Jody Allen

Seahawks May Not Be Sold Until At Least 2025

October 15th, 2023 at 11:48am CST by Rory Parks

The Seahawks are not expected to be put up for sale until 2025 at the earliest, according to Mark Maske of the Washington Post. If the franchise were to be sold before May 2024, the club would owe 10% of the sales price to the state of Washington pursuant to the terms of a 1997 referendum that funded the construction of Lumen Field. That provision is no longer applicable after May 2024, which led some to believe that owner Jody Allen would begin looking for a buyer next year.

However, Allen has yet to give any indication that she intends to sell the team in the foreseeable future. Allen inherited the ‘Hawks from her brother, Paul Allen, who passed away in October 2018, and while Paul’s estate plan calls for his assets to be sold and the proceeds donated to charitable causes, Jody has made it clear that there is no deadline for such a sale.

“A time will come when [a sale is consummated] 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,” Jody said last year. “There is no preordained timeline by which the teams must be sold. Until then, my focus – and that of our teams – is on winning.”

That statement followed a report from May 2022 indicating that Jody had no immediate plans to sell, and her position seems unchanged, despite the forthcoming expiration of the 1997 referendum provision. And, as the value of NFL teams continues to soar, it stands to reason that she would be in no hurry to put the Seahawks on the market.

The eventual price tag could be driven even higher if the league ultimately relaxes the requirement that a buyer of a team must come up with 30% of the purchase price in cash. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk observed last month, that rule — along with the rule that limits the amount of debt that a buyer can take on, even when there are sufficient assets to support the debt — has limited the number of bidders in previous sales, which in turn has prevented the seller from maximizing their profit. If less liquidity and more debt is permitted, then more buyers can get in the mix.

As we have written before, the league wants Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to join its ownership club, and Maske says that some owners are hopeful Bezos will be involved in the bidding for the Seahawks. However, when Bezos or any other prospective purchaser will have the opportunity to make an offer remains an open question.

Latest On Sale Of Commanders

June 4th, 2023 at 9:53pm CST by Ely Allen

We had a couple of recent updates to the situation around the sale of the Commanders from Dan Snyder to Josh Harris this week. We were provided with a peek into the thoughts of the owners on one of the factors holding up the sale, as well as an update into the Brian Davis lawsuit.

The sale has been stalled lately in part due to some concerns over current requirements for franchise sales, specifically the requirement that a prospective primary owner must be able to furnish 30 percent of the total sales price in cash at the time of the purchase. There’s been some recent speculation that, due to the skyrocketing price tags on franchises, the league may rethink this stipulation. The practice was much more sensible years ago, when the Panthers sold for around $2.28 billion, but with the Commanders’ bids breaching $6 billion, the 30 percent requirement is much more difficult to manage.

According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, it doesn’t sound like the current owners care. Breer reports that none of the owners he spoke with had an “appetite for changing the rule.” The owners currently believe that Harris will come up with the cash necessary and, if he does, the issue will be pushed down the road.

It could be pushed two sales down the road if the Seahawks are next on the chopping block. If presumed bidders Steve Ballmer or Jeff Bezos end up with winning bids, they likely wouldn’t have any trouble coming up with the cash. That should be a non-issue, though, as chairman of the team’s ownership group Jody Allen has confirmed that the team is still not for sale, according to Rachel Bachman of The Wall Street Journal.

In unrelated news, gaming law and sports betting attorney Daniel Wallach provided the update that Davis’s lawsuit against Bank of America has been withdrawn. Davis’s company, Urban Echo Energy, sued Bank of America claiming that they failed to present his bid to buy the Commanders to the responsible parties. Bank of America came back with allegations that the documents provided as proof of the transfer looked obviously fictitious.

It sounded like the case may reach a negotiated settlement, but with the allegedly fictitious documents in hand, it sounds like Bank of America may have earned an upper hand. The demand for the lawsuit, originally a ludicrous $500 billion, already was dropped to $990K. Bank of America did not join Urban Echo Energy in the filing of the withdrawal, so it’s unclear what the steps are moving forward. It sounds like Davis’s attorney may potentially face sanctions if the documents and claims are deemed fictitious, but in the meantime, Davis’s involvement in the sale of the Commanders has likely come to an end.

NFL Eyeing Jeff Bezos As Future Owner?

April 18th, 2023 at 11:52am CST by Adam La Rose

The sale of the Commanders, while not complete at this point, has approached the finish line without any involvement from Jeff Bezos. The Amazon founder was consistently named as a suitor to watch with respect to new Washington owners, and he could still be on the league’s radar to purchase aa different franchise down the road.

The NFL is “lobbying Bezos quietly, but hard” on the subject of joining the league’s ownership club, reports Peter King of NBC Sports. The 59-year-old would easily become the wealthiest owner if he were to acquire a franchise, so that news comes as little surprise. The edge in terms of spending power he would have had over any competitors in Washington made him a favorite not long after it was learned Dan Snyder was considering selling the Commanders.

However, obstacles existed which would have made a sale to Bezos difficult. Chief among them was the latter’s ownership of the Washington Post, a source of personal tension between he and Snyder. Bezos was reportedly blocked from participating in the initial rounds of bidding, which cast doubt on his ability to make a last-minute offer on the team. Indeed, shortly before the Josh Harris-led group reached agreement on a $6.05 billion deal, it came out that Bezos would not submit any offer.

With the Commanders off the market, many expect the Seahawks to be next team to be sold. They could become a Bezos target, especially if the league remains highly interested in having him become an owner. However, a change of ownership in Seattle may not be coming in at least the short-term future.

As King notes, any Seahawks sale which takes place before May 2, 2024 would see 10% of the purchase price go the Washington state government. That would represent an obvious factor working against an agreement taking place within the next year or so, especially when coupled with the sentiment made clear by current owner Jody Allen last summer.

“As chair of both the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks, my long-term focus is building championship teams that our communities are proud of,” she said in a July statement. “As we’ve stated before, neither of the teams is for sale and there are not sales discussions happening… There is no preordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.”

Allen, who took over for her late brother Paul in 2018, has been linked to a sale throughout her ownership tenure. The above remarks represented her most definitive denial that one will be coming any time soon, though. If/when that changes, Bezos will remain a name to watch as a potential bidder.

Jody Allen: Seahawks Are Not For Sale

July 5th, 2022 at 7:10pm CST by Ben Levine

Since Seahawks de-facto owner Jody Allen inherited the franchise from her late brother, there have been rumblings that the team could eventually be put up for sale. Following a recent report that Allen’s other pro franchise, the Portland Trail Blazers, could be sold within the next year or two (which would presumably be followed by a sale of the Seahawks), the owner came out with a statement today denying that the two teams are for sale.

“As chair of both the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks, my long-term focus is building championship teams that our communities are proud of,” Allen said in a statement. “Like my brother Paul, I trust and expect our leaders and coaches to build winning teams that deliver results on and off the court and field.

“As we’ve stated before, neither of the teams is for sale and there are not sales discussions happening.

“A time will come when that changes 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 preordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.

“Until then, my focus – and that of our teams – is on winning.”

Jody Allen took over control of the Seahawks franchise following the passing of her brother Paul in 2018. At the time, reports indicated that the organization would be promptly sold, and this assumption was based on Paul’s succession plan (as mentioned in Jody’s above statement) to have proceeds from a sale be distributed to the Paul G. Allen Foundation. Then came a recent report out of Portland that the Trail Blazers would be sold, and coupled with news of a $100MM+ real estate sale in Los Angeles, many reporters started to connect the bread crumbs and surmise that a Seahawks sale could be coming.

However, Allen has continually denied that either franchise was for sale, culminating in today’s statement. Further, reports from the offseason indicated that she was more hands on with the Seahawks franchise (including the trade of Russell Wilson) than she had been in previous years, an indication that she would be sticking around.

As our own Rory Parks pointed out earlier this year, the value of NFL teams has increased by 14% over the past five years, and the fact that the Broncos are poised to sell for around $5 billion — more than double what the Panthers sold for in 2018 — suggests that Jody should be content to wait to put the Seahawks on the market.

Jody Allen Unlikely To Sell Seahawks In Near Future

May 29th, 2022 at 8:16am CST by Rory Parks

Russell Wilson‘s new team, the Broncos, are on the market and are expected to sell for roughly $5 billion. Wilson’s former team, the Seahawks, are not expected to be sold anytime soon, as Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times reports.

Seahawks owner Jody Allen, 63, inherited the team from her brother, Paul Allen, who passed away in October 2018, and rumors of a sale have cropped up periodically since Jody took the reins. For instance, Condotta cites a story that NFL.com published a month after Paul’s death in which it was reported that the club would ultimately be sold, and that Paul had filed a succession plan with the league directing that the proceeds from such a sale be distributed to the Paul G. Allen Foundation.

A recent report from Portland-based writer and talk show host John Canzano has brought the conversation back to the foreground. Per Canzano, the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers — which Jody also inherited from Paul — are in line to be sold within the next six to 18 months, and the Seahawks could be on the auction block shortly thereafter.

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Jody has been selling other family assets in recent months, including a parcel of property in Los Angeles and a nearby compound, which fetched a combined $110MM. That, according to Canzano, is in keeping with the directive of Paul’s trust, which provides that all assets, including his sports franchises, must be sold.

Even if Jody does eventually sell the Seahawks, nothing is imminent on that front, according to Condotta’s own source. The team is not currently for sale, and that is not expected to change in the near future.

Like her brother, Jody had kept a low profile during her first several years as owner, but she began to reverse course as her franchise neared a crossroads late in the 2021 season. As the ‘Hawks were entering the home stretch of an uncharacteristically poor campaign, Jody became “very involved” in the team’s operation, which signaled that major changes could be on the horizon.

At the time, the Seattle futures of head coach Pete Carroll, GM John Schneider, and Wilson were decidedly uncertain, as Jody reportedly did not believe that the Seahawks’ poor 2021 performance was a mere blip in the radar. Ultimately, of course, Wilson was traded to Denver while Carroll and Schneider were retained, and Carroll said during last month’s draft that Jody told him and Schneider that they are “back in your wheelhouse,” meaning that they again have the necessary draft capital and salary cap space to build a legitimate championship contender.

Indeed, although Jody has still not given an interview, her statement in the team’s press release following the Wilson trade — in which she indicated that Wilson himself wanted out of Seattle — was a strong one. And she was plenty visible at the draft, when she was seen in the Seahawks’ war room during the first round and in photos posted on the team’s website.

All of that paints a picture of an owner who is engaged and in no hurry to sell. Plus, as Condotta posits, there is absolutely no reason for her to be in a rush. Per a piece published by Forbes Magazine last fall, the value of NFL teams has increased by 14% over the past five years, and the fact that the Broncos are poised to sell for around $5 billion — more than double what the Panthers sold for in 2018 — suggests that Jody should be content to wait to put the Seahawks on the market.

Latest On Seahawks-Broncos’ Russell Wilson Trade

March 17th, 2022 at 7:55pm CST by Sam Robinson

Although the Broncos have been in need at quarterback for six years, GM George Paton said Seahawks GM John Schneider initiated the Russell Wilson trade talks. A Schneider text to Paton got the ball rolling on the trade at the Senior Bowl, Ryan O’Halloran of the Denver Post notes.

Schneider expected the Broncos to be interested, and the talks heated up at the Combine. While Denver was also linked to Aaron Rodgers for nearly a year, Paton said Wilson was the team’s No. 1 priority throughout the offseason. The Broncos planned to do “anything it took” to acquire Wilson, Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com tweets. The deal sent the Seahawks five draft picks and three players, including quarterback Drew Lock, who as of now figures to factor in prominently in Seattle’s post-Wilson QB plans.

The Seahawks’ official statements, while complimentary of the nine-time Pro Bowler overall, included interesting language. All three indicated the quarterback wanting out catalyzed the trade. Jody Allen‘s statement said Wilson “made it clear” he wanted a change, with the owner’s short message also saying she hopes the next Seahawks squad will be “fully engaged.” (A previous report by The Athletic included select anonymous players accusing Wilson of checking out last season, which seems to conflict with the QB’s quest to return earlier than expected from thumb surgery.) Pete Carroll‘s statement backed Allen’s, as could be expected, and said Wilson “wanted something different.”

Wilson called the separation mutual, and Schneider said Wednesday he did not expect the future Hall of Fame passer to sign another Seahawks extension, via ESPN.com’s Brady Henderson (on Twitter). Wilson’s 2019 extension expires after the 2023 season, though the Broncos will be expected to re-sign him either this offseason or in 2023.

A conversation with Paton and Wilson’s faith in the Broncos’ roster prompted him to waive his no-trade clause and target Denver as a destination, O’Halloran adds, and Paton said the Broncos’ new quarterback was already en route to Denver when news of Rodgers’ extension surfaced last week. John Elway, who is now a Broncos consultant after 10 years as the team’s GM and one in a different executive role, was one of the few people Paton brought into the loop on the prospective Wilson trade.

In landing the 33-year-old Wilson, the Broncos will presumably have a longer run with this particular trade acquisition than they did with Peyton Manning or would have with Rodgers. Wilson is still planning to play past age 40.

QB Rumors: 49ers, Wilson, Winston, Texans

February 24th, 2022 at 7:35pm CST by Sam Robinson

Of the starting quarterbacks mentioned in trade rumors, Jimmy Garoppolo looms as the likeliest candidate to move. The five-year 49ers starter saying as much and having talked to his general manager about a potential destination is a fairly clear indicator of a move. However, Garoppolo being dealt is not a certainty. Trey Lance has a long way to go in his climb toward being a reliable starter, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com said during an interview with Pro Football Focus’ Ari Meirov (via SI.com). The 21-year-old Division I-FCS alum was “further away than people realized” this past season, Schefter adds, noting Garoppolo remains well-liked in San Francisco’s locker room. While it would be a surprise if the 49ers kept Garoppolo, the prospect of him playing out his contract and keeping Lance in developmental mode in 2022 did surface last summer.

The statuses of Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Kirk Cousins may put the 49ers in a good spot regarding a Garoppolo trade offer, however. The QB trade market drying up would lead to more Garoppolo interest; as of now, the 49ers are seeking a Day 2 pick and change in a trade. They would need to weigh offers, Lance’s readiness and the prospect of a third-round 2024 compensatory pick — for Garoppolo’s 2023 free agency exit — in this equation.

Here is the latest from the quarterback rumor circuit:

Wilson has said he wants to stay with the Seahawks, but coming out of a disappointing season, the veteran quarterback has also been connected to exploring his options to see if another team could give him opportunities his current one cannot. For the time being, owner Jody Allen is behind keeping Wilson, Albert Breer of SI.com notes. It is unclear how much Allen supports ensuring the perennial Pro Bowler stays in Washington, and given Wilson’s value at age 33 and with two years left on his contract, Breer does expect a trade to eventually happen. After Rodgers makes his intentions known, this will be the top QB situation to monitor.
The Saints used four starting quarterbacks last season and have their preferred 2021 starter on track for free agency. Jameis Winston is coming off an ACL tear and might again need a prove-it season. Many around the league expect the Saints to again provide that opportunity, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com writes. New Orleans is once again in its own league for cap purposes, being more than $75MM over the projected 2022 cap. Winston coming back on a low salary would help the Saints, even if the seven-year veteran would represent another stopgap year post-Drew Brees.
The Texans are behind Davis Mills as their starter, but they are interested in keeping Tyrod Taylor around. Taylor impressed Houston’s coaching staff during his first Texans season, Fowler adds. Taylor signed a one-year, $5.5MM deal to work as a starter during Deshaun Watson‘s time away from the team. Mills supplanted Taylor, continuing a familiar routine for the ex-Bills starter, but it sounds like his relationship with new OC Pep Hamilton — Taylor’s position coach with the Chargers in 2020 — is solid enough it could well lead to another year of QB2 work in Houston.

Seahawks’ Pete Carroll Not Worried About Job Security

January 11th, 2022 at 11:08am CST by Adam La Rose

While three Head Coaches were sent packing in the NFL yesterday, Pete Carrol of the Seahawks was not one of them. The fact that he is in line to carry on in Seattle comes as no surprise to him, either. According to a report from NFL.com’s Kevin Patra, Carrol is not concerned about his job status.

When asked about his future with the team, the 70-year-old responded, “I’m in great shape”. The reasons why the Seahawks went a disappointing 7-10 in 2021 will be the main focus of a meeting between Carroll and other staff members and owner Jody Allen in the near future. The outcome of that meeting, according to Pata’s colleague Ian Rapoport, will determine whether or not the team is willing to “give it another go”, or if Allen “will have the first big decision of her ownership to make”.

Carroll is looking forward to getting on the same page with ownership, stating that the meeting will be “really pointed at figuring things out. [Allen’s] very analytical and she wants to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can possibly do to get everything right. She’s a terrifically competitive person in that regard and she doesn’t want any stone unturned… So we’ll try to do a great job of exchanging the information and setting the course for making sure that we give ourselves the best chance to be champions”.

Of course, the biggest storyline for the offseason in Seattle revolves around the future of quarterback Russell Wilson. It was recently reported that the team intends to keep Wilson, despite longstanding speculation that he would either request a trade or a coaching change. Instead, it appears the team will maintain the status quo in 2022, looking to rebound from the worst season in both Carroll’s and Wilson’s tenure in Seattle.

Seahawks Owner Jody Allen Concerned With Team’s Performance

December 5th, 2021 at 8:40am CST by Rory Parks

The Seahawks find themselves at 3-8 and at the bottom of the NFC West, and unless they run the table, they will post a losing record for the first time in the Russell Wilson era. As Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reports, owner Jody Allen does not consider the disappointing 2021 campaign — which saw Wilson miss games for the first time in his career — as a one-year blip (via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk).

Allen inherited the team from her brother, Paul Allen, who passed away in October 2018. Like Paul, Jody has largely stayed in the background and has allowed head coach Pete Carroll to function as the de facto CEO. Garafolo, though, says that Allen has recently become “very involved” in the operation, which suggests that a major shakeup could be on the way.

Of course, trade rumors swirled around Wilson last offseason, and there has been speculation that the Seahawks could end up dealing their franchise signal-caller in 2022. Doug Kyed of Pro Football Focus hears that if Wilson is still anxious to leave Seattle, he may not need to force his way out, as the club may be open to swinging a trade in the coming months. After all, the team is without a 2022 first-round draft choice as a result of the July 2020 Jamal Adams trade, and trading Wilson would doubtlessly yield a bounty of draft capital.

On the other hand, this year’s class of college QBs is not considered particularly strong, and Wilson’s bottom-line statistics in 2021 are consistent with his career marks. If Allen truly does believe a dramatic change is in order, then a trade might make sense, but it will be very difficult to pull that particular trigger.

The same goes for Carroll. Now 70, Carroll is signed through the 2025 season, and he said last September that he wanted to coach well into his 70s. It’s unclear if he would want to coach through a rebuild, though if the Seahawks end up trading Wilson and can find a way to adequately replace him, there may not be much (if any) rebuild to speak of. And unless Carroll wants to step away, either because of a strained relationship with ownership or some other reason, it is still hard to imagine Allen going in a different direction.

There is obviously a great deal of uncertainty here. The real story is that Allen has apparently deviated in a significant way from her own modus operandi and that of her predecessor. What that ultimately means for the Seahawks remains to be seen, but it is at least possible that significant changes could be on the way for one of the decade’s most consistent outfits.

Seahawks Notes: Wilson, Carroll, Dunlap

February 28th, 2021 at 12:24pm CST by Rory Parks

One of the reasons for the trade rumors swirling around Seahawks QB Russell Wilson — and perhaps the primary reason — is Wilson’s relationship with head coach Pete Carroll, which appears to be strained. Apparently, his relationship with Carroll’s sons hasn’t been much better.

According to a tweet from The Athletic, Wilson believes Carroll and his sons, Nolan and Brennan, answer to no one (Nolan serves as the team’s WRs coach, and Brennan had been working as the run game coordinator before accepting a position at the University of Arizona). And, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes, Wilson is 100% correct.

Former owner Paul Allen “stayed deep in the background” when he was alive, and his sister, Jody Allen, has largely done the same since she inherited the team. Some league sources believe the Seahawks are essentially run by the Allens’ parent company, Vulcan Inc., which in turn defers to the head coach as the club’s de facto CEO. So while Jody Allen could intervene in light of the Wilson trade rumblings, her track record suggests that she will not do so, and that Pete Carroll will ultimately be the one to decide whether to deal Wilson.

While Wilson himself has said he does not expect to be dealt, Florio believes the 32-year-old will ultimately request a trade either this year or next. If QB and HC do not mend fences soon, it’s easy to envision such a scenario.

Now for more from the Emerald City:

Unlike Florio, Brady Henderson of ESPN.com does not believe Wilson will be traded. One of the reasons for that is the fact that — as our Sam Robinson wrote several days ago in the piece linked above — a trade will leave $39MM in dead money on the Seahawks’ cap. While a post-June 1 trade will allow the team to spread out that hit and actually create $19MM in 2021 space, Seattle is lacking a first-rounder and third-rounder this season, so a Wilson trade might be more beneficial if it happened prior to this year’s draft and not after June 1.
Still, Henderson believes the ‘Hawks will make a trade that both sheds some salary — the team has less than $8MM of cap space relative to the $180MM floor — and adds some much-needed draft capital. There is no indication as of yet that Seattle will look to trade players like Carlos Dunlap, Bobby Wagner, or Jamal Adams, but Henderson could see it happening.
As of now, though, Henderson predicts that the club will cut Dunlap and look to re-sign him to a less expensive contract — the former Bengal is due to carry a $14.1MM cap hit in 2021 — while restructuring the contract of franchise icon Wagner and extending 2020 trade acquisition Adams.
Proven performance escalators for several 2018 draftees have played a role in Seattle’s cap crunch. Since he earned a Pro Bowl nod in his rookie season, punter Michael Dickson has a $3.384MM salary for 2021 — the amount of the second-round RFA tender — while cornerback Tre Flowers is due to earn $2.183MM since he met the snap count requirement for the Level One PPE (Twitter link via Henderson). If you need a refresher, OverTheCap.com offers a comprehensive explanation of PPEs.
Presently, the Seahawks’ highest draft choice is their second-rounder (No. 56 overall). Given the state of the club’s offensive line, and Wilson’s recent comments in that regard, most mocks have Seattle selecting an OL with that pick, as Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times observes. Ohio State guard Wyatt Davis and Tennessee guard Trey Smith would be worthy Day 2 selections.

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