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The Real Rich's avatar

Charlie, you're doing fine. And, yes, unfortunately I have to visit Portland occasionally and it's a septic tank.

In my posts I've continually mentioned "outside of Multnomah County". No smart businessman or woman is moving to downtown Portland...nobody in their right mind would set up a food cart in Portland let alone a major league franchise. However, the PNW outside of King County and Multnomah County is very attractive to private money. Gillette stadium is outside of Boston; Met Life is outside of NYC. SoFi is outside of Los Angeles. Those are all private money endeavors. Sure, Allegiant is in Vegas, but Vegas is a different animal - no city in America gets buildings built faster than Vegas because politicians from both sides agree on one thing - buildings equal jobs and money. Even Allegiant and a blood-sucker like Mark Davis gave Vegas taxpayers a terrific deal. I'm saying, simply, that Blazers ownership feels like they own the market...ownership needs to be shaken out of their arrogance - competition is good for the customer. Give Blazers fans more choices and reduce ownership's leverage.

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Charles A Roseberry's avatar

Thoughtful, comprehensive and instructive, thanks Rich for the enlightenment, and I do agree with your assessment. Charlie

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The Real Rich's avatar

Your comment about the Oakland A's is right on the button, Charlie. At one time the A's and the Portland MLB Diamond Project were much closer than most people know. When 2020 rolled around and people across the world watched the looting, vandalism, destruction, homeless, crime spikes, etc., the A's (and other big-time events) took a pass. Oakland's political leadership - as you pointed out - is as inept as Portland's. It's a shame what has happened to this city.

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A.J. Tucker's avatar

Oh, no, there's your description of forcing the taxpayers to take out a $750 million loan as an example of what an amazing deal Las Vegas is getting. Here a good summary of just how amazing that deal is: https://deadspin.com/the-raiders-robbed-las-vegas-in-americas-worst-stadium-1795475973

And Portland already has the equivalent of Gillette, MetLife and Allegiant. That happened in 2013. Naming rights don't benefit anybody but the people who receive all the naming rights money. Or maybe you didn't realize that Moda wasn't Paul Allen's loving nickname for his wonderful sweet Muddah.

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The Real Rich's avatar

Don't recall when I've seen more negativity expressed by a single individual. Did somebody turn you down for a prom date? Yeah...I wonder why...you must be a lot of fun to be around.

You do live in Portland, right? Perfect fit.

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A.J. Tucker's avatar

The very biggest problem with the Portland Trail Blazers is the people who run the team and the vast majority of the people who support the team live in their own reality. If actual reality is negative, then that's because it's reality.

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