The estate of late billionaire Paul Allen, owner of the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise, has announced its formal entry into a sale process covering that American football team.
As reigning Super Bowl champions, the franchise will undoubtedly fetch a high price that will almost certainly exceed the record $6.05 billion fee that the Josh Harris-led consortium paid to acquire the Washington Commanders franchise in 2023.
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Indeed, in August 2025, Forbes valued the Seahawks at $6.7 billion, 14th overall in the NFL, a valuation contributed to by the state of the franchise’s 68,740-seater Lumen field home, which is in the upper half of the league in terms of both capacity and age (it was opened in 2002).
As such, attracting prospective bidders for the team should not be an issue – although the exorbitant cost of acquiring an NFL team has locked out even many billionaires from being able to afford the cost, the fact that only 12 NFL teams have changed hands through a sale since 2000 means that NFL team ownership remains perhaps the most sought-after investment in US sports.
Allen acquired the Seahawks in 1997 for $200 million, and almost immediately replaced the team’s then-stadium, the Kingdome, with the $425-million Lumen Field.
Under his tenure as owner, the franchise won the NFC West division eight times (and the AFC West once, prior to moving conference), the NFC Championship three times, and claimed its first-ever Super Bowl in 2013.
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By GlobalDataThe estate of Allen revealed in a statement that they have tapped investment bank Allen & Company and law firm Latham & Watkins to carry out the sale process, adding that they expect the process to run through the 2026 NFL off-season.
Paul Allen, who co-founded tech giant Microsoft, passed away in 2018, and since then his sports holdings – including the Seattle Seahawks, the Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchise, and his 25% stake in the Seattle Sounders Major League Soccer team – have been managed by his estate, which is chaired by his younger sister Jody Allen.
Allen had always stated that the sports franchises he had owned (alongside other business interests) should be sold off posthumously, with the proceeds put towards his philanthropic interests.
The Blazers franchise was sold back in September 2025 to a consortium led by financial services businessman Tom Dundon, a process that opened up the estate to begin the Seahawks sale process.
