{"id":829591,"date":"2026-07-28T18:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829591\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T18:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:24:08","slug":"report-dundon-passed-on-las-vegas-expansion-bid-before-buying-portland-trail-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829591\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Dundon passed on Las Vegas expansion bid before buying Portland Trail Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon \u201cfirst kicked the tires\u201d on buying a potential NBA expansion franchise<\/a> in Las Vegas for about $8B but decided the Blazers\u2019 $4.25B price tag<\/a> was \u201ca better value with more upside,\u201d according to sources cited by sportswriter John Canzano. With the Blazers currently in discussions<\/a> on a new Moda Center lease agreement, Canzano noted he thinks the team \u201ceither stays in Portland or tries to move to Raleigh, N.C.,\u201d where Dundon\u2019s current NHL team plays. He added he does not think the Lloyd Center mall, which is closing next month, \u201cis the place for the new arena\u201d for the Blazers, but rather Dundon\u2019s group\u2019s next move will be to \u201cdeclare it needs a new arena and\/or control of the real estate around the arena or else.\u201d Then, they will \u201cfoster some leverage using an outside city as a threat\u201d and that is \u201cnot going to be Seattle or Las Vegas.\u201d Canzano: \u201cI\u2019d bet that\u2019s the play for Dundon\u2019s group. They may use that threat to try to get Portland to build a new arena\u201d (JOHNCANZANO.com, 7\/27<\/a>).<\/p>\n

HE SAID, SHE SAID: A Portland politician said earlier on Monday that he \u201cbelieved an olive branch offered by the City of Portland to the Trail Blazers had been rejected by the team\u201d as the two sides \u201cremain far apart\u201d in arena lease negotiations. Trail Blazers President of Business Operations Dewayne Hankins responded by saying that the team has \u201cnot yet decided whether its representatives will attend a City Council meeting on the arena plans Thursday.\u201d After Hankins\u2019 response, Portland City Council President Jamie Dunphy said that he had been \u201cworking with \u2018old information.\u2019\u201d THE ATHLETIC\u2019s 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 \u201ca nonstarter.\u201d Dunphy, though, said that he and the council have \u201cno idea what the team\u2019s issues are with the draft document because the Blazers won\u2019t communicate, let alone show up at meetings\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 7\/27<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon \u201cfirst kicked the tires\u201d on buying a potential NBA expansion franchise in Las…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,726,590,85],"class_list":["post-829591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}