Seahawks shutout win also big for Federal Way car dealer

A Federal Way car dealer is getting national attention after the Seahawks shutout on Sunday meant they they’d have to make a $420,000 payout to raffle winners.

The dealership sponsored a raffle with a dozen $35,000 winners if Seattle shut out New York.

Jim Johnson, co-owner of Jet Chevrolet, tells KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that they had insurance for the contest, so won’t be paying the winnings out of their own pockets.

“We’re a pretty small family store and we couldn’t shell out that kind of money ourselves,” says Johnson.

While Johnson tried to stay mum about how much they’d paid for the contest insurance, Monson was able to determine it was around $7,000.

“So for your $7,000 or so investment, you’re getting a million dollars worth of publicity now,” Monson points out.

“Yeah it’s really, really exciting. It’s gone crazy,” says Johnson who watched their story lead Good Morning America on Monday.

“We’ve even had phone calls for interviews from a radio station in Montreal, Canada. But they needed somebody here who speaks French,” says Johnson. “We didn’t have anybody here out of 60 employees, nobody speaks French.”

But their story has been all over the country, and their dealership will be full of reporters and cameras this afternoon when 12 lucky winners are awarded $35,000.

“It will be a pretty good little Christmas bonus for 12 people,” says Johnson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.