Is Jeff Bezos Preparing To Buy The Seahawks?

[River_Dog]

I saw an interesting article this morning about a possible sale of the Seahawks to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos:

If the team sold for $6 billion then Bezos could easily afford that. But how much of his money is liquid and how much is tied up in ventures? A lot to the latter, mostly likely. This could be why Bezos has recently made some major moves with his funds. In February, Bezos made another huge sale of his Amazon stock which equated to about $8.5 billion. Recently, the Amazon founder made another sale of shares that equates to about $5 billion.

That could mean Bezos has about $13.5 billion to spend however he wants. He wants to own an NFL team and the Seahawks are supposed to be sold soon, according to Paul Allen's wishes. Bezos has more than enough to buy the Seattle football franchise if the Trust is willing to sell it to him. He likely would pay more than any other bidder to make the Seahawks his own.

The question is how 12s and the team's employees would feel. Bezos does not have the best reputation for how his companies' employees are treated. Still, there would be no nickel-and-dime issues for Seattle to chase free agents. If Bezos buys the team, he should want to win. Either that or he just wants his name attached to the NFL and he would become the Donald Sterling of the league.

https://12thmanrising.com/posts/jeff-be ... xzhrL6lsCA

I'm perfectly happy with the current ownership group. I never thought that Jody would have the balls (no pun intended) to fire Pete Carroll, but she did. They've also made some moves since then, allowing JS to stay and work in a conventional GM's role, and the hiring of Mike Macdonald and his staff, at least to this point, look to be very solid decisions.

But eventually the Hawks have to be sold. I haven't the slightest idea how Bezos would be as an owner.

[NorthHawk]

I don't know how he is with his other businesses - those like Blue Origin where he knows nothing about the challenges of that type of business. Does he let his staff do what they need or does he meddle?
In the NFL, the stakes aren't as big as the space business in the sense of losing lives if mistakes are made, but the money issue after purchasing is in my mind somewhat moot in that there is a salary cap and a salary floor so he's going to have to
spend the money anyway within limits. It would be a matter of how patient he is and would he be more like Tepper in Carolina or like Allen was here where he was in the background setting the table?

[River_Dog]

I don't know how he is with his other businesses - those like Blue Origin where he knows nothing about the challenges of that type of business. Does he let his staff do what they need or does he meddle?
In the NFL, the stakes aren't as big as the space business in the sense of losing lives if mistakes are made, but the money issue after purchasing is in my mind somewhat moot in that there is a salary cap and a salary floor so he's going to have to
spend the money anyway within limits. It would be a matter of how patient he is and would he be more like Tepper in Carolina or like Allen was here where he was in the background setting the table?

I haven't the foggiest idea what kind of owner he'd be. His deep pockets may play in his, or rather our, favor as he might not be as motivated to turn a dollar or making money on his investment vs. putting the best quality product on the field, and in that sense, I think he'd be better that some random ownership group. Hopefully, he's not going to treat it as a toy in the way Jerry Jones does and uses Paul Allen as the ultimate example of how an owner should run his team.

In a perfect world, all teams would be like the Green Bay Packers, who are owned by the fans.

[c_hawkbob]

Being a Prime member already I'd be perfectly OK with Seahawk games being televised in Amazon Prime video.

[River_Dog]

Being a Prime member already I'd be perfectly OK with Seahawk games being televised in Amazon Prime video.

I hadn't thought of that. I wonder if Bezo's relationship with Amazon would present some sort of conflict of interest, that it could be cited as evidence of a monopoly. The league is already in hot water over an anti-trust violation regarding Sunday Ticket.

[NorthHawk]

I get the sense that it wouldn't be because of the years of the NFL trying to get him to buy a team. I would think they would have vetted that issue with lawyers before trying to persuade him to buy.
But maybe the wealth just gets the other owners to forget due diligence...

[River_Dog]

I get the sense that it wouldn't be because of the years of the NFL trying to get him to buy a team. I would think they would have vetted that issue with lawyers before trying to persuade him to buy.
But maybe the wealth just gets the other owners to forget due diligence...

Yeah, you're probably right. It's just something that occurred to me when Cbob mentioned Prime Video. Ted Turner owned the Atlanta Braves, which would be a situation that would be similar to Bezos and Prime Video, and that relationship didn't raise any eyebrows.

[jshawaii22]

I'm curious to know what the capitol gains would be on billions of $$$ of Amazon stocks, most of which was purchased for a whole lot less then it's worth now or he received in trade for services and a multitude of other ways of originally avoiding taxes on gains. The only way to not avoid tax is to 'sell' on the open market for cash, so this would seem that he's looking for a lot of $$$ in his bank.
Bezos has been linked to this in the past and he supposedly turned down a chance to bid on the DC team, waiting for the Seahawks. Who knows, we could do a lot worse.

15% Long Term Fed + 7% State of Washington would hit him for 2-3 billion off the top. The more he has to sell, the more he would pay.

[c_hawkbob]

Well he sold off $8.5B last April or so then $5B now so whatever the applicable tax rate is I reckon he's got it covered.

[River_Dog]

I'm curious to know what the capitol gains would be on billions of $$$ of Amazon stocks, most of which was purchased for a whole lot less then it's worth now or he received in trade for services and a multitude of other ways of originally avoiding taxes on gains. The only way to not avoid tax is to 'sell' on the open market for cash, so this would seem that he's looking for a lot of $$$ in his bank.
Bezos has been linked to this in the past and he supposedly turned down a chance to bid on the DC team, waiting for the Seahawks. Who knows, we could do a lot worse.

15% Long Term Fed + 7% State of Washington would hit him for 2-3 billion off the top. The more he has to sell, the more he would pay.

Bezos is no longer a Washington state resident, so he wouldn't be subject to the state's capital gains tax, which is almost certainly one of the reasons why he decided to move to Florida which doesn't have a capital gains tax, and like WA, does not have a personal income tax, either.

However, he'd still be subject to the federal capital gains tax, and I'm not sure how that works. I know that if you sell a house within 24 months of buying it, that you're subject to a capital gains tax any increase in value, but I don't know how that works with stocks.

Bezos' 'attempt' to buy the Commanders seemed to be a halfhearted one. He could have easily out bid Josh Harris' group. There was some speculation as to if politics had anything to do with it as Bezos also owns the Washington Post, which broke a story about former owner Dan Snyder and the culture surrounding the Commanders which led to the league pressuring him to sell.

[c_hawkbob]

I've read that his bid for Washington was more about testing the waters than actually getting in the pool.

[River_Dog]

I've read that his bid for Washington was more about testing the waters than actually getting in the pool.

Same here. Since Bezos obviously had the resources to outbid Josh Harris, the only other reason would be if Snyder refused to sell to him. It's a little hard to believe that Snyder would blame Bezos for the Washinton Post's story on his workplace culture.

[NorthHawk]

I think Snyder would take the most money he could get. If he could squeeze an extra hundred million out of a buyer, I doubt he would think twice.

[River_Dog]

I think Snyder would take the most money he could get. If he could squeeze an extra hundred million out of a buyer, I doubt he would think twice.

Agreed.

Apparently, the clause which mandated that any sale would mean that they had to contribute a certain percentage to the stadium authority has lapsed, meaning that there isn't the justification to postpone a sale as there was in the past couple of years, so I wouldn't be surprised if a sale happens sooner rather than later. Not that I'm looking forward to it.

And speaking of the stadium authority, our stadium will be 22 years old this season, about the same age as the Kingdome was when it was deemed inadequate. Will that factor into a potential sale?

[Aseahawkfan]

Bezos likely has no interest in purchasing a sports team. He's very focused on the space race. He did an interview with Lex Fridman talking about the future of man in space and how he stepped down from Amazon to focus more on his space company Blue Origins. He discussed how he sees us living in huge floating satellite cities around earth as the population expands.

If Bezos had much interest in owning a sports team, I think he would have done it already.

But maybe he'll surprise me.

If he does take over, Bezos is very process oriented. He will build processes to achieve the goal of winning. He will refine and adapt those processes over time testing new ideas until he refines them to make them work effectively. He is generally very cost conscious as well. He can be hands on, but seems to have reached a point in his life where he wants to achieve a monumental goal of pushing man into space or at least helping that process along.

[4XPIPS]

Being a Prime member already I'd be perfectly OK with Seahawk games being televised in Amazon Prime video.

I was thinking the same thing. When I was a kid growing up I always wondered why the Atlanta Braves were always on TNT, and then of course later I learned that Ted Turner owned the team and the network, and therefore he showcased his MLB team. It would be quite poetic to see the Hawks gets more Prime Video time, along with the new Black Friday coming up this season. Of course this sale would probably not happen this year.

[River_Dog]

Bezos likely has no interest in purchasing a sports team. He's very focused on the space race. He did an interview with Lex Fridman talking about the future of man in space and how he stepped down from Amazon to focus more on his space company Blue Origins. He discussed how he sees us living in huge floating satellite cities around earth as the population expands.

If Bezos had much interest in owning a sports team, I think he would have done it already.

But maybe he'll surprise me.

If he does take over, Bezos is very process oriented. He will build processes to achieve the goal of winning. He will refine and adapt those processes over time testing new ideas until he refines them to make them work effectively. He is generally very cost conscious as well. He can be hands on, but seems to have reached a point in his life where he wants to achieve a monumental goal of pushing man into space or at least helping that process along.

I wouldn't be so sure about Bezos supposed disinterest. He could be playing a poker game, bailed out of the Commanders bidding war to make people think that he's bargain hunting. Besides, if he is as uninterested as you claim, then why did he liquidate so much stock?

If he does by the Hawks, I just hope he doesn't treat it as his own personal toy ala Jerry Jones. It's sure too bad that we can't find a clone of Paul Allen.

[NorthHawk]

NFL teams make a lot of money. If his focus is on the space side of his business empire, some of that money could be funneled into that area.
Like any business owner, he would want an almost sure fire new revenue stream if it came available. I think that's why so many billionaires want to get involved in the NFL - along with the ego side of course.

[Aseahawkfan]

I wouldn't be so sure about Bezos supposed disinterest. He could be playing a poker game, bailed out of the Commanders bidding war to make people think that he's bargain hunting. Besides, if he is as uninterested as you claim, then why did he liquidate so much stock?

If he does by the Hawks, I just hope he doesn't treat it as his own personal toy ala Jerry Jones. It's sure too bad that we can't find a clone of Paul Allen.

I told you why. He is liquidating stock to finance Blue Origin. He stated this on the Lex Fridman podcast. Blue Origin is his company and he must finance it. It is not public and though he can maybe find investors, Blue Origin is more of a personal project.

Like I said, maybe he will surprise me given he has sort of stepped down from Amazon CEO and started to be a bit Hollywood.

Bezos has liquidated billions in stock for years now to finance his lifestyle and Blue Origin, his space company.

Bezos worked nonstop for years to build up Amazon and AWS. Now it is built up and a commerce machine like the world has never seen before. Selling stock to pursue his space dream should be no surprise as even a man like Bezos can see he only has so much time and he must focus on the goals he wants to accomplish before he dies.

[Aseahawkfan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWqzZ3I2cY

Jeff Bezos Lex Fridman podcast. One of his longer and more informative interviews if you want to see how one of the world's most innovative billionaires thinks. If he does buy the Seahawks, you'll have an idea of what type of owner he'll be.

[NorthHawk]

According to PFT who used the public data from the Packers each team made $400M.
If Bezos took even 25% of that it would be a nice injection in cash for his space program.