The NBA's Boston Celtics would seemingly have little to do with the Seattle Seahawks. The teams play a different sport from one another and are on opposite sides of the United States. Plus, the Celtics are one of the more storied franchises of its sport, and the Seahawks are not (yet).
But there still be a correlation between the two. The Celtics were reportedly sold to Bill Chisholm of Symphony Technology Group for $6.1 billion on Thursday. That number represents a record-breaking amount for the sale of a North American team. The number eclipses what the Washington Commanders were sold for in 2023 ($6.05 billion).
Since the death of former Seattle Seahawks chairperson Paul Allen in 2018, the team has been set to be sold. A stipulation in the by-laws of the team says that after Allen dies, the team needed to eventually be sold, but there was no timeline on when that needed to happen. For Paul's sister, Jody, who took over as chairperson, it made sense to wait until at least 2024 to sell the franchise.
Seattle Seahawks ownership should be very happy with the Boston Celtics sale
This is because prior to 2024, the team would have had to give the state of Washington 10 percent of any of the proceeds for the sale because the state helped with the funding for the building of what is known now as Lumen Field. Now that we are beyond 2024, the state gets nothing.
Jody Allen has indicated she and the Paul G. Allen Trust are in no hurry to sell the team, but after the massive number it took for the Celtics and Commanders to be sold, one might safely wonder if Allen would begin to change her approach. The Seahawks are unlikely to be sold for as much as the Commanders and Celtics because of the histories and locations of those teams, but the number might be close.
When Paul Allen bought the team in 1997, he did so for $194 million. In August of 2024, Forbes valued the franchise at $5.45 billion. The Celtics were valued in October 2024 at $6 billion but exceeded that amount in the recent sale. Plus, the asking price for the Seahawks should be higher now because of the Celtics and Commanders' prices.
If Jody Allen and the Trust were simply waiting until the best moment to maximize how much they would get in a sale, that time might be coming soon. In fact, making a move to do so might make sense before Seattle is, as expected, awarded an NBA franchise soon. The buyers' market could be suppressed by that. The Seahawks being sold sooner rather than later would make sense.