers for more than $2 billion.

In her 2022 statement, Allen acknowledged the teams would in the slay be sold “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. There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.

“Until then, my focal point — and that of our teams — is on a success.”

The most significant decision Allen has made since assuming control of the team was to breeze on from legendary coach Pete Carroll after the 2023 season, which elevated Schneider into the characteristic of the team’s prime decision-maker. Schneider hired Macdonald, who has led the Seahawks to 10- and 14-fetch peculiar seasons and now the fourth Huge Bowl appearance in franchise history.

“The thing that stands out to me about Jody modified into once her enthusiasm referring to the set she wished our team to be and our franchise to be as a imaginative and prescient of the Seattle Seahawks,” Macdonald said Friday during team media availability. “That modified into once throughout our interview project. Truthfully, that’s in actual fact the set I modified into once esteem, ‘OK, right here is something I in actual fact feel in actual fact strongly about that I in actual fact feel esteem I could well moreover relieve assemble that.’ So every thing, I judge, has been through that lens. Or no longer it’s very sure what kind of team she wishes, and she’s been extremely supportive. … She’s been superior.”