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Seth Wickersham
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Seth Wickersham
ESPN Senior Writer
- Senior Writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine
- Joined ESPN The Magazine after graduating from the University of Missouri.
- Although he primarily covers the NFL, his assignments even have taken him to the Athens Olympics, the World Series, the NCAA match and the NHL and NBA playoffs.
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Brady Henderson
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Brady Henderson
ESPN
- Brady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Nation and covers the Seattle Seahawks for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2017 after overlaying the group for Seattle Sports 710-AM.
Multiple Authors
The Seattle Seahawks will go up for sale after Super Bowl LX, league and possession sources conversant in the association instructed ESPN, ending years of questions on when the group would search new possession following the 2018 dying of former proprietor Paul G. Allen.
Sale discussions have taken place at possession and league ranges for at the least the previous week, the sources mentioned.
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The Seahawks and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers have been owned by Allen’s property for the reason that former proprietor and Microsoft co-founder died in 2018 from issues of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. His sister, Jody Allen, has managed the groups because the executor of the belief, with a directive from her brother to ultimately promote each and donate the proceeds to charity.
A spokesperson for the NFL declined to remark. In a press release, a spokesperson for the Paul G. Allen property mentioned the group does not touch upon rumors or hypothesis, and that “the team is not for sale.”
“We’ve already said that will change at some point per Paul’s wishes, but I have no news to share,” the spokesperson’s assertion mentioned. “Our focus right now is winning the Super Bowl and completing the sale of the Portland Trail Blazers in the coming months.”
The Seahawks at the moment are past a date whereby a sale would have triggered sharing 10% of the proceeds with the state of Washington.
If the Seahawks are put up for sale, will probably be the primary time within the Super Bowl period that a complete group that performed within the championship sport will get put in the marketplace shortly afterward. In February 1991, Preston Robert Tisch bought 50% of the champion New York Giants.
The Seahawks face the New England Patriots on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California.
Paul Allen agreed to purchase the Seahawks from Ken Behring in 1996, with the deal turning into official in 1997. The deal saved the group from a possible relocation to Southern California. If bought once more, the franchise may set a document for an NFL group sale value coming off a Super Bowl look and presumably a championship.
The Seahawks have made the playoffs in seven of the previous 10 years. They are primarily based at legendary Lumen Field, which opposing gamers have mentioned is among the hardest stadiums to play at and which is receiving almost $20 million in upgrades forward of the 2026 World Cup. The franchise additionally has one of many league’s finest regarded basic manager-head coach mixtures in John Schneider and Mike Macdonald.
Sports groups valuations have been hovering in recent times. Sportico values the Seahawks at $6.59 billion, the 14th highest within the league, in accordance to its rating. The most up-to-date NFL group to promote was the Washington Commanders, which a gaggle led by Josh Harris bought in 2023 for a document $6.05 billion. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers bought a majority stake within the group at a $10 billion valuation final June.
One group govt instructed ESPN that the Seahawks may fetch $7 billion to $8 billion.
The Blazers are within the technique of being bought to a gaggle of buyers led by Tom Dundon, who agreed to purchase the group for greater than $4 billion. Dundon owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.
Jody Allen, who raised the 12 flag earlier than NFC Championship Game in honor of her brother, usually has not granted interview requests throughout her time working the group, and her first spoken feedback got here on stage at Lumen Field final Sunday because the Seahawks have been receiving the NFC championship trophy: “I’m incredibly proud to be standing here today and accepting this on behalf of all the 12s here, all the 12s across the country and all the 12s across the globe.”
She launched a press release on the possession state of affairs in July 2022, saying that though neither the Blazers nor the Seahawks have been for sale on the time, they ultimately can be. That was after Nike founder Phil Knight and Los Angeles Dodgers minority proprietor Alan Smolinisky made an unsolicited provide to purchase the Blazers for greater than $2 billion.
In her 2022 assertion, Allen mentioned the groups would ultimately be bought “given Paul’s plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthropy, but estates of this size and complexity can take 10 to 20 years to wind down. There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.
“Until then, my focus — and that of our groups — is on successful.”
The most significant decision Allen has made since assuming control of the team was to move on from legendary coach Pete Carroll after the 2023 season, which elevated Schneider into the role of the team’s top decision-maker. Schneider hired Macdonald, who has led the Seahawks to 10- and 14-win regular seasons and now the fourth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
“The factor that stands out to me about Jody was her enthusiasm about the place she wished our group to be and our franchise to be as a imaginative and prescient of the Seattle Seahawks,” Macdonald said Friday during team media availability. “That was throughout our interview course of. Honestly, that is actually the place I used to be like, ‘OK, that is one thing I really feel actually strongly about that I really feel like I may assist create that.’ So all the things, I believe, has been via that lens. It’s very clear what sort of group she needs, and she or he’s been extremely supportive. … She’s been superior.”
