While reports broke on Thursday of two groups of buyers preparing bids to buy the Seattle Seahawks, overall interest in the team is regarded as “soft,” according to a report Friday morning from ESPN.
The story reported that “the franchise hasn’t generated the interest the NFL hoped for.”
“It’s soft,” a team owner is reported to have said to ESPN of the market for the Seahawks.
Another “executive” contrasted it to the markets for the last two NFL teams that sold, the Broncos and Commanders, and said “there isn’t as much action as there was with Denver and Washington.” The story quoted another as saying the pool of buyers is “small.”
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ESPN — the company recently bought the league-run NFL Network — noted in the story that the situation with the Seahawks is “fluid.”
ESPN noted that there was a general expectation when the Seahawks were placed on sale on Feb. 18 that the team would net the highest price ever for an American sports franchise and that it’s possible that may not happen.
“There are doubts among NFL owners and executives about whether the Seahawks sale — after sports business insiders speculated that it would spark a bidding war and that the franchise would fetch up to $11 billion — will eclipse the $10 billion mark,” ESPN reported. “They said they believe that the team will sell for slightly above $9 billion, which would still be a record price for an NFL team.”
The current record for an NFL team is $6.05 billion for the Commanders in 2023.
The high for an American sports franchise is $10 billion for the Lakers last fall.
And a 1% stake in the Miami Dolphins went for a $12.5 billion valuation last month.
All helped set an expectation that the Seahawks would eclipse the $10 billion mark.
ESPN cited several reasons for why there could be soft interest in the Seahawks: “The reasons the bidding has been unexpectedly quiet are varied, sources said, beginning with the expected price range. Few interested buyers are liquid enough to pay $9 billion for a team or have the 30% in cash that a major owner must make as a down payment, according to NFL rules. The Seahawks might also need a new stadium in coming years. While a new venue could open up additional revenue in the long term, the politics and cost could be a fight in the short term.”
The story also noted the potential complication of Seattle getting an expansion NBA team, stating: “Additionally, the NBA’s board of governors recently approved the league to explore bids for an expansion team in Seattle. Some potential Seahawks buyers could have interest in that as a less expensive option, and that new owner will be greeted as a local hero who is reviving professional basketball in the city.”
While there were reports Thursday that a group led by current Celtics alternate governors Wyc Grousbeck and Aditya Mittal and another by Vinod Khosla, a minority stakeholder in the 49ers, are preparing bids, there were no reports with specifics on their potential offers.
When the Broncos went for sale in 2022, one early story from 9News quoted a source saying that there were initially “about 10 bids coming in” before that pool was narrowed to five finalists and the team finally sold in the summer of 2022 to Rob Walton, the eldest son of Wal-Mar heir Sam Walton.
Front Office Sports reported in January 2023 that “a half-dozen” potential buyers submitted bids to buy the Commanders before they were eventually sold to a group led by Josh Harris.
Aside from the two bids that surfaced Thursday, there have been no other credible reports of interest in the Seahawks.
As did SI.com earlier this week, ESPN reported that another potential buyer could be Steve Apostolopoulos, “a Canadian billionaire who was a candidate to buy the Commanders in 2023.” But ESPN quoted an owner as saying it’s unclear how interested he may be.
There have been no public comments on the process from the team or prospective buyers.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the league meetings in March that there is “a great deal of interest” in the Seahawks but otherwise did not elaborate.
The ESPN story noted that there was “a brief update” given to owners and execs during a general session on the Seahawks situation but that “three sources told ESPN that the relative lack of information stood out compared with the constant updates they would receive when the Commanders and Broncos were up for sale.”
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.