Seattle Seahawks, Portland Trail Blazers Not For Sale — Yet: Owner

SEATTLE — Neither the Seattle Seahawks nor the Portland Trail Blazers are up for sale.

That's according to Jody Allen, chair of both teams, who said in a statement Tuesday her long-term focus is on building championship teams.

"Like my brother Paul, I trust and expect our leaders and coaches to build winning teams that deliver results on and off the court and field," Allen said.

Allen's statement comes a month after reports surfaced that Nike founder Phil Knight and Dodgers partial owner and entrepreneur Alan Smolinisky submitted a bid of more than $2 billion to buy the Portland Trail Blazers. Knight's inclusion in the proposed ownership group indicated the group's plan to keep the Blazers in Portland, though he noted talks were ongoing about the team's future, according to ESPN's NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski.

Paul Allen died in 2018 and his trust has overseen certain aspects of the team since his death. That trust was reportedly to be liquidated upon his death, a source familiar with the details of it previously told John Canzano. The assets, including the Trail Blazers and the Seahawks, were reportedly to be used to pay for projects he was passionate about.

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

But Jody Allen said Tuesday no sales discussions are happening. A time will come when that changes, she said, given Paul Allen's plans to dedicate the vast majority of his fortune to philanthropy. But, she noted, estates this massive and complex can take 10 to 20 years to wind down.

"There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold," she said.

She added: "Until then, my focus — and that of our teams — is on winning."

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