Seattle Seahawks Sale Not Coming Until 2025?

According to The Washington Post, the Seattle Seahawks won't be sold any time soon despite persistent speculation.

For nearly half a decade now, the Seattle Seahawks' future ownership situation has been in limbo.

Longtime owner Paul Allen, who took over in 1996 and saved the team from moving to Anaheim, passed away five years ago on Sunday. Since then, Allen's sister Jody Allen and his estate have managed both the Seahawks and the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers. While Paul Allen outlined his desire for both franchises to be sold in his will, neither has been put up for sale yet.

“As Jody publicly said last year, the sports teams are not for sale,” a spokesman for Paul Allen's trust told The Wall Street Journal in June. “That will eventually change pursuant to Paul’s wishes, but there is no pre-ordained timeline for when that will happen. Interested parties can engage when we establish a sales process at some point in the future.”

A Seahawks helmet on the team's sideline / USA TODAY

Five years in, and it doesn't seem like a sale is close in the slightest. According to The Washington Post, any potential sale for the Seahawks won't come until 2025 at the soonest, in large part due to a provision of their deal with the state of Washington.

"Some had expected the franchise to be sold next year," The Washington Post writes. "If it is sold before May, the Seahawks would owe 10 percent of the sale price to the state of Washington, under the terms of a 1997 referendum that funded the construction of what is now called Lumen Field. That provision no longer applies thereafter, and some observers had regarded that as a prospective starting point for the sale process."

The Trail Blazers have been perhaps the more intriguing of the two teams in this saga, as Nike founder Phil Knight continues to circle on the NBA franchise. However, the Seahawks' future ownership situation has plenty of intrigue as well.

The same Washington Post article claims that some in the NFL are "hopeful" that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will place a bid for the Seahawks when they eventually go up for sale. Bezos, the third-wealthiest individual in the world with an estimated net worth of over $150 billion, explored buying the Washington Commanders earlier this year, but never placed an official bid. Bezos' name has appeared in Seahawks ownership rumors before, so it is a possibility to consider.

Regardless of who's in the running, it doesn't seem like a sale will happen any time soon.