The process of the Seattle Seahawks going up for sale has begun, and it comes with a lot of questions.
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ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, who along with ESPN Seahawks reporter Brady Henderson first reported in January that the team would go up for sale following the Super Bowl, joined Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy to share his insight on the situation following the Seahawks’ official announcement Wednesday that ownership has “commenced a formal sale process” of the franchise.
Here’s a look at what Wickersham had to say.
The “secret list”
The biggest question about the Seahawks going up for sale is who could be in the running to buy them. Odds are, it would be someone who has already shown interest in being an NFL owner. Wickersham said the league keeps tabs on people like this with a “secret list,” and his guess would be that whoever buys the Seahawks will be someone from that list.
“They have certain benchmarks and standards that they want each potential buyer to have met to try to make the process more expedient, and frankly to protect the other owners when a team comes up,” Wickersham said. “And so they kind of have this list – for a long time even (NFL commissioner) Roger Goodell wasn’t privy to it, I don’t know if that’s still the case… It’s essentially a list of, like, approved buyers.
“Now, does (the next Seahawks owner) have to come from that list? No, but knowing the NFL and knowing how few people there are in America who can afford to spend $7 billion or maybe even more on an NFL team, my guess would be that it would come from that list, even if we don’t know exactly who it would be at this moment.”
Wickersham thinks a local name is likely to eventually emerge, though he doubts it would be Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who has long been speculated as someone who could buy an NFL franchise such as the Seahawks.
“I think that (the eventual next Seahawks owner will be) someone we’re going to have heard of, especially probably in the Seattle area. … I think that there would be somebody local who would want to be that person who owns the team for the community, kind of like what Robert Kraft did with the Patriots. I could see a scenario like that. Jeff Bezos, I know that his name gets thrown around a lot. I’m really skeptical that he’ll be part of this, but you never know. That’s the thing that could get interesting, and it looks like it’s going to play out over quite a while. I mean, according to the statement, they expect it to take a little bit of time.”
A potential record?
Another question that is coming up has to do with how much the Seahawks will prove to be worth. ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter said Wednesday that the Seahawks are “expected to set a new record for the price of a sports franchise,” which would mean surpassing the $10 billion the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers sold for last year.
Wickersham explained why he’s a “little skeptical” of the Seahawks’ price breaking into 11 figures.
“The Washington Commanders went for $6.05 billion a couple years ago to Josh Harris. That was a record. And I think the Seahawks in every way are a more valuable franchise than the Commanders were at that point,” he said. “I could see a scenario because of the concentration of wealth in the Seattle area that a bidding would ensue for the team and it could drive the price up. But I don’t think the people who can afford to spend this much money on a football team throw around billions that easily.
“My gut tells me it’ll go for somewhere in the $7-8 billion range. People have told me that, too. I respect the people who say that we’re talking $10 billion and above, but I just think that it would take a staggering series of events for it to reach that price point.”
The Seahawks should garner more in a sale than the Commanders, though, because the reigning Super Bowl champs are a much more attractive asset now than Washington was then.
“I think that the thing that makes the Seahawks appealing is it’s just so different than the Commanders were, because the Commanders were really at rock bottom,” Wickersham said. “They had no stadium option. They were starting over from a roster standpoint. New coaches needed, new infrastructure. Really, they had to clean house.
“I think that what you’re getting in Seattle is a franchise that’s kind of on autopilot. That’s not to take away from the hard work that the people like (general manager and president of football operations) John Schneider and the coaching staff and all the executives put in. I’m just saying you’ve got the infrastructure you need. And I think that it’s the type of purchase that you could make and then be in the best position for an owner, which is really staying in the background and lifting the Lombardi Trophy when it gets handed to you.”
Hear the full Bump and Stacy conversation with ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, which also includes why he doesn’t believe relocation is a concern in this case, in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post.
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