The Seattle Seahawks are expected to be put up for sale after Super Bowl 60, two league sources confirmed Friday.

The news of a potential sale was first reported by ESPN. The Seahawks will play the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, Calif., seeking the second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history. The sources did not provide an exact timeline for a potential sale.

Jody Allen became the Seahawks’ controlling owner in 2018, when her brother, Paul Allen, died and left her as the trustee of his estate, which included the Seahawks, the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers and a 25 percent ownership in MLS’s Seattle Sounders. Paul Allen’s will said that his sports holdings would eventually be sold, with proceeds going toward philanthropy, but no timetable was announced publicly.

A spokesperson for the Paul G. Allen estate said in a statement Friday that “the team is not for sale,” and that “we’ve already said that will change at some point per Paul’s wishes, but I have no news to share.”

The NFL declined to comment on the reports of the team’s sale.

In July 2022, Jody Allen said in a statement that there was no timeline for the sale of the teams, adding the estate could take “10 to 20 years to wind down.” According to 2023 reports from Sports Business Journal and the Washington Post, any sale of the Seahawks before May 2024 would have incurred a 10 percent fee to the state of Washington, under a 1997 law that funded the team’s stadium, now known as Lumen Field. That fee no longer applies.

Allen began the process of selling the Trail Blazers in May 2025, releasing a statement at the time saying the news did not affect the Seahawks or the Sounders. She reached a deal to sell the Blazers to Tom Dundon, owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, in August.

After signing a contract extension through 2031 in July, Seahawks general manager John Schneider was asked whether Allen would be the team’s owner through the end of his new contract.

“I have no idea,” he said. “That’s not my place.”

Allen is one of the NFL’s most elusive owners, rarely making public appearances and never holding a news conference during her tenure as controlling owner. She raised the 12 Flag before the Seahawks’ win over the Los Angeles Rams in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game and accepted the George Halas Trophy after the team’s victory.

The last NFL franchise to be sold in full was the Washington Commanders, which Josh Harris and his partners bought for $6.05 billion in July 2023. The Denver Broncos were sold for $4.65 billion to Rob Walton in August 2022. There have since been divestments of minority shares of other franchises.

The NFL’s ownership policy differs from those of other sports leagues, mandating that the individual controlling owner must own at least 30 percent of the team. That rule, along with the ballooning cost of franchises — the Broncos’ sale price more than doubled the previous NFL high ($2.3 billion for the Carolina Panthers in 2018) — has limited the pool of potential buyers to the ultra-rich. Forbes estimates Harris’ net worth at $11 billion and Walton’s at more than $135 billion.

Sportico estimates the Seahawks’ value at $6.59 billion, 14th-highest in the NFL.

Paul Allen bought the franchise from Ken Behring for around $200 million in 1997, preventing the team from leaving Seattle. (Behring had planned to move the team to Anaheim, Calif.) Allen served as controlling owner until his death in October 2018 of non-Hodgkin lymphoma at 65. The Seahawks have made 17 playoff appearances, won 11 division titles and reached four Super Bowls under his and his sister’s tenures as the controlling owner, winning the Lombardi Trophy to cap the 2013 season. This will be the team’s first Super Bowl appearance since the 2014 season.

“Our focus right now is winning the Super Bowl and completing the sale of the Portland Trail Blazers in the coming months,” the estate spokesperson said in Friday’s statement.

Could this news be a distraction?

The timing of this news is not ideal for the Seahawks ahead of the biggest game of the year, but it is unlikely to be any more of a distraction for the players than any of the extra attention that typically comes the week of the Super Bowl. Also, this team had been good all season at compartmentalizing and being unmoved by things outside their control.

The last few weeks, for instance, their opponents talked trash in the lead-up to the games. Seattle players were asked about it, paid it no mind and then handled business on the field. It goes back to what coach Mike Macdonald said on stage after the NFC title game. Their focus is always on what they do, not anything else. I expect things to be the same this week even after the news of a potential sale. — Michael-Shawn Dugar, Seahawks beat writer

Jody Allen’s influence has been quiet but significant

Allen has not spoken to the media since taking over for her brother, but she is very involved with the team. She meets regularly with Macdonald and Schneider, attends every day of the NFL Draft and signs off on all major transactions, whether trading the franchise quarterback or adding void years to a free-agent contract to better manage the salary cap. An ownership change has the potential to alter how the team operates in those areas and many others. — Dugar