It is sad how teams can use fan passion to extort government.

“It’s not like we lose money moving the team,” the team official said. “We might spend money, but we don’t lose money. It might be OK to spend a billion dollars on a relocation fee if the valuation of the team doubles. Of course you would do that.”

They’ve already dropped all pretense. This is about maximizing profit and nothing more. That means leaving Portland. Dundon has been negotiating in bad faith since day one. He’s a massive POS.

The nba has to keep the blazers in Portland, it’s absolutely devastating to think about where this is headed. 50 years in a city means nothing I guess, another L for the Pacific Northwest inbound.

Silver really has to answer for all this, if he knowingly helped a new ownership buy the Blazers just to move them.

This is the first steps of ripping the team out of Rip City. (No pun intended) . This is very sad as Portland has been a great market for years.

Rot in hell Dundon

I feel like Dundon is the sort of guy who will take particular satisfaction in depriving a city like Portland of their team

I feel so bad for any blazers fans. You don’t deserve an owner that is this big a piece of shit after being loyal for so many years

the end is nigh…

“It’s not like we lose money moving the team,” the team official said. “We might spend money, but we don’t lose money. It might be OK to spend a billion dollars on a relocation fee if the valuation of the team doubles.

“Of course you would do that.”

This is gross. Eat the rich

Disgusting shit.

Fuck Silver for letting this person buy the team.

Shit is so obvious what they are trying to do.

They have been in Portland since the start (1970). This would be horrible to anyone who loves basketball. Their logo and unis are one of the few timeless ones that’s barely changed.

Portland fans deserve better, they’re easily one of the more die-hard fanbases in the league.

Are they seriously acting like they’re being forced out of Portland or something?

The Blazers fanbase is one of the most dedicated fanbases in the league. 50 years of one city, we held the consecutive sellout record for the longest time, it’s our ONLY professional sports team in the big 4 sports, and the soccer teams we have ALSO have notoriously dedicated fanbases. There isn’t a single better metro area that doesn’t already have a team.

This is literally just asking for bribery. They are saying “Any city want to give us a billlion dollars? We want to sell out!”

This is a nightmare and I hate it. Of course I will be done with the NBA if they allow one of the most iconic teams in the league to be ripped from a city for NO REASON. Just to reiterate, the rose garden is STILL FINE. It can use upgrades, sure, but there are multiple other arenas in active use that are in worse condition. This entire fight is literally just “Give us money or we will make you hurt”, it’s extortion plain and simple.

Yeah, the NBA has become immeasurable rich under Silver but it has lost its soul completely. These venture capital/hedge fund nepo babies have tarnished everything down to grassroots basketball. Shootouts and slugfests replaced by foul baiting and analytics. Street ball replaced by AAU and pay to play. Good old fashioned rivalries dont exist anymore. Basketball people making decisions is almost taboo now. This is all in the pursuit to make this sport as profitable as possible and make those who own these teams decently more rich than they already are. Like these guys already have fuck you money. And thats just not good enough, and they absolutely do not care what the fans think about that. They only care about sponsors and their TV/streaming partners. The last thing NBA owners care about are the people in the stadium and those in their local market. The entire world is now watching the NBA and its all they care about.

How much more did Dundon offer over the Fire owner? Was it like a billion more?

Jodi should’ve done better due diligence. Paul would never let this happen.

I’ve seen this story before. Hopefully it all works out in the end. The NBA without the Portland Trail Blazers would be like the NBA without the Seattle SuperSonics. It’s just not right.

If the league is going to consistently abandon markets that historically support their team well and are winning clubs too, why even have a league?

Dundon is really having scum bag summer. After the Hurricanes won, he had his family’s names engraved on the Stanley cup, including his grade school aged son, before any of the players, tells you what an absolute self absorbed shithead he is

Another trash owner

WNBA returns to Portland. Sonics might be coming back. This should be a fun time for basketball in the PNW, but instead…this.

I would be very interested to hear Dame’s thoughts on playing for a trail blazers team that was stolen from Portland by a grifter owner.

Fuck all these people and preemptively fuck the city that gives this POS a free stadium. Portland fans deserves so much better.

In fact, the team official argued that “the city of Portland doesn’t even recognize that they got a sweetheart deal,” suggesting that an arena renovation is far less expensive for the public than had ownership pressed for a new facility and that most of the funding Portland is proposing to earmark for the renovation is money generated by the team or the arena.

The city should be happy to foot the entire bill for the renovation? A sweetheart deal? Get fucked.

Athletics left Oakland. Nothing is sacred anymore. Wait til the Spurs dip outta San Antonio when their stadium deal falls apart…..

Portland is a great city and those fans have been AMAZINGLY supportive for decades. The NBA is acting as if fans everywhere will support anything and always be around. I don’t believe that’s the case and there are so many options these days for entertainment.

The flopping, embracing of gambling, inconsistency with foul calls, billionaire owners thumbing their noses at the fans and the cap rules, 3 point chucking, blackout restrictions and failure to change rules regarding“local” televised games, trading away superstar players either out of idiocy or to really avoid paying luxury taxes, teams winning championships and immediately saying they won’t pay to keep the team together….. all of this waters down the game. I find myself watching less and less. And if Portland loses the blazers, may that team suck and lose money forever.

Fuck the owners. Honestly, the ‘franchise’ model really needs to die. You should not be allowed to leave the cities the teams are based on.

Is Tom Dundon the worst current owner in the NBA? Not to mention how he made his money https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1tfgdjb/blazers_own_tom_dundon_made_his_money_from/

Adam Silver being OKAY with all of this is such bullshit.

Also because this dude’s team won the Stanley Cup this year he’s now going to be even more confident in every decision he makes.

Bro absolutely fuck Tom Dundon to death

And fuck Adam Silver for being a spineless pussy

It’s plain as day that the new ownership never intended to keep the team in Portland. The way they’ve behaved just isn’t how people behave when they’re trying to make a good faith effort to work things out.

Thank god the moron of Adam Silver and Jody Allen squeezed the estate for every penny just so the new guy can tear it to shreds and make an ass of himself and the team. But wow team value has NEVER been higher

This isn’t about Adam Silver though.  Remember who was commissioner the last time this happened and Seattle had their team stolen from them.

This is actually bullshit. We need basketball in the PNW

These parasites ruin everything…

So if i understand this corectly, Dundon wants Oregon and the city of Portland to pretty much hand over 600 Mil with no strings attached “or else”? The Mafia at least pretends to offer you something for your protection money…

As a die hard Oakland A’s fan, I can’t even watch an MLB game any more. I used to have a partial season ticket plan, listen to or watch nearly every game every season, bought the gear, wrote regularly on a major A’s blog and organized meetups of like 50-75 fans. I coach kids in baseball as well. But I can’t watch an MLB game. It killed me. I am thankful for the WNBA to have something to follow in the summer. The Warriors at least stayed in the Bay and the owner paid 100% of the cost for the arena. Why can’t more billionaires just pay for their own shit without threatening fans? Why does sport have to be about the owners first, players second, and fans last? It used to be about us. 

Say what you will about Steve Ballmer, at least he built his own fucking arena.

Call his bluff.

Dundon and the new ownership group are being greedy bastards. Fuck them

Owners need to learn a lesson if fans don’t turn out and they lose money

Oram is a hack. He bought the playbook from Clownzano. No real reporting happening. He’s just a mouthpiece to stoke fear for clicks.

As a sonics fan this is the same blueprint all over again.

I’m not sure I even want them back if the blazers move.

Billionaires wonder why the French haircut is becoming more popular in real time then pull stunts like this.