The Seattle Seahawks ownership trust certainly knows when to sell the team. Buy low and sell high, right? What can get much higher than looking for a buyer immediately after a team wins a championship?
The rumors before the Super Bowl that the team would be put up for sale in the weeks after the title game turned out to be true, too. Some had speculated that the rumor was started by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft in the lead-up to the championship game as part of spite. If he did, he was also correct.
As all 12s know, the Seahawks have been needed to be put up for sale ever since late owner Paul Allen died in 2018. As part of Allen's wishes and the Paul Allen Trust, both of the teams he owned, the Portland Trailblazers and the professional football team in Seattle, needed to be let go after he died. That was unlikely to happen with the Seahawks until after the early part of 2024, though.
Seattle Seahawks are officially open for business (and it's a scary thing)
The reason why was that had the team been sold before then, 10 percent of the proceeds would have to go to the state of Washington, which has helped pay for what is now Lumen Field. Now, Jody Allen, Paul's sister and current chairperson of the Trust, doesn't have to give anything to the state.
The team released a statement on Thursday that a formal sale process has commenced and is expected to continue throughout the 2026 offseason. The law firm Latham & Watkins will lead the sale process. Once a buyer is found and a price agreed to, NFL owners will need to ratify the final purchase agreement.
Estate of Paul G. Allen Begins Sale Process for Seattle Seahawks pic.twitter.com/Toj3CjClzP
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) February 18, 2026
At this point, there is no way of knowing who might be a potential buyer or the amount of the price. It could be as much as $9-10 billion. The buyer could be anyone with billions of dollars, and that includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos or some other tech billionaire. Most likely, it is someone Seattle Seahawks fans might not even be familiar with.
The hope, of course, is that whoever does buy the team, the culture of the organization won't change. The Seahawks are seen as a stable franchise that treats all of its employees with respect, from general manager John Schneider and head coach Mike Macdonald, to the players, and to the least tenured member of the non-football staff. That has made the team special, and hopefully that continues.