Will incoming owner move Trail Blazers out of Portland? Oregon governor Tina Kotek has thoughts

SALEM — Gov. Tina Kotek said she has been in touch with incoming Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon as questions about the franchise’s future swirl.

The two leaders have, she said, been trying to get to know each other. To learn how they’ll work together.

Her early impression?

“He’s a very straightforward guy,” she said.

A Dundon-led group has an agreement in place to purchase Portland’s NBA franchise from the Paul Allen estate for $4.25 billion. The deal is expected to be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors this spring. However, the Texas billionaire’s intentions for the franchise remain unclear or, at minimum, dependent on the degree to which local governments step up to fund a renovation of Moda Center.

“I have appreciated (Dundon’s) frankness,” Kotek told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “At the end of the day, he’s a businessman. I don’t think he’s come into this with the idea that he wants to move the team. He wants a deal that makes this work for the team, and I think that’s where we’re headed.”

On Wednesday in Salem, Kotek led a coterie of public officials and business leaders who rallied in front of the Senate Rules Committee in support of Senate Bill 1501. The bill would establish a framework for redirecting public dollars to a $600 million project.

Advocates view it as a preemptive move to take meaningful steps toward a new long-term lease at Moda Center — last year’s “bridge” agreement extends only into 2030 — before Dundon arrives, cutting off the potential that the Carolina Hurricanes owner could explore opportunities for relocation.

“If we let the Blazers slip away just like Seattle did with the SuperSonics,” House Majority Leader Ben Bowman, a Tigard Democrat, told the committee, “there will be cities lining up. Investing in an institution like this, it’s not about nostalgia. It’s about foresight.”

Kotek spoke with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver two weeks ago and told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, who also appeared in Salem on Wednesday, have stressed to the NBA their commitment to keeping the team in Portland.

Kotek has not received specific assurances from Silver that the proposed $600 million package would be enough to take relocation off the table. But, she said, “What I’ve heard from Adam is that we’re in the ballpark. And I’m taking that on good faith that this is a real proposal to get to the modern facility that the Blazers need.”

She added: “Commissioner Silver is a big fan of Portland and the Blazers. Obviously, he’s got to do what’s right from the league, but what I heard from him was, ‘You’re putting the right things out there and just keep pushing.’”

The bill, introduced Monday by Senate President Rob Wagner, a Democrat from Lake Oswego, has emerged as a top priority of Democratic lawmakers in the short legislative session, which ends March 8, as the state government tries to address a significant budget shortfall, as well as core issues including transportation and immigration.

Sen. Kate Lieber, who chairs the powerful Ways and Means Committee, said that Senate Bill 1501 merely acts as a “first step” and that the legislature would need to consider a bonding bill at a later date.

“Unless we take the first step,” said Lieber, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Southwest Portland and Beaverton, “we’re never going to get to the next 20.”

The state’s piece of the Moda Center package is part of a larger movement encompassing the city of Portland and Multnomah County. Wagner’s bill would allow the state to work with the city to negotiate a new long-term lease with the Trail Blazers. They would then divert income taxes from Trail Blazers’ players and other performers at the city owned building to pay for bonds that support the renovation.

Leaders have targeted a 20-year lease agreement between the team and the city to align with the amount of time it would take to pay back the bonds.

While this proposal would mean redirecting tax dollars that currently go into the general fund, Kotek argued that taxpayers should not view the arrangement as “a tradeoff situation.”

“Economic development and investments for the future are never a zero-sum game,” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “Supporting a modernized Moda arena is good for the Blazers, good for economic activity, good for the city.”

She added: “This has to be a good deal for Oregon, and I think a good deal for Oregon is a good deal for the Blazers, as well.”

In addition to Trail Blazers games, Moda Center hosts upwards of 230 events per year and supports jobs for roughly 4,500 people. The venue has been tabbed to host the 2030 NCAA Women’s Final Four, which SportOregon CEO Jim Etzel said will be “largest sporting event that the city of Portland has ever hosted.”

As part of the hearing, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson told the committee that the county was prepared to contribute $88 million to the project through its motor vehicle rental tax and business income tax, which is up from the $77 million the county had previously agreed to commit.

Wilson said that the city would provide $120 million toward upfront costs while paying $14 million annually. However, after some within City Hall expressed skepticism over last week’s report by The Oregonian/OregonLive that Portland leaders were pushing to access the coveted dollars in the city’s clean energy fund for the project, Wilson declined to specify how exactly the city would pay for its piece of the puzzle. He noted only that he had some “placeholder” numbers to present to council and pointed to fees from tickets and parking at Moda Center events.

Sen. Bruce Starr, Senate Republican leader and vice chair of the Senate Rules Committee, pressed Trail Blazers president Dewayne Hankins on the rationale behind the Moda Center plan. If the then-Rose Garden was built in 1995 with significantly less public investment but came with a 30-year lease, he questioned why the team should be allowed to make a shorter commitment to the city if the building was renovated entirely with public funds.

Hankins said that modern arenas have lifespans of roughly 50 years and therefore the team would not consider another 30-year lease.

“The work that has to be done to the building we believe can sustain (it) for the next 20 years,” he said.

Starr, from Dundee, asked to what degree the Trail Blazers had explored constructing an entirely new arena to create a runway of five decades instead of just two.

“In reality,” Hankins said, “a new building would be twice as much (money). We thought the responsible thing was to do a renovation.”

Carlos Fuentes contributed to this report.