Is An Arena Showdown Looming For The City Of Portland & The Trail Blazers | Harris & Marang

Is An Arena Showdown Looming For The City Of Portland & The Trail Blazers | Harris & Marang

Adam Silver’s given plenty ammunition to uh rile up Portland fans and I I’m like I just want to mute Twitter with all the people like Portland’s gone. It’s gone. It’s gone. They’re gone. They’re moving to Seattle. They’re they’re gone. I’m like, “Oh, gee.” We’re going down this path. Are we? We’ll play we’ll play the clip in a second. I think what’s so shocking about everything is that it just it it felt like it came out of nowhere. I mean, Hiken, as you said, decided to stay down there a couple more days to ask this specific question. I never really was worried about it. I never thought there was a reason to be worried about it, but when it kind of, at least in my world, kind of comes out of nowhere a little bit, it’s uh it’s a little surprising. Sean Sean Hiken asks uh Adam, Commissioner Adam Silver about an update on the sale of the Portland Trailblazers and what that means keeping the Blazers in Portland long term. And this is what Silver had to say. It’s the league’s preference that that team remain in Portland. We’ve had great success in Portland over the years. I don’t have a specific update on the process, but I know is underway and I know there are groups that are actively engaged with the estate and have demonstrated interest in that team. I’d say one of the factors there is the city of Portland likely needs a new arena. So that will be part of uh the challenge for any new ownership group coming in. But it to certainly be our preference that team remain in Portland. Uh I 100% believe that if there’s anything I know that I feel very confident in is professional leagues don’t like moving teams. No, it is they don’t like alienating fan bases. They don’t like just the optics of it, the aesthetics of it. You know, baseball doesn’t like doing it. They’ve done it more than anybody else really, but they don’t like doing it. No. And like the whole reason with Tampa, they they wanted to keep the team Tampa there. Yeah. because that Florida market is so big and it’s so meaningful to them and the the fan bases, the money, the all the things that come along with it and they’re able to they were able to for force one of the owners out and get them sold. Um, when it pertains to the Blazers, you know, I get I get caution from people in the league, never say never because billionaires are going to billionaire and do what they want to do, but it’s like it’s like yeah, I might go get hit by a car today. Yeah. It’s like no, they’re not moving the team, man. And if they do, I’ll eat all the crow on that as humanly possible because I’ll probably be out of a job. We all might be out of a job if they move the team. It’s not going to go well for any of us. Even if we even even if you’re if you’re just in sports in general in this city and the number one team is the Timbers. Again, not a shot at you guys. I love you guys, but that’s not enough to kind of carry the day on the pro scale. I don’t think they’re going anywhere. And this is something I’ve I’ve talked about kind of a little quietly behind the scenes and I’ve mentioned it a few times in the podcast. The arena stuff. MOA is one of the oldest arenas in the NBA. It is the oldest arena in the NBA that has not had major renovations. Like everybody’s like, “Well, what about Madison Square Garden?” Madison Square Garden has gone under massive 10 years. It feels like uh United Center in Chicago, it’s undergone massive renovations. Target Center in Minnesota, massive renovations. Like I think there’s only like one or two arenas in the league outside of MSG that are older that you know the renovation stuff hasn’t happened in the last couple of years. Like they’ve all everybody else is getting new builds. Oklahoma City uh they’re built they’ve been in OKC since 2009 and they’re building a new arena and the city the the owners of the team are only paying $50 million. Otherwise $950 million is falling on the city of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State or the state of Oklahoma, not the school. um they’re paying for it because they’re scared to death of their one pro team leaving because their one pro team that is there left another market right so I don’t I am not worried about it the way that I look at this is if you look at the political scale of things what just happened a month ago the jock tax bracket yes got bumped from $150 million to $800 million yes and I think that there is actual momentum for MLB to land. And I think that probably I don’t I think that probably pushed Look, you can just look at what’s going on. Why do you think the Blazers are selling when they’re selling? Well, yeah, because it’s Well, uh, it’s mandated by the trust, but also not just that, but it we’ve already seen three other teams sell. Money is great right now. Everybody wants to own a sports team right now. And if you’re an prospective owner, that jock tax money is not earmarked for baseball. No. No. earmarked for sports. Yeah. Entertainment. And the city does own the MOA. They own the land and the thing. There’s the bridge agreement, all the things that go along with that. But everybody’s like, “Well, what do they do at Veterans Memorial Coliseum?” I tweeted this out last night. I will personally help them tear it down. I have talked You don’t want me to say this, Daniel get real mad and help you tear it down. No, I I have talked to the Blazers like if you want if you want a veteran to go to Portland City Council and tell them I don’t care, I will do it. I will 100% do it because I guarantee you if you’re listening right now, unless you’ve heard me talk about this, you don’t know where the memorial is at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Not only do you not know where it is, it currently doesn’t work. Wait, what? What are you talking about? Yeah, I’m very confused. There’s a fountain. There is a fountain. If you’re looking at the front of Memorial Coliseum, there’s a staircase to the left that goes down. That goes down. That’s where the memorial is. That’s the smoking section. That That’s where we get high before games. that big like uh steel green bronze steel fountain. That’s the memorial. Okay. Well, what about it? It’s nobody no number one, nobody knows it’s memorial. Number two, it doesn’t work. Oh, are you talking about like tearing down Veterans Memorial? Yes. Would that is Is that really going to ruffle feathers? Oh, god. Yeah. There’s all kinds of people are like, “Oh, you can’t do that. It’s like it’s an architectural thing. It’s a historic site. I don’t care. Bro, this is America. I can do whatever I want. Tear everything down from the north of Moda. Whoever comes in to buy this place, buy the silo, rip everything out of that whole area and turn it into a whole district. Well, you can move the the memorial, can’t you? Yes. It’s not on hallowed ground. Not only that, build a memorial that people know as a memorial. Pay proper respect. Do the things that you need to do? Did we bury veterans right there? And that’s why it has to be there. But no, that’s what I’m saying. Like, no, number one, nobody knows it’s there. Number two, it’s not working. Number three, like if you’re going to have a memorial, have a memorial that actually people give a damn about. like all of the like all the stuff that’s there. Tear it down. I don’t care. I I absolutely unequivocally do not care. It sounds like Jennifer being a party pooper. It’s just it’s just like rip all of that out. And everybody’s like I had a bunch of people on on Twitter last night like, “Oh, Moda is just fine.” It’s that’s the thing. It’s fine, but go to any arena that’s been built in the last 20 years and you will have your mind blown.

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