Seattle Seahawks Could Hit Market As Early As 2024

Another NFL team could be hitting the market in the not-too-distant future.

The Seattle Seahawks could change hands in the next couple of years, according to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.

“Seattle — with Paul Allen, my friend, unfortunately passing away, and that team is in a trust — is going to become available, I’d imagine, in the 2024 range,” Irsay told Bloomberg.

• Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen owned the team until his death in 2018. The team is now controlled by his sister Jody Allen. 
• The team would have to pay 10% of the gross proceeds from a sale to the state of Washington if one occurs before May 2, 2024, due to a provision in the 1997 referendum that funded the construction of Lumen Field.

The Denver Broncos were the most recent NFL team to be sold, going to a group led by Rob Walton in June for $4.65 billion.

“Anyone that got them for under $8 billion, they got them for a heck of a deal,” Irsay said of the Broncos sale.

High Supply

A Seahawks sale would add to an unusually high number of major U.S. teams on the block. The NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury are beginning the sale process, joining MLB’s Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Angels. 

The Baltimore Orioles are not currently for sale, but that could change quickly: The team hired Goldman Sachs over the summer to provide assistance regarding a potential sale — although it could be slowed by litigation between members of the Angelos family, which owns the team.