The Seattle Seahawks are officially up for sale, while the publicly traded owner of the New York Knicks and Rangers is considering a spinoff to split its teams into separate listed companies.

• 🤑 Why it matters: Professional sports franchises have long functioned as trophy assets for billionaire owners, but skyrocketing valuations are presenting opportunities shareholders increasingly can't ignore.

Zoom in: The Seahawks, fresh off a Super Bowl victory, announced today it had commenced a formal sale process.

• The team is owned by the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. It was Allen's wish to sell it — eventually — when he died in 2018, with proceeds earmarked for philanthropy.
• But "eventually" may have been accelerated by a surge in valuation, Bloomberg noted last month.

Between the lines: Three years ago, Jody Allen, the estate's executor, said there was no timeline for a sale, and she suggested her brother's estate could take up to 20 years to unwind.

• But valuations have soared since then, thanks in part to massive new league media deals and a surge in dealmaking since the NFL allowed private equity firms to hold ownership stakes.
• The Seahawks sit in the middle of the pack in NFL team valuations, per Sportico. But at about $6.6 billion, the team's sale could become the largest NFL deal ever.

Madison Square Garden Sports, meanwhile, is also seeing an opportunity that may be too good to pass up.

• Its problem: Despite its own shares growing 65% over the past 12 months, its $7 billion valuation falls short of the combined value for its two prized assets —the Knicks and Rangers.
• "The possible transaction would enable shareholders to more clearly evaluate each company's assets and growth prospects, while providing both companies with enhanced strategic and financial flexibility," the company said in a statement.

JPMorgan Chase plans to open 160 new U.S. branches in 2026, even as the industry overall steadily shrinks its physical footprint.

• Why it matters: While visiting a branch to get cash is increasingly unnecessary, brick-and-mortar branches still serve as a critical nexus between customers and their banks.

Between the lines: Chase's announcement today is part of a broader plan announced in 2024 to open 500 new branches and renovate 1,700 within three years.

• It's unclear how many of the 160 openings will translate into net growth. A Chase spokesperson told Axios the bank's total branch count is expected to "continue to increase over time."

State of play: Banks have been steadily closing branches for more than a decade as mobile banking has surged.

• The number of U.S. bank branches per adult has fallen by 28% since its peak in 2009, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
• For Chase, 2026 would mark the fifth straight year of net branch openings, according to public filings.

Go deeper

⚖️ Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in an LA social media trial that the company does not seek to make Instagram addictive to younger users. (NBC News)

👕 Etsy is selling Depop, a secondhand clothing app, to eBay for $1.2 billion. (NYT)

A federal judge in Illinois added a little sauce to his decision to dismiss a lawsuit over boneless chicken wings, Axios Chicago co-author Justin Kaufmann writes.

The latest: District Judge John J. Tharp, Jr. dismissed a suit brought by Aimen Halim against Buffalo Wild Wings.

• Halim sued BWW, saying he was misled by the term "boneless wings," thinking he was buying deboned wings rather than nuggets.

The intrigue: The judge wrote his opinion with lots of chicken-based puns.

What they're saying: "What's in a name? If we called a wing by any other name, would it smell as sweet?" Tharp wrote.

🔥 Here are a few more nuggets from his ruling:

• "Halim sued BWW over his confusion, but his complaint has no meat on its bones."
• "He says he's not the only one for whom BWW's boneless wings failed to 'meat' expectations."
• "Despite his best efforts, Halim did not 'drum' up enough factual allegations to state a claim."

What's next: The judge is giving Halim until March 20 to revise his complaint.

The bottom line: If you're gonna rule on chicken wings, you may as well make it spicy.

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