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The Portland Trail Blazers have been Oregon’s lone major sports franchise since the NBA team was founded in 1970. After more than 50 years of providing countless memories for the fans, new owner Tom Dundon and team executives are now seemingly burning bridges every chance they get as they threaten to relocate the team.
As Portland’s NBA franchise and city officials go back and forth in negotiations on a taxpayer-funded renovation of the Moda Center, which has become increasingly contentious, one team executive recently doubled down on threats to relocate the team while going after the city’s proposal for improvements to the arena.
Related: Trail Blazers Owner Tom Dundon’s Multiple Examples of Cheapness
Speaking to Bill Oram of The Oregonian, an anonymous Trail Blazers official trashed the city’s proposal for a taxpayer-funded arena renovation and said city officials have made bad proposals that they knew would never be accepted. He also defended the franchise, stating ownership could’ve just pushed for a new facility to be built and that the city “doesn’t even recognize that they got a sweetheart deal” from the club. The anonymous executive also implied relocation is on the table.
“Why is the city sending this thing knowing that we’re not going to agree to it?…The city of Portland doesn’t even recognize that they got a sweetheart deal. If they want to say no, if they don’t want us, then that’s fine.”
Anonymous Portland Trail Blazers executive on negotiations with city officials for Moda Center renovations
If referencing that the organization was “fine” if the city didn’t want the NBA franchise wasn’t enough of an implication for relocation, the anonymous executive doubled down later in the interview. Regarding potential relocation to another market, the source said that ownership wouldn’t lose money by moving the franchise and even spending more than $1 billion for a relocation fee would result in the franchise valuation doubling.
Ahead of the 2025-26 NBA season, Forbes estimated the Trail Blazers’ franchise value at $4.25 billion. If the team were to be relocated, seemingly regardless of the location, the executive is implying that the Trail Blazers would suddenly become one of the five most valuable franchises in the NBA.
Unfortunately for the city of Portland and the franchise’s fans, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has publicly supported Dundon through it all. When the Trail Blazers owner first faced widespread criticism for slashing costs in a myriad of ways, with terminations that impacted dozens of people and salary cuts that will result in the lowest-paid coaching staff in the NBA, Silver defended Dundon while speaking on “Pardon My Take.”
“People are starting to say he’s not willing to spend the money. You gotta remember, this is a guy who just won a bidding war, call it $4.5 billion to buy a team, and they’re calling him cheap. It just can’t be….The idea that this guy paid one of the highest prices for a professional sports franchise in history is being called cheap makes absolutely no sense to me. This guy is a winner. He’s won in everything he’s ever been involved in.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver in April on criticisms of Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon for cutting costs (via Mike Vorkunov)
More recently, Silver stated that the goal remains for the Trail Blazers to stay in Portland, but he seemed to side with Dundon regarding ongoing negotiations with the city for stadium renovations. Given the direction things are headed, if things don’t improve, it seems pretty clear that Dundon would have the full support of Silver and NBA owners to pull the storied franchise out of Portland after five decades and leave the city with nothing but an empty stadium and a devastated fan base.
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