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SEATTLE A first round of bids to buy the Seattle Seahawks were reportedly due last week.
While there has been no news concerning the sale since, its possible those bids are being dissected this week in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Thats where the New York-based banking firm Allen & Co.
is holding its annual conference, an invitation-only retreat commonly referred to as a summer camp for billionaires, described as consisting of a week of deal-making and networking along with a little fun in the sun.
Thats the same company hired by the Seahawks to lead the process of the sale, along with the law firm of Latham & Watkins.
Among those listed as expected in attendance by Forbes Magazine are Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates, Fox Corporation chairman Lachlan Murdoch, News Corp chairman emeritus Rupert Murdoch, and People Inc.
chairman Barry Diller." Also listed by Forbes on Wednesday as a confirmed photographed" attendee of this weeks confab is Bert Kolde, the vice chair of the Seahawks who has often been the point person for chair Jody Allen in handling matters related to the Seahawks.
Listed by either Variety Magazine or Forbes as either confirmed in attendance or expected to be in attendance are NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who is a member of the NFLs Finance Committee, which is generally entrusted with reviewing bids to buy teams and providing recommendations to the entire ownership group for votes.
The conference, generally billed as a leadership retreat, has been held since 1982.
As detailed by Forbes The New York investment bank gathers a small but very powerful group in Idaho where there is no public agenda, no official guest list, and the press has little access." All of which could make it the perfect place to begin hammering out the details of a possible sale, or at least reviewing them.
Bloomberg News reported on June 29 that initial bids were due that day.
The Seahawks were officially placed on sale on Feb.
18 10 days after the Seahawks beat New England in the Super Bowl by Jody Allen on behalf of the estate of Paul G.
Allen, who bought the team in 1997 for $194 million.
Jody Allen took over as the executor of the Paul G.
Allen Estate and the chair of the Seahawks.
In that role she was obligated to eventually put the team up for sale with the proceeds going to benefit charities favored by Paul Allen.
There have been three groups reported as expressing interest in making a bid.
A group led by two alternate governors of the Boston Celtics, Wyc Grousbeck and Aditya Mittal.
Mittal is part of the new Celtics ownership group that last August bought controlling share from a group that had been headed by Grousbeck and his family.
Grousbeck retained a minority share in the Celtics.
Mittal, 50, is the CEO of ArcelorMittal, a steel company based in Luxembourg founded by his father Lakshmi, and the heir of one of the richest families in India.
According to Sportico, Mittal contributed about $1 billion to the group led by Bill Chisholm that purchased the Boston Celtics from the former ownership group led by Grousbeck and his father, Irving, and holds the official title of alternate governors with Grousbeck.
Grousbeck, 65, founded the group that purchased the Celtics in 2002 and is reportedly remaining part of the ownership group through 2028 to assure a smooth transition.
The Sportico report stated that since Mittal lives in London, Grousbeck would reside in Seattle part-time and effectively operate the franchise.
A group led by billionaire Vinod Khosla, 71, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems who along with his son, Neal, bought a 3.1% share of the San Francisco 49ers in May, 2025.
Neal Khosla is the CEO and co-founder of Curai, described as an AI-assisted telehealth startup founded in 2017 based in Palo Alto, Calif.
He was named as one of Time magazines 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023.
A group led by billionaire financier Todd Boehly, who has stakes in the Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers and is chairman and owner of Chelsea Football Club.
Boehly, 52, is listed on his bio on the Dodgers website as the Co-2, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Eldridge Industries, and Chairman of Eldridge, which has made investments in over 100 operating businesses, including Security Benefit, of which (Boehly) is Chairman, A24, Fulwell Entertainment, and Penske Media, which includes The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Vibe, Music Business Worldwide (and) dick clark productions.
A statement on the date the Seahawks announced they were for sale noted that the sale process was estimated to continue through the 2026 offseason.
It has been commonly viewed that both the Seahawks and the league would prefer a sale be completed by the beginning of the 2026 regular season.
The first game of the season will be held in Seattle on Sept.
9 against the New England Patriots on a night when the Seahawks will raise a banner commemorating their Super Bowl win last February.
The sale of the Seahawks will be the first of an NFL team since the summer of 2023 when the Washington Commanders were purchased by a group headed by Josh Harris for a reported $6.05 billion.
That sale set a record for an NFL team and a North American sports franchise.
The latter record was broken last October when the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA were sold for $10 billion.
There has been much speculation that the Seahawks could fetch $9-10 billion with many around the NFL hoping that the team will go for more than $10 billion and set a record for a North American sports franchise and help raise the valuations for all other NFL teams.
That expectation was raised when the NFL approved a sale of a 25% share of the Las Vegas Raiders in May at a valuation of $9.9 billion.
The Seahawks were valued at $6.7 billion last fall by Forbes Magazine in its annual rating of the leagues most valuable teams, 14th overall and a 23% increase from the previous year.
The Dallas Cowboys had the highest valuation at $13 million.