The Seattle Seahawks had been looking for a new owner since February, and the wait finally ended when Vinod Khosla and his family agreed to buy the team. After owner Paul Allen’s death in 2018, his major sports assets were up for sale. NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers were sold this year for $4.1 billion to Tom Dundon, and now the $9.6 billion franchise has also found its owner. However, here’s the real question: what actually interests buyers for NFL teams?

The $9.6 billion acquisition is one of the biggest sports team sales ever and is close to the $10 billion that Mark Walter paid to buy the Los Angeles Lakers. Khosla, who was born in India, has a net worth of $13.7 billion according to Forbes and has beaten several other bidders like billionaire Aditya Mittal to win the deal.

One factor that adds to this move is the  Seahawks 2025 season Super Bowl win, which made them one of the NFL’s most valuable teams. The official ownership of the Seattle Seahawks will go to them on August 26, 2026, but the controlling order is already decided. Neeru Khosla will become the Seahawks’ controlling owner. She is the co-founder and chair of the CK12 Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works in education.

Their son, Neal Khosla, who is the CEO of Curai, will also have a leadership role with the team. But even with this, the NFL has strict ownership rules. The main owner, called the control owner, must own at least 30% of the team. An NFL team can have other owners, but it cannot have more than 25 owners in total, including the control owner, individuals, families, and private equity investors.

Plus, the league also limits team debt to $1.5 billion, and institutional investors can own up to 10% of the franchise. The Khosla family has not shared how they are paying for the Seahawks. But here comes the question of why Vinod Khosla invested so much in the Seattle Seahawks.

Why buy the Seahawks now?

Last year, Sportico valued the Seattle Seahawks at $6.59 billion. But less than a year later, the team sold for $9.6 billion, showing how valuable NFL teams have become. One of the reasons behind this surge is TV and media rights.

Every team earns a large amount of money each year from national TV deals, sponsorships, and other league-wide revenue, which is shared among all 32 teams. Because of this steady income, NFL teams usually make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit every year.

The NFL’s TV business has grown a lot over the years. In 1961, the league signed a two-year TV deal with CBS worth only $9.1 million total [$4.65M per year over two years]. Today, the NFL earns more than $10 billion every year from its media-rights deals. The league has TV and streaming partnerships with ABC (Disney), CBS, Fox, NBCUniversal, NFL Network, Amazon, and Google. According to the FCC, these long-term contracts will bring the NFL more than $100 billion in media-rights money over the life of the deals.

Then comes another reason – the NFL shares a large amount of its money equally among all 32 teams, which helps owners avoid major financial losses. In the 2025 season, every team received $432.6 million from the NFL, with most of that money coming from the league’s huge television deals.

NFL teams also make a lot of money from premium seating, luxury suites, club seats, and other special stadium experiences.

On top of that, the NFL is also growing its business outside the US to earn more. To support this, the NFL launched its Global Markets Program in 2022, and now all 32 NFL teams are part of the program, covering 22 international markets.

The NFL has become a billionaire’s safest investment

Vinod Khosla knows the kind of risk he is taking. He has invested in companies like DoorDash, Affirm, and Opendoor. And because of this, most of his wealth has come from startups. But owning an NFL team offers a stable and predictable cash flow through media rights and in many other ways.

The league is also growing very quickly. The NFL generated about $23 billion in revenue in the 2025 fiscal year. Commissioner Roger Goodell set a goal back in 2010 for the league to reach $25 billion in annual revenue by 2027, and it is now very close to achieving that target. Even if the league’s yearly growth slows to around 4.3%, the NFL is still expected to reach $25 billion in revenue during the 2026 league year, which ends in March 2027.

NFL teams rarely go up for sale, so chances to buy one are very rare. According to Sportico, the Seattle Seahawks were only the fourth NFL team to officially be put on the market in the last 10 years.

Besides the league’s shared revenue, teams can earn extra money locally. For example, the Green Bay Packers earned it in 2025 because they hosted nine regular-season home games instead of eight in 2025. This increased their revenue from $654.1 million to $719.1 million.

So, this way, owning one NFL team helps in many ways.

One franchise, multiple balance sheets

The Seattle Seahawks have several means to earn from. The team is not just dependent on shared media revenue. In 2022, the Seattle Seahawks signed a long-term deal with KING 5, making it the team’s official local TV station.

The Seattle Seahawks also have several big sponsorship deals with well-known companies. Lumen has the naming rights to Lumen Field and also works with the team as a technology partner. Boeing is a longtime sponsor and presents the Seahawks’ training camp every year. Toyota is the team’s official car partner, while Delta Air Lines is its official airline.

Coca-Cola supplies the team’s official soft drinks, T-Mobile is the official telecommunications partner, and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health serves as the Seahawks’ official healthcare partner. Another way of earning comes through the stadium. Lumen Field, the home of the Seattle Seahawks, can hold about 68,740 fans, and it offers many premium seating options, including full-season suites, single-game suites, field seats, the EQC Tunnel Club, Toyota Reserve Club, and Delta Sky360° Club seats.

They also added new technology to improve the fan experience, like 15 Amazon Just Walk Out concession stands. Now, with premium options, they also have a future business model.  The Seahawks’ lease at Lumen Field runs through 2031, with options to extend it for three more 10-year terms, giving future owners flexibility for future stadium and real estate.

However, every good thing comes with a price. Vinod Khosla already has experience as an NFL team owner. In 2025, he bought the largest minority stake in the San Francisco 49ers as part of a group of local investors, when the team was valued at more than $8.5 billion.

But NFL rules do not allow one person to own part of two different NFL teams. Because of that, Khosla must sell his stake in the 49ers before the Seahawks deal can be completed.

The move highlights how exclusive NFL ownership has become; even existing investors must give up one coveted asset to acquire another. But in the end, it’s a win-win situation for both.