Seahawks, Trail Blazers Owner Shoots Down Sale Rumors in Statement

Jody Allen, chair of the Seahawks and the Trail Blazers and trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust, released a statement on Tuesday, maintaining that neither one of the teams is up for sale and that there are no discussions about selling either one of the franchises at this time.

“As chair of both the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks, my long-term focus is building championship teams that our communities are proud of. Like my brother Paul, I trust and expect our leaders and coachers to building winning teams that deliver results on and off the court and field,” Allen wrote. 

“As we’ve stated before, neither one of the teams is for sale and there are no sales discussions happening.”

Allen has served as the chair of both teams and the trustee of her brother’s estate since October 2018, following Paul Allen’s death at the age of 65. She acknowledged that her brother had plans to dedicate “the vast majority of his wealth” to philanthropy, but said that there was no “pre-ordained timeline” that will dictate when the franchises would be sold. 

“Until then my focus—and that of our teams—is on winning,” Allen said.

Allen’s adamant statement about her immediate plans for the teams come amid growing speculation that both franchises will be on the market in the near future. At the time of the Paul Allen’s death, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the Seahawks would eventually be up for sale.

Just recently, Nike founder Phil Knight reportedly offered to purchase the Blazers for over $2 billion, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The franchise maintained at the time that it was not for sale.

Allen’s latest denial should quiet down talks of a franchise sale for the time being, but it shouldn’t take long for speculation to pick back up.

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