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The long-anticipated sale of the Portland Trail Blazers is underway.
The estate of late tech billionaire Paul Allen announced Tuesday morning that the franchise was for sale. The announcement by Allen’s estate, controlled by his sister, Jody Allen, comes more than six years after his death.
Jody Allen is obligated by her brother‘s trust to sell his assets—including the Blazers, the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Sounders—but the timing of when a Blazers sale would commence had been a mystery. In recent weeks, scuttlebutt grew in government circles that a sale was imminent, but no city officials would confirm that.
Blazers spokeswoman Natalie King wrote in a brief statement this morning: “Today the Estate of Paul G. Allen is announcing the start of a formal process to sell the Portland Trail Blazers. This is an expected milestone following Paul’s death, who had directed his sports holdings to be sold with all Estate proceeds being directed to philanthropy.”
The Blazers should fetch a pretty penny. The most recent valuation of NBA teams by CNBC estimated the Trail Blazers’ worth at $3.65 billion. The Boston Celtics recently sold for $7.3 billion, while the Phoenix Suns sold for $4 billion.
Allen rejected multiple overtures from Nike founder Phil Knight in 2022 to purchase the franchise for $2 billion. Knight is an obvious front-runner to buy the team now—in no small part because he pledged to keep the Blazers in Portland, a stated desire of the league—but relations between him and Jody Allen are known to be frosty.
The announcement of the Blazers sale arrives the morning after the NBA Draft Lottery. That’s probably not a coincidence: Had the Blazers won the first pick in the draft (and rights to select Duke phenom Cooper Flagg), that good luck might have added significantly to a sale price.
As it stands, the Blazers will pick 11th, and are still without a franchise cornerstone two years after trading longtime star Damian Lillard to the Milwaukie Bucks. The team is developing a number of young and promising players—including the high-flying Shaedon Sharpe—but hasn’t had a winning season since 2021.
People close to the team have long insisted that the chances of the Blazers being moved to another city are slim. Yet the eagerness of elected officials to proclaim their enthusiasm for keeping the team in town suggests the threat is front of mind.
“I’m glad for all of us rooting in Rip City that Trail Blazers ownership is moving forward to make sure our team has a certain future,” said U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon). “And by certain, I mean the Blazers staying right where they belong—in Portland.”
Mayor Keith Wilson noted that the city is still in talks about renovating the Moda Center, one of the oldest arenas in the NBA.
“Last year, the City Council approved a bridge agreement that secures the Moda Center as the team’s home through at least the 2029–30 season, while setting the stage for a major renovation of the nearly 30-year-old arena,” Wilson said in a statement. “My office is eager to build a strong partnership with the new ownership, ensuring that Oregon’s favorite basketball team continues to thrive right here in Portland.”
Any sale must be ratified by the NBA board of governors.