The Seattle Seahawks are just about at the finish line as far as transitioning franchise ownership from the Allen family to the Khosla family.
In a special league meeting in Atlanta on Wednesday, NFL owners unanimously approved the Khoslas as the next owners of the reigning Super Bowl champion. While the $9.612 billion sale is not expected to close until early September, a press conference was still held to introduce the would-be new owners, which includes Sun Microsystems co-founder and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, his wife and would-be controlling owner, Neeru, and their son, Neal. Their daughter, Nina, was also part of the event.
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Here’s what was said in the first presser! We’ll presumably get a press conference again when the sale is closed and they’re inside the VMAC building.
Vinod Khosla’s opening statement
“It’s a great honor to be here. I do want to start by thanking Jody Allen and the Allen Trust for trusting us with this franchise. Roger has been incredibly helpful, and the NFL staff has been incredibly helpful in getting here. As Roger said, it’s pretty simple when the team is functioning as well as it is today. How often do you get to buy a franchise that just won the Super Bowl? So, we are incredibly lucky and humbled by this gift, I would say, from the Allen Trust.
“Having been to Lumen Field and watching the 12s everywhere, I do want to thank them for their passion and fervor, and the community in Seattle is incredibly valuable, so we hope to engage a lot more with the community also.
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“The task ahead is actually pretty simple: keep the winning streak alive, get another Super Bowl. That’s simple. In general, our approach is generally going to be long-term focused, that’s our inclination always. So, keep winning, take a long-term approach, and learn a lot. We don’t know enough, and the other owners have been incredibly welcoming and willing to teach us, so we’ll learn a lot. We’ll learn from management and see what they are recommending. So we’ll just be in learning mode for quite some time.”
The Khosla family’s ties to the San Francisco 49ers, football fandom
Vinod Khosla: “Well, we are huge fans of football and these opportunities, especially Super Bowl winning teams, seldom come along. So, we were very excited to have the opportunity and I’ve been tied to the Seattle tech community for a long time and so it was pretty easy to make the jump.”
Neeru Khosla: “To add to that, if I might add to that, see that guy on my left? Not this one, [our son Neal Khosla]. He’s been a big fan of sports and in particular football. So he’s wanted forever to get involved in in actually strategizing and kind of doing something about that. So he’s the one who actually really pushed us into doing this. He’s worked really hard. So I’m very proud of him.”
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Vinod Khosla: “We’ve been very passionate about football for a long time. I would say we’ve been going to home games at the 49ers since [he was] five. Maybe half of all home games since he was five. And so football is definitely a passion.
“I also happened to come to this country in ’76 when the Steelers were winning the Super Bowl. So actually I was originally and still am a big Steelers fan also. Little known fact, but I still watch all the Steelers games, too.”
Vinod Khosla’s message to Seahawks fans
“I just want to say a big thank you for being such a passionate fanbase. It’s actually pretty incredible, it’s the best fanbase in the country of any NFL team. The 12s are such an iconic brand, it’s hard to not be honored and humbled by inheriting that and being part of that fanbase.”
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Vinod Khosla on the future of Lumen Field
“Well, first, Lumen Field is iconic and very much a part of the Seahawks brand.
“So, that’s all I will say for now. Obviously we are not owners yet and we need to learn a lot more but we will work with management and with others, and the community in Seattle to hopefully preserve this iconic brand.”
Watch the full video below!
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And yes, by the way, he is active on social media.
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