Allen, before dying in 2018 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, had requested his sports holdings — the Blazers and Seattle Seahawks included — be sold with all estate proceeds going towards philanthropy. His younger sister, Jody Allen, has served as executor and trustee of his estate — as well as quasi-owner of the teams. In an announcement today, the estate said that only the Trail Blazers, not the Seahawks or the estate’s 25% interest in the Seattle Sounders, are for sale.
The estate has chosen Allen & Company and the law firm Hogan Lovells to oversee the sale, which is expected to last into the 2025-26 season. As far back as a year ago, the Trail Blazers were reportedly valued at $3.28B. But since then, the Celtics have been tentatively sold to Bill Chisholm for a record $6.1B, and, in 2023, the Suns and WNBA’s Mercury ($4B) and the Bucks ($3.5B) went for above that number.
Prevailing opinion in Portland has been that the estate was waiting for the league to complete its 11-year, $77B national media rights deal last summer before placing the team on the open market –and would perhaps even wait for the NBA to expand to earn the lucrative expansion fees. But others believe the record Celtics sales price was even more of a prudent reason for the estate to act now.
Asked in general about the Celtics sale in an interview with Sirius NBA radio Monday night, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said: “At this point now they’ve begun to present the financials to the league and there’s real confidence in that deal now in terms of the transition into new ownership here … I think in addition [what we] wanted to understand from the Celtic sale process what the marketplace looked like. I’ve had an opportunity to talk directly to the Celtics advisors to understand the level of interest. And not surprisingly, based on in part the price for that team, there was tremendous interest. Now, the Celtics are a historic franchise, not just in the NBA, but in all of sports. And so it was a reaffirmation though that there’s tremendous interest in NBA ownership.”
For more information see Tom Friend “Estate of Paul Allen formally puts Trail Blazers up for sale,” Sports Business Journal, May 13, 2025.
Special thanks to David S. Luber (Florida Probate Attorney) for bringing this article to my attention.