Which billionaire should we want - or not want - as the next Seahawks owner?

The for-sale sign was more than just a metaphor.

An email was sent out just after 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, stating that the Seattle Seahawks would be sold as the late Paul Allen had stipulated.

Before we get to my not entirely serious list of potential purchasers, I would like to pause for a moment to acknowledge that Paul and his sister Jody were simply the best owners that any fanbase could hope for.

They spent without meddling. They were unfailingly supportive without seeking an ounce of credit publicly.

In a league full of outsized egos and unrealistic expectations, where Jerry Jones is available for interviews after every Cowboys game and Robert Kraft has a Hall of Fame campaign, Paul and then Jody took a very different approach.

Paul was ambitious enough to hire coaches like Mike Holmgren and Pete Carroll and it was only because of Jody’s courage in turning the page on Carroll’s tenure that Seattle was able to get back on top of the league.

Talk about going out on a high note.

So who’s going to be next?

Steve Ballmer?

He’d be great. In fact, he’d my No. 2 overall pick if you let me draft an owner.

The former Microsoft CEO has a passion for sports, roots in Seattle, and he was in Santa Clara for the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory. However, he already owns the L.A. Clippers in addition to being the founder of USAFacts, and he might not be looking to add to his workload at this point.

If he can be tempted, though, it would be a home run, especially because he’s been known to take some … ummm … aggressive tactics when it comes to funding his sports operations. I’ll endure any and all investigations by Pablo Torre without complaint to have Ballmer at the helm.

Jeff Bezos is another name you’re going to hear. The Amazon founder has so much money that he’s actually able to go to outer space. There were reports he looked at buying the Washington Commanders though he ultimately decided against submitting a bid on the franchise.

Now Bezos doesn’t live in Seattle anymore. He did for quite a while, though, and while he used to draw a fair amount of scrutiny for not being sufficiently civic-minded, he has become increasingly philanthropic.

A couple of things give me pause, though.

No. 1, the culture at Amazon is notoriously competitive. That may help explain why the company has been so successful. It also may explain why – when I used to work in the South Lake Union neighborhood – I would regularly hear folks who worked at the company express how miserable they were while waiting to pay for their lunch at Whole Foods. In my experience, that’s not the kind of culture that works in a professional sports operation.

No. 2, Bezos’s stewardship of The Washington Post isn’t exactly encouraging. He purchased the paper in 2013, taking over one of this country’s most respected news companies. Last month’s round of mass layoffs serve as a cautionary tale of what can happen when a tech bro wanders off into a different sector of the economy.

Bezos isn’t the worst option, however.

He would be better than Howard Schultz, though I will admit that there is a small part of me that hopes the tall drip decides to pop his head up and declare he’s potentially interested.

It would be enjoyable to watch him get laughed out of the room. Maybe even more enjoyable than the collective yawn that greeted his 2019 announcement that he was “seriously thinking of running for president.” That resulted in some good jokes about how he’d spend a few years whining about everything before selling the country to China. His political aspirations also prompted the revelation that from 2005 to 2019, he had voted in only 11 of 38 elections.

No, I’m afraid not even Howard is shameless enough to ask for a second shot at owning a Seattle sports franchise, so I don’t think we have to worry about him.

The truth is the NFL will ultimately have a strong hand in the next owner, and there have been some specific examples of teams being purchased by people who are already minority owners of other clubs. David Tepper, who now owns the Panthers, previously owned a minority share of the Steelers, as did Jimmy Haslam, who now owns the Browns.

As for my dream owner? Well, it’s actually dream owners, plural: MacKenzie Scott and Melinda Gates.

I would love to have the better halves of our region’s foremost dorks atop the Seahawks pecking order.

Let Jeff play astronaut and leave Bill to evade the questions about Jeffrey Epstein. We’ve seen the generosity of Melinda and MacKenzie through their philanthropy and watched as they’ve expanded their impact in many different directions.

I think they would make a hell of a pair atop an NFL franchise. Certainly better than their respective exes.

Danny O’Neil was born in Oregon, the son of a logger, but had the good sense to attend college in Washington. He’s covered Seattle sports for 20 years, writing for two newspapers, one glossy magazine and hosting a daily radio show for eight years on KIRO 710 AM. You can subscribe to his free newsletter and find his other work at dannyoneil.com.

This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Which billionaire should we want - or not want - as the next Seahawks owner?."