{"id":2146207,"date":"2026-09-15T20:57:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2146207"},"modified":"2026-09-15T20:57:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:57:28","slug":"blazers-leaving-portland-would-be-a-failure-as-silver-calls-for-state-of-the-art-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2146207","title":{"rendered":"Blazers leaving Portland would be \u2018a failure\u2019 as Silver calls for state-of-the-art arena"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NBA commissioner Adam Silver weighed in on the ongoing dispute between Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon and city officials about arena renovations on Tuesday, saying he strongly prefers an outcome that keeps the team in the city where the franchise was founded in 1970.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be very direct about it: I would see it as a failure if we did not keep the team in Portland,\u201d Silver told reporters during his Board of Governors news conference in New York. \u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of time in that community over the years. They\u2019ve shown amazing support for the Trail Blazers. They\u2019re some of our best fans around the league.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut at the same time \u2014 and now I speak for our WNBA team in the market, as well \u2014 we need a state-of-the-art arena. I think by any objective measure now, the current building there (Moda Center) is in the bottom measure of any in the league. And I think everyone in the community acknowledges \u2014 not just for NBA and WNBA basketball, but for all the multiuses of these modern arenas \u2026 concerts, conventions, graduations, you name it \u2014 that the community needs the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dundon has been at odds with city officials since buying the Blazers last summer, with local concerns growing about a possible relocation when a resolution couldn\u2019t be reached. While the framework for $586 million in public funding to renovate Moda Center is now in place<\/a>, the terms have not been agreed to by the city and county. Moda Center is owned by the city.<\/p>\n

A Dec. 17 Portland City Council vote looms large, as the $365 million committed by the Oregon state legislature in Senate Bill 1501 will expire on Dec. 31. With the Blazers\u2019 current lease set to expire in October 2030, the loss of those funds would be widely seen as a death knell to the negotiations. Dundon is asking for improved financial terms on the 20-year Moda Center lease that\u2019s being negotiated, as well.<\/p>\n

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As Silver referenced, the talks between the two sides have escalated publicly at times. From his vantage point, there is hope that the discussions had with Dundon during the two days of owners\u2019 meetings help the sensitive situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my hope that we can lower the temperature, honestly, a bit in these negotiations,\u201d Silver said. \u201cI had an opportunity to spend some significant amount of time with Tom Dundon while he was here in New York at our meetings. We did discuss the situation around Portland in one of our committee meetings with Tom. I think he was able to bounce ideas off of other owners who have been through similar negotiations in other communities. I think there\u2019s some lessons to be learned there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m offering myself and the league office to assist all parties there. But as I\u2019ve said, we\u2019ve had a great track record in Portland, and no doubt in my mind it would be a failure if we weren\u2019t able to accomplish a result that makes Portland basketball \u2014 NBA and WNBA \u2014 viable for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NBA commissioner Adam Silver weighed in on the ongoing dispute between Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon and city officials about arena renovations on Tuesday, saying he strongly prefers an outcome that keeps the team in the city where the franchise was founded in 1970. \u201cI want to be very direct about it: I would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2146207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2146207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2146207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2146207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2146207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}