Seahawks Sold

The Seattle Seahawks were recently sold for $9.6 billion, a record for an NFL franchise and the second-highest price ever paid for a professional sports team.

Below is how CNBC, Forbes, and Sportico most recently valued the Seahawks in their annual franchise rankings:

• CNBC: 19th most valuable team at $7 billion
• Forbes: 14th most valuable team at $6.7 billion
• Sportico: 14th most valuable team at $6.6 billion

As we’ve seen with other sports teams, the price a new owner actually pays for a franchise usually far exceeds the “book value” due to many factors.

First off, there are only 32 NFL franchises and they don’t come up for sale often. If you want to join the club, you need to pay up. In the Seahawks’ case, the buyer is a West Coast technology billionaire and his family. The opportunity to buy a premier West Coast NFL team that is close to home is rare.

Another big driver is the guaranteed hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that teams share every year, mainly from the TV contracts in place. Each team earned $432 million in national NFL revenue in 2024. This does not include the individual revenue that teams made on their own like concessions, parking, and team sponsorships. In 2024, the Seahawks made $624-$638 million in total revenue according to Forbes and CNBC. Luckily for NFL owners, the NFL can opt out of its current TV deal after the 2029 season and make even more money from new TV deals, which will continue to pit legacy networks like FOX and CBS versus streaming and tech giants like Netflix and Amazon. Not only is the NFL currently raking in money, but it looks like it will continue to do so and team valuations will keep going up.

Lastly, in an era dominated by AI and other technology trends, the NFL – and sports in general – remains a reliable safe haven. People genuinely love their NFL teams. Fans will continue to watch games, buy jerseys, and follow stars like Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. Beyond that, the NFL is a uniting force for fans from across the country and the globe.

All of these factors push the true value of NFL teams to a much higher number than standard valuations can reflect.