Depending on who you believe, the Seattle Seahawks are either going to be put up for sale soon after the Super Bowl or not. According to reporting from ESPN, the team will. According to a statement from the Paul Allen Trust, which currently owns the team, there are no immediate plans for a sale.
One thing is certain, and 12s have known this for almost a decade: The team will eventually be sold. That was among the wishes of late owner Paul Allen. The Trust has made a financially sound decision to wait until after 2024 in order to seek a buyer, however. Before early in 2024, 10 percent of the proceeds would have had to go to the state of Washington, as it helped build what is now Lumen Field.
Assuming the team is going to be sold, the biggest question is who will buy it. The team is currently seen as a shining beacon of how employees should be treated. Seahawks fans wouldn't want that to change.
The Seattle Seahawks may or may not be sold, but who would buy the team?
Jeff Bezos - Amazon
To be fair, disparaging any of the people on this list is a risk. They can afford to squash people like me, so I will try to choose my words wisely (or as wisely as possible). Jeff Bezos, who is worth something around $250 billion, could buy the Seahawks and not miss a dime of his money. He has too much already.
Still, his reputation isn't sterling in how employees are treated. Not that it is a proven fact, of course. Many of the employees in Bezos's many companies might be quite happy. The issue is that the Seattle football organization has a reputation that it cares more about its employees (from the highest to those who don't make high-end football decisions) than most other franchises.
It would be a shame if that were to change. Ripple effects occur in such situations, and one might wonder if general manager John Schneider would look for the same positive atmosphere he had with the Seahawks for his first 15 years elsewhere.
Larry Ellison - Oracle
Ellison seemingly wanted to buy the team before, but that was initially after Paul Allen died. The question then was how soon the franchise might be put up for sale. According to Allen's wishes, the organization was to be sold after his death, but without a definite timeline.
Ellison lives in Hawaii, but has a strong connection to Washington state. Everyone in the tech world would. He is worth an estimated $200 billion-plus, so, like Bezos, purchasing the team on his own would not be an issue.
Steve Balmer - Formerly of Microsoft
Ballmer likes his sports teams. With no Seattle NBA team to acquire, the former Microsoft CEO bought the Los Angeles Clippers. That organization seems better-run with Ballmer than it did with Donald Sterling, but that might not be saying all that much.
What isn't known is if he would want to spend some of his estimated net worth of $133 billion on an NFL team, or the Seattle Seahawks specifically. At least, Ballmer knows the Pacific Northwest and its people well, so his buying the team might be one of the better options.