Seahawks say team 'not for sale' following report

SEATTLE — The Seahawks will eventually be sold by Jody Allen, the current team chair who took over in that role when her brother, Paul Allen, died in 2018.

That has been known for a while and is not in dispute.

What is in question is whether the team will immediately be up for sale after the Super Bowl, as indicated in a report Friday afternoon by ESPN.

The ESPN report, headlined Seahawks will go up for sale after Super Bowl LX" stated that “league and ownership sources familiar with the arrangement" said the team will go up for sale after the Super Bowl and that "sale discussions have taken place at ownership and league levels for at least the past week."

However, shortly after that report, a statement through the Paul G. Allen Estate refuted that the team is currently for sale and said there is no news to report.

"We don't comment on rumors or speculation, and the team is not for sale," read the statement from a spokesman for the Paul G. Allen Estate. "We’ve already said that will change at some point per Paul’s wishes, but there is no news to share. Our focus right now is winning the Super Bowl and completing the sale of the Portland Trail Blazers in the coming months.''

As that statement indicates, the team will eventually be sold. And that statement doesn't deny that it could happen after the Super Bowl.

Later Friday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal published a report similar to that of ESPN's, stating that "regardless of the outcome (of the Super Bowl), the reigning NFC champions are expected to be put up for sale, according to people familiar with the matter. They also anticipate that the latest auction for a franchise in America’s richest, most popular sport could set a new record for an NFL team.''

The ESPN report cited a team executive who said the team could fetch $7-8 billion, a number a source also recently floated to The Seattle Times.

Jody Allen took over leadership of the team following the death of her brother Paul in Oct. 2018. The team was put into the Paul G. Allen Trust at that time with Jody Allen installed as the chair of the Seahawks.

Jody Allen has stated several times since then that the team was not for sale.

But she acknowledged that the team would eventually have to go up for sale, per the wishes of her brother.

“The time will come when that changes given Paul’s plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthropy,” read a statement she released in July of 2022. “But estates of this size and complexity can take 10 to 20 years to wind down. There is no preordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.”

There was renewed speculation last spring that a sale could be in the offing because of the expiration of a clause in the terms of the 1997 referendum that funded the building of Lumen Field that would require Allen to hand over 10% to the state of Washington if the team were sold.

That clause expired in May of 2025.

After announcing last spring that the Portland Trail Blazers were for sale — a team Paul Allen bought in 1988 — Jody Allen released a statement saying that "news does not affect the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise or the estate’s 25% interest in the Seattle Sounders MLS, and neither is for sale.” The sale of the Blazers is reportedly expected to be completed by March.

Paul Allen bought the Seahawks in 1997 for $194 million, keeping them in Seattle after then-owner Ken Behring had attempted to move the team to Los Angeles after unsuccessful attempts to either renovate the Kingdome or get a new stadium built.

Allen’s purchase was contingent on a new stadium being built, which became Lumen Field, which opened in 2002.

Jody Allen has not spoken publicly since taking over stewardship of the team, but she has made some appearances, most notably on Sunday when she accepted the George S. Halas Trophy as champions of the NFC on behalf of the team following the NFC title game.

"I'm incredibly proud to be standing here and accepting this on behalf of the 12s," Allen said.

She had raised the 12 Flag before the game, upholding a tradition that began with her brother, who raised the flag before the team’s previous three NFL conference championship home games.

Coach Mike Macdonald spoke earlier Friday about the involvement of Allen noting that the two speak weekly after every game.

“The thing that sticks out to me about Jody was her enthusiasm about where she wanted our team to be, our franchise to be as a vision of the Seattle Seahawks and that was during our interview process," Macdonald said. “Honestly, that's really where I was like, ‘OK, this is something I feel really strongly about, that I think that I could help create that.’ So everything, I think, has been through that lens, and it's very clear of what type of team she wants and she's been incredibly supportive.

"We haven't hit the mark all the time and so when she gives feedback, it's very simple, it's through a great lens that normally maybe like finding them in fog you don’t see it. She’s been awesome. She’s been awesome. We meet weekly.”

Macdonald said the meetings happen via Zoom.

“It’s like a piercing question that gets right to the point and it’s helpful,’’ he said. “When you look at it through that lens of we’re going in the same direction here, it really has been.’’

Paul Allen became the third owner of the team, following Behring, who bought the team in 1988 from the Nordstrom family, who owned it from its inception in 1974 and first game in 1976.