The NBA\u2019s Trail Blazers have been a fixture in Portland for more than 55 years.<\/p>\n
But with an aging arena in need of repair and Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon\u2019s purchase of the team likely to be approved this spring, some in Oregon are worried the franchise could be on the move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I\u2019m wrong, but this is why I fear the Trail Blazers could be as good as gone,\u201d wrote Bill Oram<\/a>, the sports columnist at The Oregonian newspaper in Portland.<\/p>\n His column was a plea for state and local leaders to take the possibility of losing the team seriously.<\/p>\n After the column\u2019s publication, Oregon lawmakers introduced legislation<\/a> to provide up to $600 million in public funding<\/a> to renovate the Trail Blazers\u2019 home, the Moda Center. The legislation has support from top Democrats, who control the Oregon legislature.<\/p>\n Oram wrote that Dundon knows \u201chis new team\u2019s greatest value lies in his ability to move it.\u201d Dundon\u2019s group agreed to buy the Blazers at a valuation of more than $4 billion and he\u2019s been in talks to sell part of the Hurricanes to help fund the purchase, according to reports.<\/a><\/p>\n Portland saw its biggest NBA rival \u2013 the Seattle SuperSonics \u2013 move nearly two decades ago. Seattle still doesn\u2019t have an NBA team. And Portland would likely have little chance of getting a new NBA team if the Trail Blazers were to leave. Oram mentioned Kansas City, St. Louis, Louisville and Vancouver as potential destinations.<\/p>\n The threat of a move \u2014 real, implied or just a vague concept \u2014 is a great motivator for cities and politicians, and stories often surface around negotiations for renovations or a new arena. Portland doesn\u2019t have a franchise in Major League Baseball, the National Football League or National Hockey League.<\/p>\n \u201cI would much rather be Chicken Little and suffer the relatively minor cranium-bonk from overreacting than watch this city be crushed under the weight of another town stealing our greatest jewel,\u201d Oram wrote.<\/p>\n Dundon is known as a tough negotiator<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Raleigh, talks about a lease extension, public money for arena upgrades and the ability to develop land around Lenovo Center dragged on for months before a deal was finally reached. Raleigh and Wake County are financing an ongoing $300-million renovation to Lenovo Center<\/a>, the Hurricanes signed a long-term lease<\/a> and Dundon has the ability to develop up to 80 acres around the arena<\/a>, which could serve as a jumpstart for west Raleigh.<\/p>\n \u201cNow that we have a deal struck, I can say that I like Tom 85% of the time,\u201d Centennial Authority chairman Philip Isley told The Oregonian, echoing comments he\u2019s made previously. \u201cHe would respond: \u2018I think that\u2019s too high.\u2019 I say that in jest, but the negotiations were hard. We cussed at each other. We called each other bad names. I wake up from time to time and think, \u2018Gosh, I can\u2019t believe we got things done.\u2019 But I think we respected each other throughout the process.\u201d<\/p>\n