New Seahawks owner Khosla addresses Lumen Field and more

The sale of the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks to a group led by Vinod Khosla was approved with a unanimous vote by NFL owners on Wednesday.

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After the vote, Khosla answered questions by reporters who attended the special NFL meeting in Atlanta. One in particular was of note regarding Lumen Field, the home stadium of the Seahawks since it opened in 2002, especially after an article by ESPN’s Seth Wickersham in May raised the potential that a need to eventually replace Lumen Field could be a consideration for prospective buyers.

Khosla’s response about Lumen Field’s future didn’t commit one way or the other, but did hint at a desire to keep the Seahawks and their longtime stadium connected by calling Lumen Field “iconic and very much a part of the Seahawks’ brand,” per NFL.com.

“Obviously, we’re not owners yet and we need to learn a lot more, but we will work with management and with others and with the community in Seattle to hopefully preserve this iconic brand,” Khosla said.

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The Indian-born Khosla and his family still have a little business to tend to before the sale is official, including relinquishing a 3.1% ownership stake in the San Francisco 49ers that was purchased last year.

Here are a few other things Khosla said Wednesday, as reported by Seahawks.com’s John Boyle and The Associated Press, in the wake of his group buying the Seahawks for a record $9.612 billion from the trust of late team owner Paul Allen.

A ‘gift’ that is right on time

“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.”

Keep it going

“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. We’ll just be in learning mode for quite some time.”

Connection with the community

“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 we’ll engage a lot more with the community also.”

“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.”

Football fandom

“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 (Khosla’s son Neal) was 5, maybe half of all home games since he was 5. And so football is definitely a passion. … I was originally and still am a big Steelers fan. … Little known fact, but I still watch all the Steelers games, too.”

Making the switch

“We’re 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 Seattle tech community for a long time, so it was pretty easy to make the jump.”

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