With the Broncos selling for $4.65 billion and the price expected to keep going up and up (and up), rumors are lingering that the Seahawks could be in play.
On Thursday, coach Pete Carroll was asked about the possibility of the team being sold by owner Jody Allen.
“She’s never entertained that thought at all,” Carroll said. “I haven’t heard her say that at all.”
The chatter of a potential Seahawks sale gained new life in recent days, given the fact that Nike founder Phil Knight submitted a written offer for the Portland TrailBlazers, the NBA team owned by Jody Allen.
“I’m talking about our club, so I don’t know anything about the Trailblazers,” Carroll said. “They’re fun to watch.”
The chatter first emerged from a report that the late Paul Allen’s trust calls for the TrailBlazers and Seahawks to be sold, with the proceeds going to the “passion projects” that he supported. Without seeing the language of the trust, it’s impossible to know whether that’s true.
And it’s entirely possible that the trustees, along with Jody Allen, have opted for strategic denial and deflection on this issue, in order to ultimately get the most money for either or both teams.
The best leverage to get the highest sale price often comes from selling the idea that the team won’t be sold. The Broncos didn’t have that luxury; the league would no longer allow the team to be held by a three-person trust. The Seahawks, who have one person calling the shots in Jody Allen, have no such urgency.
So maybe the smart move is to be coy, in order to get the offers to go higher and higher.
With 76ers co-owner Josh Harris ready to pay $5 billion for the Broncos — but not willing to make a $5 billion bid without knowing it would secure the team — it’s safe to say he’d pay that much right now for the Seahawks. That would be quite a return on the $197 million that Paul Allen reportedly paid for the team in 1997.
In the next couple of years, $5 billion could become $6 billion. Could become $7 billion. As those numbers increase, the chances of Jody Allen cashing out increase, too.