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The Portland City Council on Thursday evening moved toward approving a non-binding term sheet for a Moda Center renovation that would propose the city contribute $120 million for renovation costs in exchange for a lease keeping the Trail Blazers in town for at least 20 years.
The council is set to take a vote on the term sheet—which includes both renovation contributions and terms for a new long-term lease with the team—on Aug. 12, though the term sheet is non-binding and negotiators have urged council to view it as just a starting point for negotiations with the team. The city has until the end of the year to ratify a new lease with the team—the other crucial piece to ensuring they remain in town.
Meanwhile, across the river, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners approved a $101 million funding framework to fulfill its part of the estimated $600 million funding package. That vote was covered in detail by independent journalist Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report.
The state has already passed legislation that commits $365 to the renovation. That means that the City Council is now the lone holdout.
The term sheet advanced by the council this week, even after more than a dozen amendments seeking to change it from various councilors, remained unchanged from the term sheet that city negotiators announced in mid-July. At that time, both the Trail Blazers’ ownership and members of the council were unhappy with it. The team called it a “nonstarter.”
Representatives of Blazers owner Tom Dundon underlined their dissatisfaction with the terms in a public hearing last week, demanding that the city find ways to compensate the franchise for doing business in a market with high income taxes. That’s in keeping with the stance Dundon has taken since purchasing a majority ownership of the team: that Oregon governments should fully fund an arena and offer him generous lease terms in order to compete with other cities that desire an NBA team.
But Dundon would need the approval of the majority of other team owners in order to move the Blazers, and close observers of the NBA say he would lose much of his leverage if the city, county and state upheld the $600 million funding pledge lawmakers crafted in the spring.
The desire to hold all parties to the deal structure settled in closed-door meetings last spring may explain why, despite its displeasure, the council did nothing to alter the term sheet this week.
The six moderate councilors, plus Council President Jamie Dunphy, voted to shoot down every amendment brought forth by the council’s progressive wing. (Councilor Steve Novick brought forth a few amendments, too, but they died. He voted for a few of the other amendments, too.)
That led to intense frustration from progressive councilors, who characterized the moderates’ no votes as a refusal to engage at all.
“I am literally begging you to take these amendments seriously moving forward,” said Councilor Angelita Morillo after the first amendment failed. “People can say, ‘Oh, later we’ll get to it.’ Why would we not do it right now while we have the opportunity? I genuinely do not understand.”
Councilor Candace Avalos called it “cringe” and “shameful.” Councilor Mitch Green called it a “dereliction of duty” and “malpractice.”
City negotiators and moderate councilors, meanwhile, characterized the term sheet approved today by a 7-5 vote as a way for the city to at least enter negotiations with the team; a starting point, basically, for contentious talks that would wind up in front of council again, likely in December.
A final vote on the city’s term sheet will take place on Aug. 12.
