Report: Paul Allen stipulated that proceeds from sale of Seahawks go to charity

Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, who died last month at 65 years old, did quite a bit of good while he was living.

And even in death, Allen wants to make sure his money goes toward good deeds.

When the Seattle Seahawks are sold, the proceeds will go to the foundation of late owner Paul G. Allen, shown here in 2017. (AP)
When the Seattle Seahawks are sold, the proceeds will go to the foundation of late owner Paul G. Allen, shown here in 2017. (AP)

Proceeds from Seahawks sale to go to foundation

Citing sources, NFL Networks’ Ian Rapoport reported on Sunday that while the Seahawks are not currently for sale (the Portland Trail Blazers, which Allen also owned, aren’t currently for sale either), when the franchise is sold, it was Allen’s plan that the proceeds go to his eponymous foundation.

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In other words, the money will go to charity, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

All NFL owners must file a succession plan; Rapoport writes “the belief” is that Allen’s plan included the stipulation about financial proceeds.

Billons headed to foundation

Allen died last month from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, just a couple of weeks after publicly announcing that the cancer he’d successfully fought years previously had returned.

A Washington state native, Allen bought the Seahawks in 1997 for $194 million, in part to keep the franchise in the city. Forbes’ latest valuation assessed the team at $2.58 billion. Given that the Carolina Panthers sold earlier this year for $2.2 billion, the Seahawks could likely go for well over $3 billion and attract numerous suitors.

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Allen was never married and did not have children; his sister, Jody, and her three adult children are his closest family.

Allen gave often, gave much

A co-founder of Microsoft (though he left the company decades earlier) and one of the richest men in the world, Allen donated over $2 billion to various causes during his life.

Through the Allen Family Foundation, which combined all of Allen’s charitable causes, he donated $30 million for a building dedicated to helping homeless families in Seattle, founded the Allen Institute for Brain Science, which is dedicated to understanding the human brain, gave $100 million to eradicate the ebola virus in Africa, and dozens of other initiatives.

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