This much is not in dispute: The Moda Center needs upgrades. The 31-year-old home to the Portland Trail Blazers feels dated the moment you walk in, both for a fan experience and the back of the house. Everyone agrees that renovations and upgrades are needed, with the NBA pushing to get it done.
The question of who is going to pay for that has led to a bit of an Old West showdown between the City and the Trail Blazers — in particular, new owner Tom Dundon — and has raised questions about whether his real goal is to move the Trail Blazers out of Portland.
What is the core issue?
The Trail Blazers want $600 million from various government agencies for renovations and upgrades to the Moda Center, which is owned by the city of Portland (it purchased it for literally $1 from the Paul Allen estate).
The Trail Blazers and billionaire owner Tom Dundon plan to contribute none of their own money.
“It feels like we’re making a pretty big investment by staying here and paying these tax rates,” Dundon reportedly said at a meeting of the Portland Metro Chamber being held at the Moda Center.
Government agencies have stepped up. The Oregon State legislature already approved $365 million in funding for the upgrades, but it’s contingent on the City of Portland ($120 million) and Multnomah County ($88 million) pitching in as well. If either of the local entities does not pony up, the state money goes away at the end of 2026.
The Portland City Council has said that before it votes to approve its $120 million for the renovation, it wants a few things, including the Trail Blazers to tell them how they are going to spend that money and what the upgrades look like. The Trail Blazers have given no such plans, saying they already had a handshake agreement with the city to approve the funding, plus the city should pay for an architect to help come up with the plans for the building it owns.
That is not all. The city also wanted the Trail Blazers to sign a 20-year lease to stay in Portland, commit to using union workers for the renovations and at things like concession stands during games, and pay a $3 million-a-year fee to help offset the property taxes. The Trail Blazers have said those final two demands are a non-starter.
It should be noted that the city takes the bulk of the parking revenue from the building and there is a six percent fee on every ticket sold to a Trail Blazers game, with that money going back to upgrade the arena (reportedly $4 million last year).
This is usually the part where the two sides negotiate and come to a compromise, and a deal gets done. Except, there seems to be no negotiation and the Trail Blazers are playing hardball. With the state money going away at the end of the year, Dundon and the Trail Blazers believe they have all the leverage.
Would the Trail Blazers move?
What has some people on edge is that the Pacific Northwest has seen this movie before. From the outside, it’s easy to see how Dundon appears to be using the Clay Bennett ownership playbook — he and his group bought the Seattle SuperSonics with the intention from the start of moving the franchise to Oklahoma City. Get in a fight with the city because the billionaire wants massive arena upgrades, and if you don’t get your way, move the team (and the other owners will back you because they will want to leverage their cities in the future).
Maybe that is Dundon’s ultimate plan, but executing it would be very difficult.
First, where would the Trail Blazers go? The two most logical destinations — Seattle and Las Vegas — are about to get expansion teams, and the other owners are not going to let Dundon get in the way of those expansion fees that will be a cash windfall for owners and franchises. One suggestion was that he could move the team across the country to Raleigh, North Carolina, where Dundon’s NHL team, the Hurricanes, play. The problem there is the Charlotte Hornets are just 150 miles away and would have a say. Dundon lives in Austin, but the Dallas Mavericks are a couple of hundred miles away.
Second, speaking of expansion, the NBA is finally moving another team to the Pacific Northwest with the Seattle expansion team coming in a couple of years, helping deal with a travel issue for the league and the Trail Blazers — no team is more geographically isolated than Portland. Move them out and move Seattle in and the league has the same issue.
Finally, there is a process for moving a team. It involves the Trail Blazers formally applying to move (and paying $250,000), Commissioner Adam Silver putting together a committee of other owners to study the move, then that committee would make a recommendation to the other owners for a vote. One of the questions that committee asks is whether the city’s fan base still supports the team, and that is without question in Portland. The fan base loves the Trail Blazers, this is a passionate group.
This process has stopped a team from moving before: In 2013, a group wanted to purchase the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle, but the league stepped in. Ultimately, with Silver in a lead role (as a deputy commissioner, David Stern was still running the show), they found a local owner in Vivek Ranadive who not only bought the team and kept it in Sacramento, but he ultimately built a new arena that is one of the best in the league.
What happens now?
Negotiations and votes.
Multnomah County commissioners have scheduled a vote on Aug. 6 on its $88 million in funding. Next, Portland’s city council is scheduled to vote on its $120 million on Aug. 12, although that could be pushed back depending upon negotiations.
The real deadline is the end of the year, when the state funding goes away if the city and county haven’t approved their deals.
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