Fire President Clare Hamill added to the debate around Moda Center renovations Wednesday, telling the Portland City Council that the WNBA team “also needs a first-class arena,” according to Eve Peyser of the PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL. Hamill said, “A vote to fund the Moda Center renovation will send a message loud and clear: Portland is the epicenter of women’s sports.” Peyser noted Hamill was invited to testify — along with other “local sports business leaders” such as Sport Oregon CEO Jim Etzel — in front of City Council on Wednesday morning as part of a meeting that included public testimony about the proposed Moda Center renovations. Hamill began by “highlighting the commitment to Portland by RAJ Sports,” owner of both the Fire and NWSL club Portland Thorns. Hamill said that the company is “making a substantial investment in this region” and touted their teams’ new $150M practice facility. Hamill said, “The dressing rooms, training and medical facilities, player amenities were not built to support a second growing franchise, let alone a women’s team competing for talent in the league where facility quality increasingly shapes where players choose to sign. That’s the equity piece we ask you to hold on to.” Peyser wrote the public conversation about Moda Center renovations has “mostly revolved around” the Trail Blazers because they are the arena’s primary tenant. The Fire have not “been involved in negotiations” because the team is a subtenant of the Trail Blazers (PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL, 8/5).
FEELING HESITANT: In Portland, Alissa Gary noted Trail Blazers officials were “hesitant to respond to a list of city of Portland questions” about the Moda Center’s proposed $600M makeover as early as June. Newly publicized emails between officials and the city made public this week, and first reported on by Portland-based KATU-ABC, “include internal messages between key figures” including Trail Blazers President Dewayne Hankins and General Counsel Zandria Conyers, as well as City Attorney Ken McGair. The messages show Trail Blazers officials were “careful about what they agreed to in writing,” even before the June 24 work session in which a city councilor “floated pursuing a lawsuit against the Blazers” (Portland OREGONIAN, 8/5).
POTENTIAL MOVE: In Portland, Matthew Kish noted two weeks ago, a Trail Blazers official suggested the team’s new owners “might have to pay the NBA a $1 billion relocation fee if they decide to move the team out of Portland.” That is a “big number, even for the well-heeled ownership group that just plunked down” $4.25B to buy the team. But there is “a catch.” The league’s constitution “gives it wiggle room to reduce the fee, especially if new owner Tom Dundon can convince his fellow owners that Portland isn’t good for business — a message that Blazers representatives have been trumpeting in recent weeks.” A Trail Blazers spokesperson said that the team is “focused on negotiating a new lease” and declined to comment, saying that it “would require speculation.” Kish added if the NBA, through its owners, “approves a move, it can charge a ‘reasonable’ relocation fee that reflects the greater economic opportunity in the team’s new home city” (Portland OREGONIAN, 8/5).