There was some speculation last summer that the Bears might go on the auction block, but that talk has somewhat slowed down over the past few months.Īccording to Jim O'Donnell of the Daily Herald in Chicago, the sale talk from last summer stemmed from the fact that there was some "internal strife going on among family members to sell."Īt this point, selling the team would create a huge windfall for the McCaskey family. Team owner Virginia McCaskey is 99 years old and it's not clear what's going to happen with the team when she's gone.
There was an error processing your subscription. The trust also owns the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and there's a chance that team could be sold in the near future with Nike founder Phil Knight making an offer to buy it in early June. The instructions are clear: The sports franchises and everything in the trust must be sold." "Paul directed that the trust be liquidated upon his death and the assets used to fund his passion projects," a source told Portland-based reporter John Canzano back in May. However, at least one person with knowledge of how the Paul Allen Trust works thinks the team is going to eventually be sold and that it could happen soon. There has been speculation that the Seahawks could be sold, but there has been no definite indication that it's going to happen. As things currently stand, the Paul Allen Trust owns the team and Jody is in charge of the trust. The team is currently run by Jody Allen, the sister of former Seahawks owner Paul Allen, who died in October 2018. Gayle Benson inherited the team after her husband, Tom, died in March 2018. Since 2015, only two NFL teams have been sold (Panthers and Broncos), but that number could shoot up over the next decade. Basically, with the value of each franchise shooting up, that might encourage an owner or two to cash-out and take the massive profit that would come along with a sale. Going into the 2021 season, the Broncos had an estimated value of $3.75 billion, according to Forbes, but their real value was $4.65 billion, because that's what Walton was willing to pay.Īs recently as early April, the Broncos were expected to be sold for just north of $4 billion, but NFL teams are a hot commodity that don't come up for sale that often, which likely helped to drive up the price. The sale price of the Broncos is the most anyone has ever paid for a sports franchise in North America, and it's a price that the NFL's other 31 owners were probably thrilled to see, because it means every team in the NFL might be worth more than originally thought. It's not often that an NFL team changes ownership, but that's exactly what happened this week when Rob Walton won the right to purchase the Denver Broncos with a final bid of $4.65 billion.