Bezos more interested in buying Hawks than Commanders?

[BlueTalon]

Any new owner is going to be a crap shoot, so there's no sense wringing our hands over one that's rumored to be in the market. The other thing is that Jody has to be willing to sell the team. From everything I've read, even though PA's trust says that both the Blazers and Hawks have to be sold at some point, I haven't seen a timeline on it.

I've heard that about PA's trust having to sell the team. Is there anything preventing Jody from being the one the team is sold to?

 

[RiverDog]

I've heard that about PA's trust having to sell the team. Is there anything preventing Jody from being the one the team is sold to?

I'm not a lawyer, but my guess is that she wouldn't be able to retain majority control. PA's trust requires her to sell the team and that the proceeds go to charity. But there is speculation that she could at least drum up enough funds to retain some interest in the team. Last summer, the Seahawks were valued at $4.5 billion, middle of the pack for NFL teams.

Here's some excerpts from an article that examines the trust:

Canzano said he spoke with people familiar with the terms who told him that Allen wanted the trust liquidated after his death and the money used to fund causes he was passionate about, like brain research.

"None of this is up in the air," one source told him. "The instructions are clear: The sports franchises and everything in the trust must be sold."

According to (Brock) Huard, because the City of Seattle paid “hundreds of millions of dollars” to help build Lumen Field, a contract with the Seahawks includes a stipulation that would be a big hurdle to any sale until the middle of this decade, and selling the team before then is not something the trust would do due to a fiduciary responsibility.

“There was basically a poison pill enacted into the deal that said, ‘You can’t go and turn around and sell the (team)’ … until – and I’m pretty confident that it’s 2025, 2026. We’re still some years away from the trust being able to do that,” Huard said. “Otherwise, (with) that poison pill, (the Seahawks) would have had to donate hundreds of millions of dollars back to the city, and that just was not going to happen. So I don’t think a sale is imminent. I don’t think it’s within the next year or two years. It may be within four years.”

Is a Seahawks sale coming? Not so fast, explains Brock Huard

"I don't think a sale is imminent," Brock Huard said of the Seahawks. He explained what he knows that makes him believes that to be the case.

sports.mynorthwest.com

Again, I'm not a lawyer, but common sense would say that Jody has the right/obligation to manage the trust in such a manner so as to maximize its eventual resale value, so my guess is that she can hang onto it for at least another couple of years.

 

[CalgaryFan05]

Not sure how I feel about it. Obviously he has deep pockets but new owners always scare me.

Wonder if he would be hands on or hands off?

I just picture him trying to implement leadership principles there or something.

I buy alot of crap from Amazon.

But just like Sean Payton, I don't really want JB anywhere near the Hawks.

I don't know who I would want as an owner other than JA, but 'not this'.

I think we've been spoiled for a long time with an owner that actually 'liked' the team. Instead of being treated exclusively like an 'asset' in a portfolio.

 

[Lagartixa]

I think we've been spoiled for a long time with an owner that actually 'liked' the team. Instead of being treated exclusively like an 'asset' in a portfolio.

A pro-sports team's ownership group treating a team as an asset in a portfolio could be very good for the fans of that team.
I say this because it's been shown again and again that sports-team revenues above the league baseline are driven most strongly by on-the-field (or on-the-ice or on-the-court) performance. And since the sale value of a team will go up with rising revenues, the sale value also increases with on-the-field success. It's like having dividend-paying stock and a way to make both the dividends and the share price rise.
So an ownership group treating the team as an asset in a portfolio would have strong incentives to make the team as successful on the field (or ice or court) as possible.

 

[RiverDog]

Your bias aside what media market would he move the team to? Seattle is the 12th-largest media market the next media market without an NFL team is portland which is 21st then St. Lious which is 23rd, then it would be San Diego at 27th.

The NFL is not the NBA that wanted to cut its own nose off to have a team in OKC. The NFL wants its teams to move to major media markets.

Yeah, the Hawks aren't going anywhere no matter who the owner is. People forget that back in the 90's when Ken Behring was trying to move the team, he was trying to take it to LA, the 2nd largest media market and at the time, without a team.

Having said that, by the time Jody has to sell the team, in '25 or '26, Lumen Field is going to be pushing 25 years old and in need of a major remodel or upgrade. It could factor into negotiations.

 

[sdog1981]

Yeah, the Hawks aren't going anywhere no matter who the owner is. People forget that back in the 90's when Ken Behring was trying to move the team, he was trying to take it to LA, the 2nd largest media market and at the time, without a team.

Having said that, by the time Jody has to sell the team, in '25 or '26, Lumen Field is going to be pushing 25 years old and in need of a major remodel or upgrade. It could factor into negotiations.

That is the small-town Seattle 90s mentality. The NBA wishes it had a team in Seattle, not Oklahoma City. Seattle is a big city and getting bigger.

 

[BlueTalon]

Seattle is a big city and getting bigger.

People in St. Louis may have said similar things before the Rams took off.

 

[sdog1981]

People in St. Louis may have said similar things before the Rams took off.

They did not because they knew they were smaller than Portland.

 

[nepahawk]

I hope not, he would probably treat the players like his amazon employees.
He has deep pockets but short arms.

 

[hawks85]

I feel that Bezos is too controversial, and too much in the public spotlight for what I'd prefer to see in an NFL owner.

Bezos is a bottom feeding scumbag and has no business owning any NFL team. If Bezos buys this team. I'm no longer a fan and the team will be moved. I HATE bezos with a passion. Dudes a parasite.

 

[hawks85]

Your bias aside what media market would he move the team to? Seattle is the 12th-largest media market the next media market without an NFL team is portland which is 21st then St. Lious which is 23rd, then it would be San Diego at 27th.

The NFL is not the NBA that wanted to cut its own nose off to have a team in OKC. The NFL wants its teams to move to major media markets.

I can see St.Louis or San Diego. I know it makes no god damn sense, but I can see Bezos doing that, I don't trust that dude whatsoever.

 

[chrispy]

New article in SI speculating that Bezos selling 5B in AMZN stock may be in prep to purchase the Seahawks. Article also points out Forbes valued the organization at 5B last year. He also declined to bid on Commanders. It was reported, at the time, he declined because he was more interested in the Seahawks. Seems like a lot of data points kind of lining up for down the road....

 

[McGruff]

sounds cool to me

 

[McGruff]

The team has stagnated since Paul died. The facilities have fallen to mid level. An injection of cash and cutting edge technology would do us good.

 

[Maelstrom787]

New article in SI speculating that Bezos selling 5B in AMZN stock may be in prep to purchase the Seahawks. Article also points out Forbes valued the organization at 5B last year. He also declined to bid on Commanders. It was reported, at the time, he declined because he was more interested in the Seahawks. Seems like a lot of data points kind of lining up for down the road....

More recent "insider" reports indicate he was simply outbid for the Commanders and didn't want to go as high as the Josh Harris group did.

I find it hard to believe Bezos would truly be outbid, unless he was only interested in the Commanders for a decent price and is saving his real "eff off" bid for Seattle.

 

[CalgaryFan05]

Not sure how I feel about it. Obviously he has deep pockets but new owners always scare me.

Wonder if he would be hands on or hands off?

I just picture him trying to implement leadership principles there or something.

He's a complete Bozo.

Please, for the love of god. No.

Honestly, with Pete gone, and the era of the Nerf helmets upon us, I've already got one foot out the door.

This would just be bad.

 

[ivotuk]

The guy is the most frugal when it comes to office spend. He will give free bananas and drip coffee. Bring your own food or buy food from the food trucks around. VMAC from being the Google like will become Amazon. He will also inform incentive based hiring and manage out 10% of the staff through performance improvement plans

All equipments will be shipped by Prime and team’s official travel partner will now be Amazon Prime flights that will drop them off in delivery hubs and then contracted out to independent driver networks to drop them off on the field.

Dead on.


Agghhhh!! I feel like Charlie Brown when Lucy yanks the ball out of the way! Got snookered in to an old thread again!

Okay. Okay. it's early, and I haven't had my coffee...only took me ten minutes to remember that the Commanders had been sold a long time ago...

 

[McGruff]

Bezos is smart enough to know that you can’t treat millionaire players like soccer moms.

 

[NoGain]

I really dislike Bezos. But I wonder how many NFL owners I would find likable or didn't think they were unsavory characters in some significant way. We had it about as good as it gets with Paul Allen.

 

[BlueTalon]

Agghhhh!! I feel like Charlie Brown when Lucy yanks the ball out of the way! Got snookered in to an old thread again!

I want one of these in emoji form.