NFL owners approve Seahawks sale at $9.6B

NFL owners have approved the sale of the Seattle Seahawks to Vinod Khosla and his family for a record price around $9.6 billion, the largest ever for an NFL team. The sale follows the estate of Paul G. Allen, who owned the franchise since 1997, announcing the formal process after Allen’s passing in 2018, with the team then transferred to the Allen estate. Khosla, a Stanford-educated venture capitalist and former minority owner of the San Francisco 49ers, is known for backing experimental tech and was an early investor in OpenAI. The approval came during a high-profile NFL owners meeting in Atlanta, with 24 votes in favor and a unanimous backing from key committees. The purchase marks a significant milestone for North American sports deals, rivaling some of the biggest ever paid for teams, and caps a transition period for the Seahawks following their Super Bowl-winning season. Coverage notes that the sale has drawn attention to broader league issues discussed at the meeting, including media rights, ticketing deals, and ongoing league initiatives; media reports also referenced other league developments and unrelated headlines in the run-up to the vote.