The-Ave.US

Bob Condotta at the Seattle Times just wrote a piece on whether Jeff Bezos should buy the Seattle Seahawks. 

I have a different question.
Why and how should any dead man be able to own a football team? 

Since Paul Allen’s death  on October 2018,  the Seahawks have insisted the team is not for sale. Apparently the owner now is Allen’s ghost ..a trust that lives on forever like a vampire or a good spirit appearing dimly  in pictures of the games made here at the Seahawks stadium (see my picture to the left).

Dead Paul is not really a hit on Paul Allen. However, it is very hard to imagine Mr. Allen, as a ghost, smiling as the real Mr. Allen did when in 2014 his team won a superbowl. The Seahawks need a living owner and the country needs Senator Warren’s wealth tax!

The living Paul Allen purchased the Seahawks in 1997.  King county even took a vote (paid for by Mr. Allen)  so we now tax payers to subsidize Paul’s purchase.  Good thing too,  even though he got the team for the bargain basement price of $194 million, today it is only worth  $2.8 billion.  Is a 1200% increase really much for an investment over 23 years?  Meanwhile Dead Paul is worth $20.3 billion.

Of course Dead Paul has lots of other assets … like about a third of Seattle owned by VULCAN .. a real estate venture created back when Paul had spent a few billons so badly that he was rated as the wealthy American with the most losses ever.  Today, VULCAN owns most of the north side of the city, including a lot of Amazon’s buildings, the UW campus (rented to the UW) and the shores of South Lake Union.   Oh yeh. and then there are several yachts, homes scattered around the world, and a hanger full of antique airplanes.

Now there is one other wrinkle .. as a ghost, Paul does not need to pay taxes!  That $2.6 billion profit he has made from owning the Seahawks is, well, untaxable as long as it stays in the trust!

Bert Kolde with Mr. Allen before the billionaire passed on. According to the Seattle Times, “.Bert Kolde, who was a close friend of Paul Allen’s, remains as the Seahawks’ vice chair and is essentially the daily conduit between Allen and the team. He attends most games, generally sitting in on postgame news conferences.”

Then there is the question of the NFL’s requirement that an owner meet certain ethical standards.  Do these apply to ghosts?  How does one know what dead Paul might be doing in the afterlife?

Maybe one could ask Bert Kolde.  Kolde was a close friend of Paul Allen’s, remains as the Seahawks’ vice-chair and. according to the long article in the Seattle Times, remains the daily conduit between Allen and the team. He attends most games, generally sitting in on post game news conferences.