Will the Seahawks’ New Owner Look to Shake Things Up?

Let's get back to it.

Like we said, uh, we have a couple of news topics that we want to hit.

The first being that the Seahawks have a new owner.

And, uh, record price, uh, record price for the franchise, uh, for a franchise sale.

What was it?

8.9 billion, I think.

Um, the commanders were in the sixes.

And so, uh, interesting structure here where the profits from the Seahawks are going to go to a, to a nonprofit, which is incredible, yeah, because I think that was Paul Allen's wish, right?

Yeah, and so, um, Vinod.

Klesla coleslaw, colesla coleslaw, coleslaw, um, and so now there are a lot of questions about obviously how this is going to work, um, and, and how this is gonna look, but the controlling owners in this, his wife is going to be kind of the forward-facing, uh, controlling owner.

His son is gonna have, uh, a lot of involvement.

What I've heard is that his son's gonna run it, which is his son's name is Neil.

Um, he was, um, so they own, I believe the number was, I'm just like looking through some of my communication from the weekend, um, I believe they own 3% of the Niners.

They're obviously gonna have to divest that now.

Um, so he was sort of the day to day contact for the Niners.

Neil was.

He's a younger guy.

He's really sharp.

And years and years and years ago, they live in the Bay Area .

He actually interned in the Niners football operations department, worked on the salary cap.

So he's got good like background in football.

Um, I think the intentions is probably to make this like, You know, similar to Terry and Kim Pegula in, in Buffalo when they bought the team, make this like kind of like, hey, like this is a, this is gonna be run by the family, you know, uh, but it feels to me a little bit like Neil is gonna be the one that's gonna be sort of the hands-on owner and, um, you know, it's interesting because you never know.

I mean, I like, here's, here's the thing about this, right, and I would say this.

About this is nothing against the coastlaws who I'm still learning about who I think we're all still learning about, right?

Like I didn't know, I, I didn't know anything about them, um, before the sales process, um.

Here's what I think every fan base has to be, um, has to have their radar up for.

And I think you're seeing this in a lot of different sports now.

These teams have become such incredible investments.

That you're attracting a type of owner now who is in it as not just a, I want this, I wanna be in football and help my team.

No, they view it as a business proposition, and I think, you know, you're seeing this across sports, and I think it's hurt certain franchises across sports.

Again, nothing to do with the, the coast laws.

They might wind up being the best owners in the NFL.

I don't know.

But these teams have become such great investments.

The appreciation, just look at the numbers, like I.

Uh, the bills, I believe, sold in 2014 for 1.4 billion.

Then the Panthers were, I think it was 2.

275 billion in 2018.

That is only, that's eight years ago, and we're talking about a team selling for more than four times that much, you know.

Um, now, Seattle's more valuable than care.

I get it, but like still, like that's an amazing rate of an appreciation .

And I remember talking to somebody about one of these owners that bought one of these teams .

Um, it's an NFL team, I'm not gonna name the team, but they said, oh yeah, he like, like somebody told me, oh yeah, he views this as like a real estate holding.

I'm like, why would you, why would you buy an NFL?

It's like, well, what other business is gonna guarantee you the level of appreciation an NFL team?

Well, it's an incredible investment.

And so, I think that this exists across sports now.

The private equity thing is definitely a part of it where, OK, you know, is my owner in it because he wants to win, or is he in it to win, but to win so long as I'm doing good business along the way, if that makes sense.

Yeah, and you have Paul Allen, to his credit, and then Jodie too, sort of.

I mean, I'm not gonna say they gave like the, the, the, the, you know, John Schneider's and Pete Carroll's and Mike McDonald's of the world blank checks.

But it was sort of like that, like, go run it, you know what I mean?

Like, and they were always very well staffed.

They were always very well resourced, and if you've been there to their facility in, in, in Washington state, you've seen it.

I mean, it's a first-class operation in every way, and so the bar is gonna be really high for these guys coming in.

What I would say is, is this, and, and, and this has come up a couple of times already where you have, uh, like the, the Lakers just cut like whatever it was, 30, 40 jobs.

You had, uh, Tom Dundon, the owner of the Trail Blazers who was, you know, has a coach now in a 1-year contract.

Um, which is crazy, and when I saw that, yeah, holy crap, he, he wasn't traveling two-way players, um, and his team, the Carolina Hurricanes, which he runs similarly, just won the Stanley Cup the Stanley Cup.

And so my fear with any owner coming in, right, is that they see Tom doing that and you know, I, I think it goes back to like, I think it was the Chargers, whatever it was a couple of months ago where they posted like a job for like 50,000 in LA, you know, to do, you know, a lot of work, right?

And at some point, the, the capitalizing on that is, and, and, and trying to run it like a business because you can get 100 crazy people to work for a football team for next to nothing.

You know what I mean?

And so, you know, and, and that's obviously that's always gonna be an element of like anything in sports and entertainment.

It's hard.

That's why it's hard to break into it because there's a ton of people who are willing to, to go to do whatever it takes to get in, right?

And so I think that whenever we see a new owner, uh, coming in, the fear like, are you going to be awesome?

And you know, like I hate to say like , Because the team hasn't had a lot of success, but like, are you gonna be awesome?

Like Mark Davis is awesome, like where, like Mark Davis does spend a lot of money, you know, um, on his players brought in owners that were like the reason he brought those owners in was because.

He like he wanted capital to be able to go and win, which like capital he wanted respect he wanted legitimacy.

I mean, a lot of the things that he did and, and you know, are you gonna be awesome like I'm trying to think of, of some examples.

I mean like Stephen Ross to the Dolphins.

Like everyone there feels exceptionally well treated.

Jeffrey, I think the ultimate example is the Eagles.

Yeah, the Eagles, yeah, is like Laurie spending cash over cap and like constantly do.

You know, cause I, so like, I think you can cross sports with this too.

The NFL has always had the funding rule as like kind of the red herring, you know what I mean?

Like, and then they have other rules that are in place.

They're like, well, we can't do that, you know, or we can't do this because of that.

And that's, I think, what the second apron is in the NBA is like the owners negotiated this stuff in where it's like you look at it and it's like, oh well, it's just money, you know.

And then it becomes an excuse for them not to spend more than they want to spend on their teams, you know, it's almost like a subtle.

A subtle version of collusion, you know, I mean, the funding rule for people who don't know is like, I mean, it was.

I mean, Connor, you know who the Steagles were, right?

Oh yeah, when during the war, right, the Steelers and Eagles had to combine to the, right, so the funding rule was from that era, and the funding rule was put in place where you had to put every dollar that was guaranteed to a player but wasn't paid yet into escrow, um, and the reason why was it ensured that that player would get his money.

Because some of these teams were in such dire financial straits that there was a risk that they, that the teams couldn't make the payments, so that rule was necessary back then.

That rule still exists like, and the rule, like I like really only exists, and the only reason the owners fight to keep because why would they want to put their money in escrow is because it becomes an excuse not to guarantee contracts, you know.

So, like, I think that that exists too.

I, I would say this too.

I think this is One thing that people have to understand about like just kind of who these guys are, OK?

And I think this is owners across the board.

In those circles, the guys they make fun of.

The guys that they point and laugh at.

They aren't the ones that are losing.

They're the ones that can't get out of their own way from a business standpoint, and Mike Brown took a ton of crap for a ton of years from most other NFL owners for having his dad's name on the stadium.

It's like, you idiot, you could sell that for X, Y, or Z, um.

You know, like that's the teams that don't have their bleep together from a business standpoint.

Get pointed at and made fun of more in those circles.

Than the teams that don't win.

And it's, it's impossible what they respect is the businessman, you know, at the end of the day, what they respect is the good businessman , and that's what's impossible for us to fathom.

And that's why, like, because that's why when everybody says, 00, who cares, right?

This team has a new owner, who cares?

Doesn't matter.

It does because we are now.

Especially with the, uh, especially with the injection of private equity, right?

You look at it as a set of balancing scales, right?

And when football first started, you had, you know, the core families, it was, you know, out of love, it's passion, it's wanting to win.

And with every one of these new owners, the scales tip even more towards like, we're going to make a lot of money on this, we're going to make a lot of money on this, we're going to make a lot of money on this.

And how many more of these teams turn over.

To the people who simply want to run it as a business.

And I think when we find that ratio and we hit that ratio, we're gonna find out how much that sucks.

You know what I mean?

Like it, it's, it, am I right or am I wrong?

Because it's like, That we need.

And I know this is crazy to say, we need the Irsays, we need the Davises, we need the, the Rooney's, right?

That This is, it's their family's legacy on the line and not like, oh, my dad runs like Purdue Chicken and we bought this to dump a bunch of, you know, we bought this as a tax shelter, you know, and that's, and that, and that's the thing is, you know what I mean like that's the thing it's like, it's like, well, I have 15 other businesses.

OK, great, you know, like, do you really care about my football team and I, I can tell you like, The Giants' struggles over the last 15 years.

There is nobody that bothers more than John Mara.

Nobody, you know what I mean?

There is nobody that is dying inside more over the Giants' problems over the last 150 than he cares deeply and like he, like his priority is the Giants because it's his family, you know what I mean?

It's his family's legacy, and I, you know, you can question everything, you know, there's a lot of things you can question in that organization over the course of the last decade and a half.

But I think that's one thing you can never question that he wants to win and he's willing to do whatever and you're right, like if this is just part of your portfolio, do you view it the same way?

So like I, I think that that creates an interesting test for the new Seahawks owners because I do think like even though Paul Allen was the ultimate example of Paul Allen also had unlimited money , which is not, I mean, it.

There are very few examples.

I mean, Balmer with the Clippers, right?

Like there are very few examples of guys who, um, have that level of wealth, and this family is, is obviously fabulously wealthy, you know, um, but are they willing to go the extra mile?

Are they willing to lose in some cases from a business standpoint to win on the field?

I think that's the question you always have to ask when these transactions take place like.

I mean, to their credit, like I think the Walton Penners have proven in Denver, like we're willing to do whatever it takes, right?

Yeah.

And that's what you hope you get as a fan.

I mean, at the end of the day, like that's and it's, and, and so it's a weird timeors are also in that like.

Whatever you wanna call it, the 0.

00000001%, you know, like the Walton Penners are in the, are in the Paul Allen category, I'd say.

If you had to pick, so let's say like, whatever, your team is Ohio State, uh, but let's say like Ohio State's an NFL team, you have to pick the owner of one business, just name the business cause obviously, you don't, we don't know the CEOs of it.

Like, who are you thinking like, oh God, I hope this guy buys my team.

I think it's the guy who invented Costco.

That's who I want.

I mean, they're from Kirkland though, Washington , so maybe they've got something to do with, uh, um, uh, someone up there.

Maybe they must be, yeah, maybe they got a piece of that, but like, you know.

I don't know, but like $1.50 hot dogs at games, um, $9 pizzas.

And then you can just wholesale your, uh, your concessions.

There are 2 owners, there, there are 2 of them.

Jim Senegal, sorry if I pronounced your name wrong, and Jeffrey Brotman.

And uh net worth.

Jim Senegal, oh, it's not as much as you would think.

I mean, this is relative, of course, but Jim Senegal has an, uh, uh, uh, an estimated net worth of approximately $1 billion to $2 billion.

This is like, when you say this, and it's funny, like right before we came on, I saw, uh, Odell Beckham was the last player, the latest player to try to go on a podcast and try to explain to people that $100 million isn't as much as you think it is in an NFL contract just to get completely roasted by it.

Um, it's like, oh yeah, I mean a billion, he's he's only worth a billion.

If you would just sell this, the first thing on the Google search is a Reddit thread.

Why isn't Jim Seneca the world's richest person?

There you go.

There you go.

I'd want the Costco guy to buy it.

I don't know.

That's just me.

Would you want Bezos to buy your team, I guess.

Although based on how he's running the Washington Post in the sports section, I don't know if I'd want to run.

I don't know because Bezos kind of strikes me as Bezos strikes me as like he would have a lot of interest in it at first, and it would feel great for like 5 years, but then does he lose interest?

It's like, Sort of what people think of with.

John Henry here in Boston, that he's lost interest in the Red Sox.

And is more interested in Liverpool now.

So, I mean, I think that would be my concern with Bezos is that like, what do you lose interest?

You know what I mean?

Cause I think you'd want to have somebody who you knew is not only has all those resources, but it's just locked into the sport.

And, and that's why I think like the sun here in this case, the Seahawks, the son is really interesting because he's shown an interest in getting into football, separate from Like the rest of it, you know, the fact that he interned in football operations for the Niners, tells me like, oh, he has a real interest in it.

You know what I mean?

Um, which would be sort of like, my understanding is Josh Kroenke.

is like really responsible for running Arsenal , you know, and like, so, and Arsenal obviously just won the Premier League for the first time in forever and so maybe that's sort of the result you're hoping for.