A record number, signed off this afternoon
Seattle has a new owner. The Seahawks closed the sale of the franchise to the Khosla family on Thursday, and the figure attached to it is the part nobody in the league will forget: $9.612 billion.
No NFL club has ever changed hands for that much. Owners had already waved the deal through unanimously on August 26, so Thursday was signatures rather than suspense. The signatures still moved the market.
The old benchmark belonged to Washington. The Commanders went for roughly $6.05 billion in 2023 to a group fronted by Josh Harris. Three years later the ceiling has jumped by more than three and a half billion dollars, and it happened to a team that has just won a Super Bowl.
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Who holds what in Seattle now
Vinod Khosla, 71, founder of Khosla Ventures, takes the title of chair. His wife Neeru Khosla becomes controlling owner and president of the Seahawks Charitable Foundation. Their son Neal Khosla comes in as vice chair.
The co-ownership list behind them runs long. Mark Stevens, the Aramburuzabala family, Val Blavatnik, Sheryl Sokoloff, Gonzalo Hevia Bailleres, Jesse van der Werf, Samir Kaul, Sunny Gupta, Nader Naini and Penny Pritzker all bought in, alongside Carlyle, Dynasty Equity and Sixth Street.
“We are honored and excited to begin this next chapter,” the family said in a statement, before name-checking the club’s championship culture and its bond with the 12s. Boilerplate, mostly. The names on the cap table say more than the sentences do.
The Allen estate finally lets go
Paul Allen died in 2018. His estate has run the team every day since, under a will that reportedly required the franchise to be sold and the money pushed out to charities. The search for a buyer ended on July 11, when terms with the Khosla family were agreed.
Eight years of holding pattern, closed out in one afternoon.
The timing gives the new owners almost no runway. Seattle are the reigning champions and open the season next Wednesday night at home against New England, a rematch of Super Bowl LX. Vinod Khosla inherits a roster that has already reached the summit, which is a harder inheritance than it sounds. Everything from here is measured against a title someone else won.
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