Sports fans in Seattle have a right to be easily distrustful of owners who say the teams in the city aren't going to be moved. That is the situation that unfolded with the SuperSonics, who are now in Oklahoma City. So when new Seattle Seahawks owner Vinod Khosla recently said he would "never say never" that the football team would be moved, people were right to be startled.
Khosla, assuming he knew anything about what happened with the NBA team -- and maybe he didn't -- should have said those exact words. No matter how much time has gone by, it will always be too soon to discuss taking a sports franchise away from the Pacific Northwest.
The issue is that anyone who sees those words and has a knee-jerk reaction that the NFL team could soon be moved is missing the entire point of what Khosla said, according to Axios. The Khosla family isn't moving the Seahawks, and hasn't seemingly even thought about it.
The Seattle Seahawks are not going anywhere else anytime soon
What Khosla said was, "I will never say never. Will this team be in Seattle 500 years from now? But I have no current plans to change anything about the team, including the coach, president, operation or Lumen Field. It all functions well."
In other words, the new owner made it clear he has no plans to move the Seahawks to...well, wherever fans might speculate. 500 years is a long time. 500 years ago there was no such thing as American football. Anything can happen in that span of time, of course. Heck, electricity didn't exist in its current use 500 years ago.
Does Vinod Khosla need to be reminded or told about what happened with the SuperSonics so he doesn't make skeptical Seahawks fans even more so? Absolutely, and he might even want to apologize for saying the "never say never" part, but that wasn't what he was trying to convey either. To interpret his words any other way is creating drama that shouldn't exist.
Moreover, the NFL is extremely unlikely to approve a move by a new owner to take his or her team elsewhere unless the city or stadium has issues and the metropolitan area isn't going to help with the problem. That obviously isn't the case in Seattle.
The Pacific Northwest loves its Seahawks in a way no owner, other than Paul Allen, could. 12s support the team win or lose, and spend a lot of money doing it. The team makes lots of money, and that means the Khosla family will too (which is why they are in the NFL business).
The Seattle Seahawks are not going anywhere, other than maybe a different location in Seattle or the surrounding area. That is for now, at least. Things might be different in 500 years.
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