Seattle Seahawks owner Jody Allen during the Super Bowl.
Mike Florio just put a huge number on the Seattle Seahawks sale, and it’s the kind that gets owners and bankers leaning in.
In a Pro Football Talk column published Feb. 20, 2026, Florio wrote that people “in the know” expect the Seahawks to ultimately sell between $9 billion and $11 billion, adding it “won’t be surprising at all if it exceeds $10 billion.”
That matters because the Paul Allen Trust has formally put 100% of the franchise on the market, with Allen & Company and Latham & Watkins leading a sale process expected to run through the 2026 offseason before an NFL ownership vote.
Why Florio thinks Seattle could smash past “book value”
Florio’s big point: valuations are cute, but the Seahawks are worth whatever the last billionaire standing will pay.
The recent comps explain why the floor keeps rising:
So Florio’s argument is basically: if anon-controlling slice of a team can imply $10B, a full-control sale of the reigning champs can absolutely push that neighborhood.
NFL national media revenue is shared across all 32 clubs, which is why buyers treat teams as rare “forever assets” even before local revenue (tickets, sponsorships, real estate) kicks in. Florio explicitly nods to that TV-money baseline.
What has to happen next (and why this won’t be overnight)
Even if someone shows up with a monster bid, the NFL sale process has real gates:
Any deal needs approval by three-fourths (24) of the 32 owners, the same threshold cited publicly in past ownership approvals.
The league’s ownership rules require a single controlling owner with at least 30% of the equity, and ownership groups are capped (no mega-crowd funding).
And the timeline is already being telegraphed: the estate itself said the process is expected to continue through the 2026 offseason.
Who could buy the Seahawks? Ballmer, Bezos, Gates, and the names fans are tossing around
This is where it gets fun.
Local reporting has already floated several ultra-wealthy Seattle-adjacent names, including Steve Ballmer, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and MacKenzie Scott aspotential buyers or logical fits based on wealth and ties.
A couple key nuggets from that chatter:
Ballmer’s name comes up constantly because of his Seattle roots and wealth—though he has previously brushed off the idea, joking “we’ve got enough sports” in a past interview cited by local coverage.
Bezos has been linked (at least conversationally) to prior NFL sale situations, and he obviously has the financial firepower.
What about Clay Bennett? His name has popped in the last 48 hours, mostly as a Seahawks-fan nightmare callback because of the Sonics history, but that’s not the same as credible reporting of an actual bid. If anything, Seattle’s current situation looks nothing like the Sonics exit, and the Seahawks have a stadium lease that runs well into the next decade.
Bottom line: Florio’s $10B talk sounds spicy, but the recent NFL money trail says it’s not fantasy; it’s the direction the market has been sprinting.