[SBJ] Report: Dundon passed on Las Vegas expansion bid before buying Trail Blazers
Report: Dundon passed on Las Vegas expansion bid before buying Trail Blazers
Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon “first kicked the tires” on buying a potential NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas for about \(8B but decided the Blazers’ \)4.25B price tag was “a better value with more upside,” according to sources cited by sportswriter John Canzano. With the Blazers currently in discussions on a new Moda Center lease agreement, Canzano noted he thinks the team “either stays in Portland or tries to move to Raleigh, N.C.,” where Dundon’s current NHL team plays. He added he does not think the Lloyd Center mall, which is closing next month, “is the place for the new arena” for the Blazers, but rather Dundon’s group’s next move will be to “declare it needs a new arena and/or control of the real estate around the arena or else.” Then, they will “foster some leverage using an outside city as a threat” and that is “not going to be Seattle or Las Vegas.” Canzano: “I’d bet that’s the play for Dundon’s group. They may use that threat to try to get Portland to build a new arena” (JOHNCANZANO.com, 7⁄27).
HE SAID, SHE SAID: A Portland politician said earlier on Monday that he “believed an olive branch offered by the City of Portland to the Trail Blazers had been rejected by the team” as the two sides “remain far apart” in arena lease negotiations. Trail Blazers President of Business Operations Dewayne Hankins responded by saying that the team has “not yet decided whether its representatives will attend a City Council meeting on the arena plans Thursday.” After Hankins’ response, Portland City Council President Jamie Dunphy said that he had been “working with ‘old information.’” THE ATHLETIC’s Jason Quick noted the city council is scheduled to vote Aug. 12 on the term sheet for a 20-year lease of the Moda Center. A Blazers source, speaking on condition of anonymity to freely discuss negotiations, said the term sheet was “a nonstarter.” Dunphy, though, said that he and the council have “no idea what the team’s issues are with the draft document because the Blazers won’t communicate, let alone show up at meetings”