Earlier this week, in what can only be described as an encouraging sign, Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon met with City of Portland representatives after a Trail Blazers preseason game. Those two sides are negotiating Moda Center renovations and a new lease for the team that extends out 20 years. Earlier this summer, it would have been polite to call those negotiations "contentious," with a veiled threat of team relocation hanging over the talks, but the temperature appears to have cooled down.
Another good sign, what Dundon told Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.
"We are working to keep the team in Portland," Dundon said by text message. "That is the priority."
It hasn't always felt that way to Trail Blazers faithful/ Dundon's numerous penny-pinching moves since taking over the Trail Blazers have been an embarrassment and reminded people what they dislike most about private equity and billionaires. The most recent example was lowballing and pushing out the door beloved and elite television play-by-play man Kevin Calabro, hiring but not properly vetting 29-year-old replacement Braiden Bell, then firing Bell less than 24 hours later after old mysognistic/racists social media posts came to light, then eventually hiring Trail Blazers radio veteran Travis Demers but only on a temporary, game-by-game or trial basis. Even if the Trail Blazers eventually landed in the right place, they embarrassed themselves getting there.
Part of the concern about Dundon was that this was the movie Major League come to life — he was making moves to frustrate the fan base so he could move the team to a place he felt was a friendlier business environment. That was also always going to be a far more difficult process in reality than it was on paper.
"I want to be very direct about it: I would see it as a failure if we did not keep the team in Portland," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said this summer. "I've spent a lot of time in that community over the years. They've shown amazing support for the Trail Blazers. They're some of our best fans around the league."
Still, it's a negotiation between the Trail Blazers and Portland. While a series of government agencies at the state, county and city level have stepped forward with nearly $600 million for needed Moda Center renovations, the terms of the renovations and new lease with the city had sticking points. Among them:
• A $3 million annual rent charge.
• The City of Portland gets a 6% tax on each game ticket sold as well as every parking fee at the building. The team believes this is too high.
• The city wants the Trail Blazers to agree to hire union workers for the renovations and construction process, as well as for concession workers on game night.
• The Trail Blazers want increased security in and around the arena on game night and for the city to pay for that.
The sides are talking, and the public rhetoric seems to have cooled, which is a good sign. The deadline is the end of the year, when the state money dedicated to the renovations would go away. Like most negotiations, don't be surprised if this one goes down to the wire.