Cross Bill Gates off the list of super rich potential buyers for the Seattle Seahawks.
Gates said he has no interest in owning the NFL franchise that Paul Allen, his late Microsoft co-founder, purchased in 1997 and which is now seeking a new buyer, eight years after Allen’s death.
The question came up this week during a town hall meeting with Gates Foundation employees, The Seattle Times reported. Gates said his billions are dedicated to the philanthropic organization.
“This is a great city,” Gates said. “But my owning a sports team will not be a part of how I spend my time.”
He also joked about the makeup of the Seahawks.
“I noticed they only have men on their team, and I’m not sure I can go with that,” Gates said at the meeting, according to the Times.
The gathering with staff at the foundation included an apology from Gates for his past interactions with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Gates, who acknowledged that the situation puts the foundation’s reputation at risk, also admitted to two extramarital affairs.
With the Super Bowl-winning Seahawks expected to fetch anywhere from $6 billion to more than $10 billion, Gates logically landed on a short list of potential buyers because of his Seattle connection and his net worth of $107 billion.
Gates always regarded Allen as his more curious and cooler older friend. While the two bonded over computers and software and, later, their charitable pursuits, Gates admired Allen’s wide-ranging interests, including music and sports.
“Sports was another passion that Paul loved to share with his friends,” Gates wrote in a tribute shortly after Allen died in October 2015. “In later years he would take me to see his beloved Portland Trail Blazers and patiently helped me understand everything that was happening on the court.”
A 2003 image from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer shows Gates and Allen sitting beneath the basket at a game between the Seattle SuperSonics and Trail Blazers, alongside Gates’s wife at the time, Melinda French Gates.
While Gates said this week that he hopes the Seahawks get a good owner, the Times noted that he’d also like to see Seattle get a basketball team again.
But it doesn’t look like it’ll be one he owns.
Related:
- Seattle Seahawks are for sale as Paul Allen estate seeks buyer shortly after Super Bowl win
- Podcast: Debating who could emerge as potential buyers for the Seahawks
- When the Seattle Seahawks sell, will any tech execs step up for the 12s?
- Want to own a piece of the Seahawks? Seattle startup presents its private equity idea to fans
