Pro Football Rumors
Offering some context to previous reports regarding the two finalists that emerged to purchase the Seahawks – the winning group led by Vinod Khosla and the runner-up group led by Aditya Mittal – Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk says the endgame of the competition became a genuine auction. A source with knowledge of the situation described it as an “extremely close” back-and-forth affair in which one side would submit a bid, the other side would top it, and so on, until Khosla’s $9.6 billion offer convinced Mittal to keep his paddle down.
According to Florio’s source, Khosla’s pursuit of the franchise was also aided by the fact that his wife, Neeru, will serve as the controlling owner (assuming the purchase is approved by league owners). That appealed to Jody Allen, who had been running the Seahawks since her brother, Paul, passed away in 2018. Paul purchased the club in 1997, and his will provided that the team must be sold and the proceeds donated to charity.
The league memo issued in the wake of the sale indicated the Khosla group had become the Seahawks’ “preferred buyer.” Speculatively, that could be because of Neeru Khosla’s status as the prospective controlling owner, though a spokesperson for Paul Allen’s estate did not confirm as much to Florio. The spokesperson simply said they had “nothing to share beyond the statement we released last week about reaching a sale agreement with the Khosla family.”
Four of the league’s 31 other teams are run by female controlling owners: the Colts (Carlie Irsay-Gordon), the Lions (Sheila Ford Hamp), the Saints (Gayle Benson), and the Titans (Amy Adams Strunk). Jody Allen had served in that capacity for roughly eight years, and Neeru Khosla is now poised to take her place.
While the Mittal group and Khosla group ultimately led the charge, at least six suitors showed interest in the Seahawks, and at least four of them made offers. As such, interest in the defending champs was stronger than some prior reports had suggested, with the $9.6 billion purchase price comfortably shattering the previous record for the sale of an NFL franchise ($6.05 billion, which was Josh Harris’ winning bid for the Commanders in 2003).
League ownership will convene on August 26 to determine whether to approve the sale. It presently does not appear as if approval is in doubt.
