Canzano: "Softy" says PDX shouldn't let Trail Blazers get away
A warning from Seattle.
Don’t blow it, Rip City.
That was Dave “Softy” Mahler’s advice to Portland civic leaders and Trail Blazers fans on Friday. Mahler, a Seattle afternoon-drive radio host, spoke to me in a wide-ranging conversation.
He lamented the loss of the Sonics in Seattle nearly two decades ago, warning Portland, “Don’t mess this up, guys. Do not mess this up because you'll regret the day you let them walk.”
Some thoughts:
— Softy said, “You can’t put a financial price or a number on what it means to be able to take your son or daughter to a Blazer game. What it means to grow up with the pride of having an NBA team in Portland. Grow up with the pride of actually having a game to go to 41 times a year, plus the preseason, plus the playoffs. Not everything has to equal money. This has to equal pride. It has to equal something great for the town that boosts morale. And last time I checked, by the way, John, your city could use a little bit of morale. You let this team walk, you tell me where that goes. You tell me where the heartbeat of Portland goes.”
— Thoughts?
— Trail Blazers President Dewayne Hankins met with the Portland City Council at City Hall on Thursday. I feel bad for the spot Hankins is in. He’s left to carry the message of Tom Dundon’s ownership group, and we all know that same group will discard Hankins and step over his body the first opportunity it gets.
— Hankins spoke on behalf of the franchise on Thursday and said: “The arena is only a small piece of that bigger picture. Portland’s current stagnant business climate, high income taxes, and divisive political environment make this a tough city to invest in. It makes it harder to sell tickets, secure corporate partnerships and … recruit players.”
— There’s definitely some truth in that message. Oregon is a tough place to do business. High taxes. Layers of bureaucracy. Lots of well-meaning crazies in leadership positions. And the vocal minority carries way too much clout.
— Columbia and Nike both operate in unincorporated Washington County. Lots of Oregon companies, including Dutch Bros., have moved headquarters to other states. Commercial real estate has been in a spiral since the pandemic. The loss of tax revenue should raise alarm bells with state and city leaders.
— Does it?
— That said, Portland fans have fiercely supported the Trail Blazers. The team sells tickets, even when the product is mediocre or even lousy. When the Blazers are good, sponsorships and ticket sales flow. A source with one of the ownership groups that kicked the tires on bidding on the Blazers told me his group thought there was substantially more upside in Portland (Valuation: ~$4 billion) vs. Las Vegas (Valuation: ~$8 billion).
— I’m thinking Tom Dundon understood that.
— 20 percent of the team is still owned by the Paul G. Allen Estate. Dundon’s group must close on that final slice of the franchise before September of 2028. Dundon signed an ironclad deal for that final share, I’m told. There’s no shot that the estate could pull back the 20 percent and sell it to someone else, per a source.
— Dundon is the franchise’s majority owner. Portland fans are stuck with him.
— Sheel Tyle, the Founder and co-CEO of Collective Global, is part of Dundon’s ownership group. I have to think Tyle isn’t happy with the way this is unfolding. He stuck his neck out at the introductory news conference when media were pressing Dundon on whether he might try to move the team, and pushed back.
— Tyle said that day: “Tom would not have asked me to join this group if (relocation) was on the table.”
— Tyle sounded and looked sincere. I don’t think he was being disingenuous. But he’s been quiet lately. I keep wondering if Tyle was duped by Dundon or if he’ll pop up at some point. Keep an eye on this.
— Dundon’s largest investor is the Cherng family, who owns Panda Express. That’s the one investor he won’t want to alienate. The Cherngs live in Las Vegas. The family owns the real estate assets of The Cosmopolitan, the Waldorf Astoria, and a 400,000-square foot retail space on The Strip. I keep thinking they may eventually want to be part of an ownership group in Las Vegas.
— No way is the NBA going to let Dundon move the Trail Blazers to Vegas. Get that out of your head. There’s a $7 billion to $10 billion expansion fee windfall waiting for the NBA on The Strip. The league owners won’t let anyone spoil that.
— NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been very quiet. That tells me a lot. If Silver thought Portland was unreasonable or didn’t work as a market, he’d be out front, telling the world. Instead, he’s been 100 percent diplomatic.
— Lots of insiders tell me to expect Dundon’s group to float the idea of a new arena in Oregon at some point. Let’s see how long they wait. My over/under on that is September 1. He’ll let the natives get nice and anxious.
— Would an arena in the suburbs be a better fit and easier sell to Portland’s NBA team? Discuss. As it was in Raleigh, N.C., with his hockey club, Dundon’s financial motive is rooted in land development around the arena, not the sport being played inside it.
— I still think Raleigh works in Dundon’s mind as a potential relocation option. Yes, I know Charlotte isn’t far away. But Dundon already has the NHL team and the Lenovo Center seats more than 19,000 fans and already houses college basketball.
— I’m not keen on Seattle as a relocation option. Doesn’t pencil given that Dundon wouldn’t have control of the arena or surrounding area.
— I asked Softy why Jody Allen is viewed as a hero by Seattle football fans and a bum by Portland basketball fans. That’s a polarizing difference. Said Softy: “She shut her mouth, opened her wallet, and listened to John Schneider. She didn’t let the inmates run the asylum when Russell Wilson wanted to fire Pete Carroll. She stepped in, said, ‘No, we’re going to trade you instead.’”
— Seems to me that one of the fundamental differences was that Jody’s friends and social circle cared about the Seahawks. Also, that she had GM John Schneider running the football side of things with the NFL team. In Portland, GM Neil Olshey was in charge of the basketball side of the operation. We all know how that went.
— Softy made an interesting point when I asked him about the support of the Seahawks in the state of Washington vs. the support of the Sonics. He said that the Seahawks are a statewide draw.
“If there’s any franchise in Seattle that is represented by the entire state and not just Western Washington, it’s the Seahawks,” he said. “OK? I mean, you go to Spokane, you go to Yakima, you go to Walla Walla, you go north, you go south. There are Seahawk clubs all over the state. You know, we used to have banners back in the day at the Kingdome of all the Seahawk clubs that were represented all over the state, and Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Alaska, Canada. So, this really truly is a regional deal. The Sonics were not like that.”
— Are the Trail Blazers like that in Oregon? Where is the core fan base located? Portland? The suburbs? Statewide? Discuss.
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I suppose there are scattered fans everywhere, but my guess is that if there was a summary of Blazers season or single ticket buyers by zipcode it would be very very heavy to Portland Metro.
I can remember the "old days" of the late 1970's, early 1980's, when retailer GI Joe's was still around, with stores around the state, and their displays of Blazers merchandise. I can remember Blazers players and broadcasters doing road trips around the state.
That type of state-wide fandom no longer exists.
Yes, maybe Molly from Beaverton who moved to Sun River still is a fan in Central Oregon, but generally the Blazers get little publicity outside Metro. And, in the last couple decades have done little to change that.
It is clear that Dundon bought this team to relocate them. As a 25+ year sales leader I am seeing the same tactics from him that I have seen from others negotiating in bad faith.
Sadly the business climate is terrible in PDX and the political atmosphere is even worse. Blazers are gone.
We need to refocus on bringing MLB or NHL to Portland. I think this could be a top NHL market.