What the Paul G. Allen estate’s sale of the NBA Trail Blazers means for Seahawks
Paul Allen’s estate has gotten to selling one of his Pacific Northwest sports holdings.
What’s that mean for his other one, the NFL team in Seattle?
The Portland Trail Blazers announced this week the basketball team owned by the trust of the late Paul Allen is for sale.
“The estate of Paul G. Allen today announced it has commenced a formal sales process for the Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchise, consistent with Allen’s directive to eventually sell his sports holdings and direct all estate proceeds to philanthropy,” the team said in a statement Tuesday.
The statement said investment bank Allen & Company and law firm Hogan Lovells will lead the process of selling the Blazers. Allen bought them in 1998 for $70 million. It was to fulfill what he said then was “a dream come true” for the lifelong basketball fan and Microsoft Corp. co-founder.
Forbes now estimates the Blazers to be worth $3.5 billion.
The Blazers’ statement said the team expects the sales process to last into the 2025-26 NBA season, which begins in the fall of ‘25. The sale is then subject to approval by the NBA’s Board of Governors, which are other team owners.
Oregon-based Nike founder Phil Knight and Los Angeles Dodgers minority owner Alan Smolinisky have reportedly offered to buy the Blazers multiple times, when they weren’t for sale. But Tuesday the 87-year-old Knight said he was no longer interested in buying the Blazers. In a statement, he cited his age.
So what’s this mean for Allen’s Seahawks?
Nothing.
Not yet.
“This news does not affect the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise.,” the Blazers’ team sale announcement said, “or the estate’s 25% interest in the Seattle Sounders MLS (Major League Soccer), and neither is for sale.
Jody Allen, Paul’s sister, is chair of the Seahawks in the wake of her brother’s death in 2018. She wrote in a letter to fans and Seattle community in 2022 “there are no sales discussions happening” with the Seahawks.
That hasn’t changed this week with Allen’s Blazers becoming for sale.
Lawyers for the Paul G. Allen estate are handling each team as separate holdings, and will sell them separately at different times.
“A time will come when that changes,” Jody Allen wrote July 5, 2022, “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.”
A spokesman for Vulcan LLC reiterated in June 2023 that estimate of perhaps 10 to 20 years before the Seahawks may be sold.
Paul Allen bought the Seahawks from Ken Behring in 1997, for a reported $200 million. That was to keep the team in Seattle, after Behring had started moving assets of the Seahawks to Orange County, California, with the intent of moving them to Anaheim.
The Allen estate is going to get a hefty return on that investment. Forbes’ 2024 rankings of NFL franchise values estimated the Seahawks to be worth $5.45 billion. Their value rose 9% year over year to last September.
When the estate does get to selling the Seahawks in perhaps another seven to 17 years, there should be no shortage of potential owners with Seattle roots willing to buy. We’re talking Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, current major shareholders of Microsoft, including Steve Ballmer and other owners of Seattle corporate giants.
“Interested parties can engage when we establish a sales process at some point in the future,’ Jason Hunke, Vulcan LLC vice president for communications, said two years ago to The Wall Street Journal.
Until then, status quo.
Jody Allen remains chair and effectively the owner of the Seahawks.
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 11:44 AM.
