The city of Portland slid a term sheet across the table Friday — 20 years, $600 million in public money for Moda Center renovations — and the Trail Blazers shoved it right back. Two team sources told The Athletic the proposal is dead on arrival, with conditions the franchise has no intention of accepting.
“The term sheet is a non-starter,” one Blazers source said. “I don’t know why they sent it to us, because they know very little of the stuff we would agree to. They are playing politics at this point.”
Here’s what Portland wants in exchange for the cash: a $3 million annual property tax payment that escalates over time, union labor on the renovation, and caps on cost overruns. The Blazers board of directors meets Monday to chart a response. The city council is scheduled to vote on the funding package Aug. 12. And ticking in the background is a Dec. 31 deadline — miss it and $365 million in state funding evaporates.
That state money, secured in March, was supposed to be the hard part. The Blazers believed they had a handshake agreement with Mayor Keith Wilson and Multnomah County to unlock the remaining local funds — $120 million from the city, $88 million from the county. City administrator spokesman Elliott Kozuch confirmed there was momentum in March but said council and county approval was always required to formalize anything. Whatever understanding existed then has since curdled.
Councilor Mitch Green didn’t mince words about the franchise’s posture. “I think the Blazers have been behaving poorly,” he said. “They thought because they passed the state legislature that the deal was done. But we have a set of councilors who are asking tough questions.”
The Blazers’ reluctance to share detailed renovation plans stems from two things, according to team sources: most of their concepts are still just ideas, and they’re still steaming over councilor Steve Novick’s June threat to sue the team for failing to maintain Moda Center as a first-class venue. One source said the team won’t engage with the term sheet until that legal threat is withdrawn, fearing anything they disclose could be weaponized in a lawsuit.
“On the one hand, they say we haven’t kept the building up,” the source said. “But at the same time, they are saying, ‘What’s wrong with the building?’ There’s a lot of talking out of both sides of their mouth.”
What the Blazers have floated conceptually: a new atrium entrance on the arena’s north side to improve crowd flow, kitchens on all three concourse levels instead of the current single kitchen, elimination of some 300-level seating to build a bar, and upgrades to club-level seating. Nothing formal has been submitted to the city.
Meanwhile, a Blazers source said the team has been studying recent arena deals in Oklahoma City and Utah and may seek an entirely new agreement — possibly even a new arena in Portland. The source called the original $600 million framework “a way-below-market deal.”
The lease runs through 2030. New owner Tom Dundon has never mentioned relocation, according to two high-ranking team sources. “No one with the Blazers has ever said we want to move,” one said. “We don’t want that. We want to stay in Portland.”
Green, for his part, said the specter of Dundon packing up doesn’t change his calculus. “Every indication I read about Tom Dundon is that he makes decisions based almost solely upon whether or not it’s going to increase his profit,” Green said. He added that if Dundon covered the $120 million city contribution himself, “that would probably get us to the finish line tomorrow.”
Instead, both sides are dug in, each convinced the other needs this deal more. The clock says Dec. 31. The lease says 2030. And a fanbase that has watched this franchise since 1970 is left reading tea leaves about whether the business of basketball will leave them without a team to watch.