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Speaking to a crowd of local elected officials, press and ticketed attendees at Moda Center on Wednesday afternoon, Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon offered brief remarks about his purchase of the team and, in so many words, asked Portlanders to support a taxpayer-funded renovation of the Moda Center.
Dundon’s appearance and rare remarks come as his ownership team is in high-stakes negotiations with the city of Portland and Multnomah County over the funding of a $600 million Moda Center renovation that could determine whether the Blazers remain in the city, or skip town for another home.
The city’s decision is pivotal, as the state legislature has already pledged $365 million toward the effort and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson has pledged $88 million (though the county board of commissioners has yet to approve the funding).
Some members of the Portland City Council have expressed their distaste for funding the city’s $120 million estimated contribution, particularly because the funding source Mayor Keith Wilson is seeking to tap is the city’s climate tax on large retailers. (Wilson has also promised $280 million in ongoing operating expenses, bringing the city’s total share to $400 million.)
A crowd of about 1,000 people filled one section of the basketball arena bowl for the Portland Metro Chamber’s annual meeting, which this year featured Dundon as its key guest. Attendees included Governor Tina Kotek, Mayor Keith Wilson, Portland City Councilors Loretta Smith and Olivia Clark, Multnomah County Commissioner Shannon Singleton and a slew of state legislators and other local elected officials. During brief remarks before Dundon’s appearance, Kotek said the state was “committed to a new Moda Center” and urged the county and city to “seal the deal.”
In what was supposed to be the highlight of the event, Dundon, dressed in athleisure, a Blazers hat pulled low and white Nike kicks, sat with Portland Metro Chamber president Andrew Hoan on stage for a stilted interview in which Hoan asked Dundon a few softball questions about the Moda Center deal, all of which Dundon answered only vaguely.
When asked by Hoan why Dundon wasn’t putting any of his own money into the renovation, Dundon responded that by staying in the city, he in fact was investing in a big way. “I think everybody can characterize things however they want. I don’t see it the same way,” Dundon said. “But I’m not trying to get people to agree or disagree with me, I just know that it feels like we’re making a pretty biggest investment by staying here.” He also said that charging an incremental fee on Blazers tickets to game-goers is a form of investment by the ownership group.
(It’s worth noting here that Dundon was, at the time of the interview, receiving sharp criticism from the NBA coaches’ union for hiring new Blazers head coach Micah Nori to a one-year guaranteed contract of a size and duration far below market rate.)
When asked about what local politicians debating a deal could learn from other governments Dundon has worked with in his career, he said he was “not into politics at all.”
“I just leave that to other people,” Dundon said. “Just in general, you want to create an environment of growth and competition and innovation, and that’s the job. It seems like they’re trying…I like your mayor a lot. I like your governor a lot. The people I’ve met are nice people that care.”
A rapid fire question-and-answer segment between Hoan and Dundon meant to familiarize attendees with Dundon as the person, not just as the billionaire owner of the Blazers, yielded little. The crowd learned that Dundon grew up in Brooklyn and New Jersey, and that he liked to play stick ball in the streets as a child; that he maybe wanted to be a pilot when he was little, but couldn’t actually remember; that he likes Italian food and went to Nostrana. In his free time he likes to spend time with his wife and five children.
The interview between Hoan and Dundon, which could only be described as awkward, was over within 10 minutes.
During a panel right after that featured Mayor Keith Wilson, Multnomah County Chair Vega Pederson and state Senators Rob Wagner and Kate Leiber, the elected officials urged support for the deal. They each described just how important the Moda Center renovation is if the city wants to support the vision of the Rose Quarter laid out by the nonprofit Albina Vision Trust, which envisions a public-private partnership creating a thriving Black neighborhood filled with small businesses, commerce and housing meant to fight the gentrification in the 70s and 80s that ravaged the inner Northeast Black community. (They just recently opened the 94-unit Albina One apartment building, the first of its housing projects.)
Wilson conceded that negotiations at the city level aren’t moving with the urgency he had hoped. “They’re not proceeding at the pace we want to be proceeding,” Wilson said.
Prior to Dundon’s scheduled appearance at the business summit—this year held at the Moda Center in an obviously symbolic move—critics of the Moda Center deal rallied outside of the arena. About 100 people gathered in a small park across the street from the Moda Center one hour prior to the event. Some held signs that read “No Bailouts for Billionaires!” A line of protestors held signs in front of the parking garage and yelled at the people driving in.
Three city councilors—Mitch Green, Tiffany Koyama Lane and Angelita Morillo—each spoke to the crowd.
“We’re not going to stand by and allow the public to be abused and for taxpayer dollars to be spent on a giveaway to a billionaire just because he’s a little bit more stubborn,” Morillo said.
Green said: “It is a risk. No question. Maybe the Blazers will leave. That’s Tom Dundon’s choice, but I want Portlanders to know that they have a choice too. And that your city councilors are fighting for you.”
The Democratic Socialist councilors’ fervor at the rally was almost certainly stoked by a public letter Wilson published on Tuesday morning, criticizing councilors who’d taken to social media to criticize Dundon and the Moda Center funding. “Calling foul and throwing around accusations can boost re-election campaigns but we can’t wave away the very real risk of declining tax revenue, broken promises to neighborhoods, and lost jobs,” Wilson wrote.
As Dundon spoke on Wednesday afternoon, the Portland City Council across the Willamette River held a work session on the Moda Center’s future. The tenor of the council’s discussion was tense.
“I can’t see one scenario where having an international brand, the Portland Trail Blazers—again, we only have two—leave our city and that’s going to be good for the long-term for my hometown," said Councilor Dan Ryan, a supporter of a Moda deal.
Morillo said it was “unacceptable” that Dundon wasn’t contributing to the renovation. “I think it’s unacceptable that we’re not having that discussion right now,” she said.
Julian Balsley contributed reporting to this story.
