The Portland Trail Blazers Are Officially For Sale

The Portland Trail Blazers Are Officially For Sale

In today’s show, the Portland Trailblazers are officially for sale. Is this great news? The savior of the franchise on the horizon or a harbinger of things to come? Welcome to Locks on Blazers. Let’s get into [Music] it. You are Locked on Trailblazers, your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What’s up world? It’s your past first point guard and trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond. You’re listening to another episode of Locked on Blazers, part of the Locked On podcast network, available wherever you get podcasts and also on YouTube. Thanks for making this show your first listen. Coming at you each and every weekday, Monday through Friday. So make it a part of your daily routine. Make your first listen and tell your friends to do the same. It’s locked on Blazers, your team every day. And we’ve got big news here in Rip City. You’re listening to Wednesday, May 14th’s program. And on Tuesday, May 13th, the Allen Estate officially announced that the Portland Trailblazers are for sale. They are going on the market in a press release that reads the following. The estate of Paul G. Allen today announced it has commenced a formal sales process for the Portland Trailblazers NBA franchise, consistent with Allen’s directive to eventually sell his sports holdings and direct all estate proceeds to philanthropy. The estate has selected investment bank Allen and Company and law firm Hogan Lavell’s to lead the sales process which is estimated to continue into the 2025 2026 basketball season. The NBA board of governors must then ratify a final purchase agreement. This news does not affect the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise or the estates 25% interest in the Seattle Sounders MLS and neither is for sale. So, it’s just the Trailblazers. It’s not the Seahawks. It’s not the Sounders, but it is indeed your Portland Trailblazers will be sold by the Allen estate. When Paul Allen passed away in 2018, it was stipulated as that uh as that piece as that press release I read you reads, it was stipulated that the teams including the Trailblazers be sold. But at the time, it was a known fact that it would take some time to unravel the complicated and quite large Allen estates. And now 6 and 1/2 years later, the Blazers are beginning that process. Back in 2018, it was assumed that it would take uh it was I believe reported here on the podcast some years later. I didn’t take over doing this really until 2019. I wasn’t really doing this regularly until 2020, but even then um I had reported on the show if you’re like a really longtime listener that uh the idea was it would take about 5 years from Paul Owen’s passing. So that would have been 2023. we’re beyond that threshold and we are now into a place where even if the deal is going to happen, it’s going to happen sometime in the future. Um, a source indicated to me that the expectation, someone familiar with with with how this process will work, a source indicated to me that the uh the estate is anticipating a 9 to 12 month process for um uh for a sale process. So this could take you know 9 months from now which is which would get you pretty deep into the season or a full year which would be after the season for the sale to be complete. So um certainly this into the season means far into the season. I think an example to point to here would be the Boston Celtics sale which we are now 9 months in and while the agreement has happened I don’t believe the sale is like formally formally ratified all real deal Holyfield and finalized although we are getting closer as of this morning in May when when the Celtics appear to be real for real getting sold now the Blazers sale process I guess I didn’t tell you what we’re going to do today we’re going to talk about the Blazers the sale of the team welcome you’re four minutes into the program. That’s all we’re talking about today from every angle. I got you. The Blazers have been rumored um you know to be on the market since the moment Paul Allen passed and it was clear that they would have to indeed sell the teams at some point. And back in 2022, Phil Knights, you may remember him from the Nike Fortune and our richest Oregonian, one of the richest people in the in the United States, along with a do partial owner of the Dodgers, Allen Smolinsky, were the were the two main principal figures of the ownership group. They made a public offer back in 2022 to purchase the Trailblazers. Uh it was, you know, about $2 billion and there was some, you know, and people were like, “Sell to Phil, sell the team.” And it became such a sort of contentious thing. There was a piece in uh the New York Post, kind of a hit piece on Jod Allen and and it became such a contentious thing that Jod Allen released a statement in July of 22 2022 saying publicly that the team was not for sale and it could take up to 10 to 20 years to get the the Allen estate prepared for sale. Basically, buzz off. This is this isn’t for sale. The Seahawks aren’t for sale. Leave us alone. And then according to a story written in the Wall Street Journal, Knight came back a year later in 2023 and even offered to up the price. The Suns had just been sold then in 2023 and Phil Knight came back with Smelinsky and said, “Okay, if the Suns are and the Suns along with the Mercury are valued at about $4 billion, I can get you to $4 billion. We can do this. I’m not like let’s let’s push up towards sort of that if that’s the new going rate for an NBA team, I’m willing to I’m I’m willing to make that purchase at that price. And then a year later and a and a year after Allen had released a public statement according to the Wall Street Journal privately um in conversations Phil Knight and and Smolinsky and the ownership group was rejected in 2023. So, not for 2 billion in 2022, which seems like a little bit of a lower lowish ball offer, but on the lower end, and not for a higher price, although not specifically disclosed what that was in 2023. No, Phil, you can’t purchase the team. And frankly, the value of NBA teams has drastically changed. Paul Allen bought this thing in 1988 for $70 million. Um and and and if and and if you know roughly in the four billion range, but the four billion included buying the the Phoenix Mercury as well. So, you know, if you call it like say three and a half, right? If that wasn’t um palatable in 2023, what what’s the asking price? Well, since you know, since the first time that Phil Knight and Smelinsky made their overture to purchase the team, four other teams have been sold in 2022. Like I mentioned, the Suns, the Mercury sold for a valuation of $4 billion. Not a total price. A lot of these times it’s it’s it’s a ownership group buying majority stake, buying, you know, whatever majority control so they can control a team. And the Suns of the Merc uh were sold for a valuation of $4 billion. In 2023, the the Hornets were sold for a valuation of about $3 billion. Uh also that year the Mavericks were sold for a valuation of about $3.5 billion dollars as Mark Cuban disinvested his uh leading stakeholding place in in the ownership group. Uh and the Mavericks sumearily crumbled only to be rewarded with freaking Cooper flag. Nothing is fair in this world. And in 2025, the Celtics are pending for a sale price that was once reported to be over $7 billion and is now down to about 6.1 billion as of uh recording this on uh May 13th of 2025. It looks like that’s going to be the finalized sale price of just just north of 6 billion bucks, which would be a record for an NBA team. Uh and pushing up in sort of that NFL money along not quite Washington Commanders level money who had recently sold, but right in that range. So, what are the Blazers? What does it cost to purchase the Trailblazers now in 2025? Well, in December of 2024, Sportico released a list of uh estimated values, and the Blazers in that um in that list, as reported by Sportico, was were valued at an estimated $3.6 billion. The range of NBA teams in that list uh were went from Memphis at just over three billion, 3.06 06 billion all the way up to the Golden State Warriors at triple that price, $9.14 billion. The Blazers are on the lower end. They’re in the bottom third of the league in terms of valuation, which you would expect. This is a smaller team, you know, a smaller city in a in a in a not particularly large state. Uh there aren’t a lot of other sports franchises around to kind of um uh you know, there’s not like an arena district and all these things which which could like get you into sort of the crazy real estate plays. This is playing in one of the older arenas in America and in the league. This is playing in one of the smaller markets in the league. Although not certainly not the smallest, I’ll remind you the San Antonio is much smaller market despite the league consistently fixing things for the Spurs according to some of you. But the Blazers being in the bottom third of the league in in estimated value gives you a sense of kind of where they will be. And also kind of if just using your logical brain, although I don’t know that I would get to that that number, but like in terms of relative price, the number makes sense. So perhaps the Allen estate just didn’t want to sell to Phil Knight in 2022 or in 2023. They said, “We don’t like this dude. We won’t sell on the team. Get out of here.” Perhaps he’ll come back, circle back, offer 4 billion bucks, get it done, and Uncle Phil will own the Trailblazers and make a deep commitment to keep the team in Oregon, etc., etc. Or perhaps the Allen estate was waiting for some things to happen. It seems like at one point, right after Paul Allen passed, that the expansion of the NBA seemed uh closer on the horizon. It has since been pushed back to, you know, 2027, 2028, like it could be 2030 by team plays, like it does seem like every time uh Commissioner Adam Silver speaks, uh the idea of expansion, while real has been pushed back to being, you know, something the board of governors will talk about into the future and and I think at the earliest you could could potentially see teams uh in the obvious landing spots of Seattle and Las Vegas would be the 2728 season. And even that feels early based on reporting from Howard Beck of the Ringer. So expansion never came. So you’re not going to get the bonus money from expansion fees, but you are going to get new media money. And that would seem to be the other shoe that the Allen State was perhaps waiting to drop because uh an agreement of a new long-term media deal would give some sort of clarity and some firmness to what NBA teams are valued at. And last year, the or in 2024, uh, the NBA and its media partners agreed to a new 11-year media rights deal to be carried on, uh, ESPN, NBC, and Amazon, which will kick in, uh, ne the beginning of next season for a combined $77 billion. I know there are people out there who think the league is hurting and certainly the league might be hurting. But when they pay you $77 billion or to put it another way, $7.7 billion annually to broadcast your games, things are okay. Which in part may have pushed the Blazers to be comfortable or the out of state to be comfortable with now selling the team. But all of this comes with the looming, as mentioned, idea that the Blazers play in one of the oldest arenas in the league and an arena in need of updates, in need of upgrades, structural and otherwise. Something the Blazers know they need to do and have entered an agreement with the city in order to pursue. But selling a team when you got to build a new arena, that’s a little bit messy. Which gets to a something I want to talk about in the second segment. The Blazers reached a unique agreement with the city of Portland in order to uh finance and uh allow for development at the at the arena in a way that will be appealing to anyone who might happen to own the team. Join me in that second segment and we’ll talk about the importance of the agreement with the city and the team and why that matters for the sale of the franchise. Join me there, won’t you? First though, let’s talk Wayfair. 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So, shop that huge selection of outdoor furniture online this summer. Get outside with Wayfair. Head to wayfair.com right now. That’s wfir.com. Wayfair. Every style, every [Music] home. All right. The modus center needs upgrades. It is a dated building. It feels nice for a building built in 1995, but indeed um if you spend enough time in the guts or walk around the concourse, you realize, particularly if you’ve been to any other NBA arenas recently, you realize that is is a place in need of upgrades. And the Blazers know that, too. Don’t get it twisted. The franchise is completely aware and completely comfortable with fixing up the arena to the extent that they can. So, in part, they’ve made some they’ve made some Yeah. you know, political inroads to to make this happen. I actually discussed this recently on a podcast with Secretary of State Tobias Reid and uh the secretary stressed the importance of the city and the public, the people, us is the is the is the pronoun that that the secretary continued continuously used that we the people of Portland own the building. I would push back get back against that a little bit. Um then certainly I asked the secretary questions as to as to why private money doesn’t just build the building. But when you are selling the team, the fact that there is this public money that could be available to them is important. Let’s talk about that. The Blazers had an initial ground lease for 30 years from 1995 that expired in 2025. Expires actually in October. Technically hasn’t run out yet, but it will in October. Um, and then the team in August of 2024, uh, agreed to an extension of a lease agreement, a bridge lease agreement that runs through 2030. So, basically, you know, in February of 2024, they proposed to the city. The city, the city council accepted it, and then it was officially ratified in August of 2024 ahead of this expiration in October of 2025. It’ll kick in in October of 2025 and run for 5 years with an additional 5-year option to extend. Boring, right? But important, maybe not boring to you. In my real life, I work in real estate. Deeply, deeply interesting to me part of the agreement to extend this lease. And the Blazers are like importantly leasing the dirt. They’re leasing the land, the ground lease. They’re leasing the ground under the building. So, what they were paying for is money to continue to operate the operate on top of what’s above ground. And they owned the motor center. It was privately owned. Part of this new agreement, they sold the building back to the city for a dollar. Pretty good deal for a big old building. That is significantly mostly because for costs to the franchise reasons. Th this is what they have access to by making this building public a publicly owned building as opposed to a privately owned building. If it’s privately owned, you don’t have access to any city funds, right? or you’re if you’re asking for city funds, it’s a little bit messy to request as a privately owned, you know, you know, billion dollar entity to be like, “Hey, can we have some money to put in nicer receipts and expand the concourses at our big at our big building? Get out of here.” But as a publicly owned entity, you have access to um these like basically like public venue funding. Uh that money had previously gone to the memorial memorial coliseum as publicly owned building and also where the uh where the soccer teams play Providence Park where the where the footy footy action takes place. But now the Blazers because the Moto Center is now a publicly owned building have access to this. There’s a 6% tax on parking at the arena as well as ticket sales. Uh and the city will use this this portion this pool of money um over the next 5 years during the initial part of this bridge agreements uh from from October 25 to October October 30 um the that money will be the pool of money that the city contributes. It’s a 50-50 split. So no new taxes, no new, you know, no like public publicly created debt. It’s money you’re already spending that the city’s already taxing, but now the Blazers can reinvest it or the city can reinvest it in in the MOT center. I don’t love public money going into big buildings necessarily because um you know, should the Blazers not play there anymore. It doesn’t really do me and you local citizen much good to have spent money on this on renovating the building. But like the as far as these agreements go, I think this is a pretty reasonable one. It also creates a tax break for the Blazers. They don’t have to pay tax on the building because it’s publicly it’s publicly owned. That changes things a little bit. But so the Blazers, there’s a 50-50 split. Private money from the Portland Trailblazers and public money from the city. That means if a new owner comes in place, they only got to pay 50, you know, 50-50 split. If there’s overages over the initial estimate, that’ll come on the team side. But again, there’s public money that will go into up providing necessary upgrades at the arena. And that’s important should a sale happen because if you buy this team and then after that you have to invest a whole bunch of money to upgrade the arena, the team becomes a lot less appealing to purchase and your other options which we’ll talk about in a moment because those things are looming become much more real. And this is important. Point number five in the lease agreement fact sheet, uh, which is a public document that the city of Portland put out in August 2024 that I will link in the episode description for my real nerds in case you want to read the fact sheet about the Blazers lease with the city. Point number five states that if the Motus Center ceases to be home of the Portland Trailblazers, the city would be repaid for its investment in capital projects during the term of the bridge agreement. So whatever money you and I spend from August our our tax dollars at work from 2025 to October 2025 to October 30 if the team were to move the part of the move part of moving the team if the team if that were to happen the owner moving the team would have to give the money back. So then you’ve paid full price for renovations for a building you’re leaving. It creates a real incentive for whoever does this work and the Blazers are committed were at least under under the previous ownership committed to doing this work by 2030 in order to host the women’s final four and have the building be up to par and all of those things because um you know in theory they want this team to be here. But that gives you a little protection. It gives you and I a little bit of protection because part of the appeal of this agreement is that there is some public money that goes into upgrading making needed upgrades. But there also is a clause that if you break this thing then you have to at any point then the money that the city paid has to be repaid. It would go back to us. There is certainly a fear that the Portland Trailblazers could cease to be the Portland Trailblazers and become a team in another city. I personally think it’s unlikely, but it’s not nothing. I think fretting over it as a certainty is foolish. And I think rejecting the idea that they could move outright is also foolish. It’s a real thing. And as the Oregonians, Bill Orum, pointed out in the statement that I read to you at the top of the show, Jod Allen or the Allen estate or no one gave the reassurance that that they were committed to selling to someone who will keep the Blazers in the city long term. They may very well be committed to that, right? But they didn’t say that. And the lack of the the absence of that language in the press release is notable. And I I credit credit to Bill for for pointing that out. I think the NBA doesn’t really want to relocate NBA teams. They don’t. They don’t. They want to expand. They want to eventually expand. But certainly there is a world in which a new owner has wandering eyes. The thing about the current ownership is that they were never going to move the team. I don’t think there is a particularly high likelihood that the Blazers would relocate to Seattle. I don’t think Seattle wants another stolen team after their team was stolen from them. But there is a world in which another potential landing spot for an NBA team, say Las Vegas, could come into play. That’s real. It might be unlikely, but it is not nothing. It is not a completely negligible outcome. And that’s part of what I want to talk about to close the show. New ownership seems like a good thing because I think this version of Blazers ownership, this sort of like when are they going to sell hanging over the franchise was not good for them. Certainty and stability is valuable, but there’s some dangers that come with a new ownership. Let’s talk about those dangers a little bit. New owner syndrome and also what a good owner looks like. Join me in that third segment, won’t you? First though, let me tell you about car gurus. Shopping for a car should be exciting, not exhausting. But between the confusing prices and hidden fees, it can feel overwhelming. That’s why you’re going to love Car Gurus. They help you cut through the noise and show you the best deals with full confidence. With over 4 million listings, CarGurus has more new and used cars than any other major online marketplace in the United States. 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I’ve been critical of them as recently as when this season ended, but I don’t think it’s because they’re cheap. I think that would be a um I think that would be sort of a misnomer, a mischaracterization of what their issue is. They spent money to like fasttrack getting a G-League team. They’ve held a fairly, you know, obviously they haven’t been a taxpaying team, but who would be with the quality that they’ve been over the last four seasons, but they’ve they’ve been, you know, they’ve had a relatively expensive payroll roster, you know, payroll considering the quality of the roster. They’ve shelled out big contracts of over $und00 million. Stanford Simons and and um and Jeremy Grant, they’ve, you know, they’ve uh they’ve spent money, right? They’ve spent money. They’ve they’ve agreed to, you know, spend some money to expand the practice facility. They’ve they’ve started to make these, you know, minor and obviously somewhat publicly funded upgrades to the motor center. Like they’ve spent money. That’s not their problem. The problem with me is that they don’t they haven’t had that clear decisive action to take the steps necessary to push this team where they need to go. They haven’t had the foresight to say, “Hey, continuing a rebuild is sucks and you’re going to lose a bunch of games, but your best best path forward is to continue down this path.” It seems like there was some pressure from ownership to win. And shortcircuiting a rebuild plan because you want to win 36 games doesn’t seem like a team, like a ownership group that really has a hold on foresight, has a hold on like the bigger picture. If you don’t trust the people that you put in charge to execute the plan, you never believed in the plan in the first place or you’re just not capable of understanding the plan. It’s that lack of clarity of action, that lack of definitive action that I think is the actual problem with the Blazers. It is in some ways treating the organization as like a checkbook line item. But moreover, it’s the unwillingness to be decisive in actions that would allow you to say, “Hey, we are going to run a real GM search as opposed to promote from within.” You might have ended up on Joe Cronin anyways and he’s done a he’s done a decent job, but like not running that action. Okay, let’s just promote from within. It is the the sort of like will they won’t they stuff with with uh with Chanty Bilups and waiting until he proved quote unquote that he could do it by winning when winning didn’t actually prove the like the steps that you wanted to take with bils right it’s that clarity of action the clarity of decisions but a new owner is not necessarily going to cure all of that like Phil Knight’s not necessarily going to cure all of that and I think another name to know if you’re considering this is and I’ve mentioned this in the past is the Bthals the team the the ownership group that owns the W the NW uh SL team, that’s the the women’s soccer team, the Thorns, as well as the WNBA team that will begin playing next summer at the Mo Center. Um that I don’t know that they have NBA money, but I bet they could put together an ownership group that could get a big chunk of of NBA money along with some other billionaires around. I think they’re they’re a group to know when you’re considering this. Obviously, Phil Knight has a whole whole bunch of money. he can make it happen if if the ownership group is willing to sell to him. But a new owner is not a cure all. In fact, I think we have examples recently of the NBA of the challenges of new ownership. You know, one that I think uh looked worse, I don’t know, two years ago than it does now is like when uh the Timberwolves were being sold and A-Rod and his ownership group, that’s Alex Rodriguez, they they were the team that apparently like pushed all in for the Rudy Go Bear trade. And at the time, the first season of that go Bear trade was like, “Okay, so you’ve cashed in all your assets. You’re an extremely expensive roster and you’re not very good.” Now, the Wolves are primed to go to back-toback Western Conference Finals. And certainly, they’ve like made some trades to get a little bit cheaper and cleaning up their books down the line, but they’ve also had like um they’re about to have the backto-back most successful seasons in franchise history. So I think while at the time it looked like the classic new owner go allin press press press press press press press press press press press press press press press press press press press press press press press you know press forward without without thought of like the long-term long-term view I think now you can say like that probably probably fine although goar is much maligned in the public um you know Patrick Dumont after the Mavs were sold greenlighting and perhaps trusting Nico Harrison without um asking for more clarity on and like an understanding of the process like a non- basketball person in in in Dumont like um guiding the Mavs forward and allowing them to trade Luca Donuch to the Mavericks or excuse me to the Lakers without exploring the market for Luca Donuch like it wasn’t this the trade in of itself is not an issue the issue is that you the the how it went down the process horrendous you have to you have to uh you have to go to the trade market in order to um value the trademark Mark and I I certainly I don’t think they that Dumont did that. And then there’s Matt Ishbia in Phoenix. When Ishbia took over within like hours of officially getting in charge, Matt Ishbia got on the phone and green lit them trading for Kevin Durant. And it was a it was a hall, right? Whole bunch of draft picks. Male Bridges who was later traded for five first round picks or you know some portion of five first round picks and Cam Johnson, right? It was hall for Kevin Durant. It’s Kevin Freaking Durant, though. And at the time, it’s like, that’s cool. That’s cool. A new owner’s going all in. But since then, he’s continued to trade picks. They basically have um no picks until 2032. They traded for Brad Beiel, one of the most challenging contracts to move and just like straight up a not good player at his price. Um they are one of the biggest disappointments in the league this season. They are out of assets. They are extremely expensive. And Ishbia has since promoted his former assistant college coach with little GM experience to be the person who runs the team. That’s scary because that’s new owner syndrome as I believe Bill Simmons termed it. That’s someone who just says, “I got a new thing. I have all this money. I’ve been successful in other places by virtue of just like being bullish and and pushing forward. I bet I can do it here.” But it’s a closed ecosystem with a you know some arcane rules like it is it’s it’s hard it is hard to it’s hard to pivot once you get too far down the path in the NBA and ISB is a is a warning that new ownership is not a fix it’s not a salve uh Patrick Duma in Dallas is is a warning that new ownership um I don’t think Mavs fans like really wanted Mark Cuban out but it’s like certainly that bad ownership can be a real problem. I think that’s um I think we’ve see it places and like and Vic Renade in Sacramento obviously he’s owned the team for a long time now but like he kind the meddling right that’s what you don’t want from ownership you do not what you want from an owner is to set it and forget it like those old uh home shopping network ads you want the foresight to see the bigger picture right if you’re um you know if you’re a good team you want the foresight to say our window to compete is over the next three years, let’s spend as much as we possibly can over the next three years to guarantee ourselves the biggest shot at a championship possible. And you want the willingness to execute a plan. So whether that plan is a longtail rebuild or a go for it couple of summers in order to create a contender. You want someone who has the foresight to see the plan and the willingness to execute that plan. And most importantly, executing that plan means probably not doing anything. It’s hiring the right people and then willfully getting out of the way, signing the checks. Um, you know, a willingness to spend, a willingness to go into the tax. If you don’t go into the tax in the NBA, if you aren’t willing to pay the luxury tax, you are unwilling to win championships. Nobody wins. I mean, maybe the Pacers are going to prove me wrong here, right? But like, nobody wins in this league without spending a whole bunch of money. It is it is incredibly rare. And Oklahoma City, they might do it this year, but if they’re going to win several or be competitive for a long season, like that team’s about to get really expensive, too. And to keep championship teams together, you have to spend a bunch of money. That is step one. But it’s also the willingness to spend the money in the right way. And the willingness to hire the right people and trust them to make those decisions. And then when you don’t have the right people in charge is the it is it is not meddling and firing six coaches over eight seasons or whatever. It is it is getting the right guys, folks I should say. um getting the right people in in in in charge and then when it’s not when it’s time to make those decisions, clarity and swiftness of action, you’re getting fired because we want to do something else and we have a vision to execute it. That’s what you want in a good owner. You do not want them to be around. You want them to spend the money and get the heck out of the way. I will offer this as sort of the opposite of um the new owner syndrome because I think there’s a lot of be careful what you wish for out there. I’ll say this, Steve Balmer fixed the Clippers, a heinous, despicable ownership group and Balmer made them relevant for the first time ever. Got them out of being the third most important tenants and maybe fourth most important tenants in a building that they shared with their cross town rivals. Built them a new big fancy stadium. um you know, and made them put together the most competitive uh half decade of Clippers basketball that that we’ve seen, period. Maybe maybe even a little longer. The most competitive decade of Blazer B of Clippers basketball we’ve ever seen. There is a world in which new ownership is incredibly willing to spend, incredibly aggressive, and then makes the right hires, makes smart decisions like hiring Tailoo, and then gets the hell out of the way and lets basketball people do basketball things. That’s what you want from ownership. That’s what you’re hoping for on the other side. So, the Blizzard for sale. As reported at the top of the show, this process is anticipated to take somewhere between 9 and 12 months. So, let’s let’s check back in uh you know, February of 2025 or maybe again in May. We’ll we’re talking the end of next season or sometime just after it ends for the Blazers to have a new ownership group. Obviously, we’ll track this story as it happens, but it’s an incredibly it’s a pivotal time for the Blazers in so many ways as they embark on the next steps of this rebuild and now are likely to have some other person pushing them forward and all of the challenges that come with it, whether they can continue this agreement with the city. Obviously, you want them to stay here. Certainly, I don’t want them to leave and be incredibly sad. Um, but like all of the challenges that come with it. Locks on Blazers 5 days a week. Revitate podcast. Tell your friends about the program. I appreciate you listening. We’ll talk draft stuff again tomorrow, but news happens and so we pivot, baby. Uh, I appreciate you listening. I’ll talk to you soon.

The Portland Trail Blazers are for sale. New ownership is coming. Let’s dive into all the pertinent details.

Portland Trail Blazers lease agreement with the City of Portland:https://www.portland.gov/wheeler/documents/moda-center-bridge-agreement-fact-sheet/download

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