Seahawks’ Sale Closer, Latest Reports Indicate
The sale of the Seattle Seahawks by Ken Behring to Paul Allen is drawing closer.
“Both the buyer and seller want to resolve this before the end of the month,” King County Council member Peter von Reichbauer said Tuesday night.
Von Reichbauer refused comment on a KOMO-TV report that a $200 million-plus offer from Allen to Behring was on the table.
“Any announcement at this time is premature,” he said.
KOMO quoted unidentified county government sources as saying Allen made an offer of more than $200 million on Tuesday.
Allen aide Bob Whitsitt denied Allen had made an offer to buy the NFL team.
“We’ve never made an offer, and we haven’t discussed if Paul is going to make an offer,” Whitsitt said from Portland. “Paul said back in October that’s something he would look at. But looking at something and buying something are two different things.”
Whitsitt is general manager of Allen’s NBA Portland Trail Blazers.
According to KOMO, the offer by Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp., was either on Behring’s desk or on its way there.
Serious talks began during the weekend, became more intense Monday night and continued Tuesday, KOMO reported.
Besides the price, the payment schedule was under discussion because of tax considerations, KOMO reported.
NFL officials visited Seattle on Monday and met for 2 hours with Seahawks management in Kirkland, KOMO reported. League officials also talked with county government and local business leaders. The NFL delegation told Behring that season tickets needed to be sold soon for the Seahawks to play in the Kingdome in 1996, or the owners would face severe financial penalties, KOMO said.
In Los Angeles, Behring spokesman Alan Elias said he talked to David Behring, the Seahawks’ president and Ken Behring’s son, Tuesday afternoon.
“To the best of my knowledge, we have not received any offers nor are we soliciting any offers for the sale of the team,” Elias said.
More legal maneuvers were pending today in Ken Behring’s efforts to break the team’s Kingdome lease and move the Seahawks to Southern California, and in the county’s efforts to keep the team in town. Each side has sued the other.
Lawyers for both sides were set to argue before the state Supreme Court whether the cases should be heard in King or Kittitas counties.
On Feb. 2, Ken Behring announced he was going to move the Seahawks to California, saying the 20-year-old Kingdome was seismically unsafe and not the first-class facility specified in his lease. King County said the dome was safe and added it would hold Behring to the 10 years remaining on his lease.
Last week, Behring said he would bring his team’s off-season weightlifting operations back from Anaheim, Calif., because of the threat of a $500,000 fine by the NFL. He said he would bring his players back by the first week in April.
The Seahawks players are scheduled to begin lifting weights next week at the team’s headquarters in Kirkland. Trucks carrying the weightlifting equipment are expected to arrive by Sunday.