The Seahawks will sell for a record price.
In this Dec. 31,2017 photo, Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen stands near the field before an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)
With the passing of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen yesterday the Seattle Seahawks, Portland Trail Blazers and a minority stake in the Seattle Sounders, will likely sell for more than $4 billion combined within the next year or so.
Allen’s sports interests are part of Vulcan Inc, which is in a trust controlled by his sister, Jody.
The NFL’s Seahawks, I reckon, will be sold for about $2.6 billion, a record for any sports team (see table below) and $300 million more than the Carolina Panthers went for earlier this year. The NBA’s Trail Blazers will change hands for $1.3 billion . or thereabouts. And his estimated 20% stake in Major League Soccer’s Sounders is worth some $60 million.
Allen paid $70 million for the Trail Blazers in 1988, $194 million for the Seahawks in 1997, and was one of the original owners of the Sounders in 2007.
Highest enterprise values for controlling stakes in teams. Forbes
The reason the Seahawks and Sounders would command such relatively high valuations is because they play in CenturyLink Field and Allen’s First and Goal Inc. Controlling the revenue and expenses of stadiums give owners a huge advantage when it comes to selling sponsorships. Having two teams in one building provides scale and reduces overhead.
Likewise, the Trail Blazers play at the Rose Quarter, owned by an affiliate of the team and managed by Allen’s Rip City Management. The $1.3 billion price tag for the Tail Blazers includes the NBA team and its arena, the Moda Center. But the Rose Quarter also includes the 12,000-seat Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 6,500-seat Theater of the Clouds, 40,000-square foot Exhibit Hall and the Rose Quarter Commons. All in, the other assets could add another $100 million or so to the price tag.
My mentors were James Walker Michaels and William Baldwin. I started out in the statistics department of Forbes in the mid-’80s then transitioned to writing. I mainly wrote about high-priced stocks that I believed were doomed. Example: my story on CUC International pointed o…
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