ATLANTA — The Khosla family is just one step from officially taking over ownership of the Seattle Seahawks after the NFL unanimously approved their purchase of the team Wednesday afternoon.

That thumbs up arrived in a unanimous vote during a special meeting of league owners at the Atlanta Airport Marriott. It paves the way for the sale of the team from the Paul G. Allen Estate to the group led by the Khosla family to soon become official.

With the NFL giving its approval, the sale is expected to become final in the next week, and the 29-year run of ownership by the Allen family will give way to the Khosla group.

“I know most importantly with tremendous confidence that they will be outstanding caretakers of the Seattle Seahawks and the organization and the great partnership they have with their community,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in making the announcement.

The Khosla group, led by husband and wife Vinod and Neeru Khosla and son Neal, reached agreement with the Allen Estate in July to buy the team for $9.612 billion, a record for an NFL franchise, shattering the previous mark of $6.05 billion that the Washington Commanders were sold for in 2023.

Now that the league has signed off on the transfer of ownership, the sides can finalize remaining details and complete the sale.

The league and team hope the sale will become final before the Seahawks kick off their season Sept. 9 against the Patriots in a rematch of their 29-13 Super Bowl win over New England in February.

“I do want to start by thanking Jody Allen and the Allen Trust for trusting us with this franchise,” Vinod Khosla said in an opening statement Wednesday, flanked by his wife, Neeru, son Neal and daughter Nina.

“… It’s pretty simple when the team is one functioning as well as it is today. How often do you get to buy a franchise that just won the Super Bowl? So we are incredibly lucky and humbled by this gift, I would say, from the Allen Trust.”

Khosla, during his opening statement, noted he has attended games at Lumen Field in the past during his time as a 49ers fan, which led him to buy a 3.1% stake in that team in the spring of 2025 (which the family will now sell).

“Having been to Lumen Field and watching the 12s everywhere, I do want to thank them for their passion and fervor,’’ he said. “… The task ahead is actually pretty simple — keep the winning streak alive, get another Super Bowl. That’s simple. In general, our approach is generally going to be long-term focused. That’s our inclination always.

“So, keep winning, take a long-term approach and learn a lot. We don’t know enough. The other owners have been incredibly welcoming and willing to teach us, so we’ll learn a lot. We’ll learn a lot from management and see what they are recommending, so we’ll just be in learning mode for quite some time.”

Because the sale is not yet final, Khosla said he could not go into detail about too many specifics about plans for the franchise, and the league limited him to taking three questions.

But when he was asked his thoughts about the team’s future at Lumen Field, where the team is under lease to play through 2032 with three 10-year options, Khosla said: “Well first, Lumen Field is iconic and very much a part of the Seahawks brand, so that’s all I would say for now. Obviously we are not owners yet and we need to learn a lot more. But we will work with management and with others and the community of Seattle to hopefully preserve this iconic brand.”

There was little suspense in the vote, as it had been expected from the minute the agreement between the Khosla family and the Allen Estate was announced on July 11 that the league would give its blessing.

The league’s finance and ownership policy committee met last week and recommended unanimously that owners approve the sale, an even stronger sign that the vote essentially would be a rubber stamp.

Jody Allen and vice chair Bert Kolde — a longtime friend of Paul Allen’s who helped convince him to buy the team in 1997 — walked down a hallway and into a meeting room where the vote was held while the Khosla family waited outside.

After the vote was held, Goodell made his announcement and the Khosla family spoke briefly to the media. Goodell invited the family back into the conference room for their first official meeting with other NFL owners as part of what is one most elite clubs in professional sports.

The Khosla family group will become the fourth owners of the Seahawks in their 51-year history.

The first was Seattle Professional Football, Inc., headed by Lloyd W. Nordstrom with partners Herman Sarkowsky, D.E. “Ned” Skinner, Howard S. Wright, M. Lamont Bean, and Lynn P. Himmelman. That group initially agreed to pay $12 million to become owners of the expansion franchise in 1974, a number that got bumped up to $16 million.

The family was compelled the sell the team in part because of unpleasant experiences with the strikes of 1982 and 1987 and feeling that the Kingdome — then barely 12 years old — was likely to need to be renovated and/or replaced sooner rather than later.

Behring paid $80 million for the team after reportedly telling the Nordstroms he would never the move the Seahawks.

Never lasted about eight years before Behring tried, and failed, to move the Seahawks to southern California.

That endeavor eventually led to Paul Allen buying the team in 1997 for $194 million on the condition that the state voters pass a referendum to help fund a new outdoor stadium on the site of the Kingdome, which is now Lumen Field.

The 29 years of Allen family ownership — after Paul died in 2018 his sister, Jody, took over as chair of the team — was the best in team history, and as successful as any in Seattle sports history.

The Seahawks won two Super Bowls, played in two others, won 11 division titles and qualified for the playoffs 16 of the past 23 seasons.

Now comes the Khosla family group.

They were not on anyone’s list of prospective buyers when the team was placed for sale on Feb. 18.

But Vinod Khosla said Wednesday that it was an easy decision to make a bid. He said he and Neal have attended about half of the 49ers home games every season for roughly 30 years and that he became a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers when he first came to the United States in 1976 when the Steelers were in the midst of winning four Super Bowls in six seasons.

“We are huge fans of football and these opportunities, especially Super Bowl winning teams, seldom come along. So we were very excited to have the opportunity.”

Khosla, who helped found Sun Microsystems before veering into venture capital in Silicon Valley and building a net worth currently estimated at roughly $14 billion, noted: “I’ve been tied to the Seattle tech community for a long time. So it was pretty easy to make the jump.”

Neeru Khosla said Neal played a significant role in convincing the family to try to purchase the team.

“He’s been a big fan of sports, and in particular football,” she said. “So he’s wanted forever to get involved and actually strategizing and doing something about that. So he’s the one who actually really pushed us into doing this.”

While the family did not take questions concerning specifics of which family members will have which roles in the organization, Neeru Khosla’s comment seemed to confirm what was revealed in a memo sent by the league to other owners in July that Neal is expected to have “a significant leadership role” in helping run the franchise.

After the sale is final, it is expected the team will hold a news conference introducing the family, at which time titles and responsibilities may become clear.

The family takes over not only what is a successful team on the field, but also off it as the Seahawks have had 190 straight sellouts at Lumen Field.

Asked what he’d say to Seattle fans as the family gets set to take over as owners, Vinod Khosla replied: “I just want to say a big thank you for being such a passionate fan base. It’s actually pretty incredible. I think it’s the best fan base in the country of any NFL team and the 12s are such an iconic brand that it’s hard to not be honored to and humbled by inheriting that and being part of that fan base.”

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