After months of increasingly strained relations between the City of Portland and the Trail Blazers organization, the team claims to be undecided on whether or not they will meet with City officials at a Thursday Aug. 30 public work session to discuss terms of a deal that would fund renovations of the Moda Center.
The Blazers are seeking roughly $600M in public funding and have yet to commit any private capital to the effort.
Jason Quick of The Athletic was told by Portland City Council President Jamie
Dunphy that the team wouldn’t attend Thursday’s work session:
“We have been told verbally by the Blazers leadership that they will not be attending, and that they will not be responding to my invitation in writing,” Dunphy told The Athletic. “Additionally, we still have not received any requested documentation ahead of our work session. Without that information or the participation of the Blazers, I’m not sure what purpose the work session can even serve. Very disappointing.”
After Quick published the story, Blazers President Dewayne Hankins told a slightly different tale:
Blazers team president Dewayne Hankins said a decision has not yet been made whether the Blazers will attend Thursday’s city council meeting.
“We were just talking to the city administrator’s staff, figuring out the best way to move forward and show up on Thursday,” Hankins said.
At the heart of the disagreement: the City says they want details on how the Blazers plan to spend nearly $600M in public money to make improvements to the Moda Center. The Blazers, in response, have said they can only release those details once they hire an architect using money committed from that $600M.
“We have no substantive information about what they want, what they don’t want or what a successful partnership with the city, county and state would look like,” Dunphy said. “We heard through the press that they were dissatisfied with the term sheet, but got no feedback.
“It feels like they are either disinterested in transparency and accountability with public dollars, which is a nonstarter, or they are simply going through the motions to run out the clock and burn any remaining goodwill in the city and wait for the government to give them an excuse and move the team,” Dunphy said. “I can make a guess which it is, but have no concrete details to tell me this. In life, I always try to assume the best and not assume malicious intent, but this doesn’t seem like incompetence. It seems intentional.”
Dunphy is not alone in his call for more information. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, who has publicly championed a deal and was among the few Portland officials who attended a late June event at the Moda Center hosted by the Portland Metro Chamber that featured Blazers majority governor Tom Dundon, wrote recently that there is an “absence of essential details from the Blazers.”
“From the start, the City has committed to striking the best deal for Portland. The Blazers are our tenant. We’re their landlord. We value them, and we recognize that we need each other for the long‑term. We are continuing to engage in a community‑driven process as we approach a City Council vote in August.
“We are operating on an aggressive timeline to reach a new lease, and we have been explicit with the Blazers that design information and clarity around public investment are necessary to move forward. The absence of essential details from the Blazers is slowing progress at a moment when urgency is required. We know that the NBA is committed to Portland and we look forward to working with them to ensure negotiations on a renovated Moda Center and a new long-term lease happen in good faith.”
While public testimony is not taken at work sessions, you can tune into the City’s live stream of the meeting or attend in person at City Hall at 9:30am this Thu. Aug. 30.
