On the surface, its kind of bizarre that just after they won the SuperBowl, the Seahawks will be sold.
But there's way more to this story. Paul Allen bought the team (along with some other sports franchises) many years ago. More recently, he moved those assets (along with others) into a trust. His explicit directions via his will and that trust were that his sister, Jody, would serve as the trustee, and these teams would be sold, and all proceeds would be directed to charity.
The NFL has a rule that there must be a single, majority owner. Trusts, and other ownership arrangements are not allowed. So it makes sense ... sort of ...
Except that Paul Allen died in 2018, you know, like 8 years ago, and the sale still hasn't happened. And you might ask why? And the answer is in the team's relationship to the city and state.
When funding was approved for the new stadium for the Seahawks, a clause was written in, that if he sold or moved the team within 25 years, he would owe 10% of the value of the team as a penalty. That agreement was signed in 1999, which means that it literally just expired.
So now that there is no more penalty hanging over the team, the NFL is "encouraging" the sale.
And in case you wondered, he bought the team in 1997 for just under $200 million. Its current value is at its peak, after a SuperBowl win, and is estimated to be around $8 billion. That's around a 400% increase in value in 30 years.
Mind blown. Dang. It must be good to be wealthy. (I'm half kidding)
More importantly, that money is going to charity, where hopefully it will do some tremendous good. Hats off to him for thinking about making the world a little better through his investment. And I'm glad the Seahawks won, in that case, to maximize that benefit.
