Report: Jeff Bezos could take interest in buying the Seahawks

The Amazon founder has been linked to the Commanders as a possible new owner.

With the Washington Commanders expected to have new ownership soon, the highest-profile name linked to the team as a potential majority owner apparently will not involved in the bidding stakes.

Amazon founder and The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos will not submit an offer for the Commanders, according to ESPN. A group led by Josh Harris, who owns the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76ers and the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils, has submitted a reported $6 billion bid, as has a group led by Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos.

What is notable from The Washington Post’s article on this story is the potential for Bezos to look at the Seattle Seahawks.

Amazon carries the NFL’s package of Thursday night games. Other owners have expressed a desire for Bezos to buy a team. Even if he stays out of the bidding on the Commanders, Bezos could get that opportunity if he pursues the Seattle Seahawks. That team is expected to be sold in the coming years.

“Bezos knows that Seattle is sitting there,” the person with knowledge of the NFL’s inner workings said Wednesday.

The sales of both the Seahawks and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers are meant to happen, so it’s just a matter of “when” and not “if” those franchises are transferred from the estate of Paul Allen. Jody Allen is the Co-Founder and Chair of Vulcan, the Chair of both the Seahawks and Blazers, and the Trustee of her late brother’s Trust.

In the short-term, neither team is officially up for sale, but from the Seahawks perspective it’s important to note that if Seattle is told before May 2024, 10 percent of the gross sale price would be handed over to the State of Washington, which was a deal negotiated back in the 1990s to fund the Seahawks’ current stadium. So when the Seahawks are eventually sold, it’s not likely to happen over the next year, but this is an important story we’ll be keeping an eye on whether Bezos looks to buy the Seahawks or some other ownership group fronted by a really rich person.