Tom Dundon has made the Trail Blazers’ lease fight about one thing above all else: the “first-class standard” language tied to Moda Center.
That clause, which has been part of the team’s lease since 1995 and was again included in the five-year bridge agreement less than two years ago, has become the flashpoint in negotiations with the city of Portland. The Blazers want the city to affirm that the building has been maintained in a “first-class condition,” a move the team says would remove the threat of litigation and open up the flow of information.
“We need the city to take the prospect of litigation off the table by affirming the work the team has done to maintain Moda Center in a first-class condition,” Blazers spokesman Charles Boyle told my colleague Alissa Gary and me on Wednesday. He called it a “critical first step to unlock a freer flow of information.”
But the city does not appear inclined to give that ground. One city source put it bluntly: “Then we have no negotiation,”
That is the heart of the standoff. If the city strips the “first class” provision from the existing lease or formally agrees that Moda Center already meets that standard, it gives up the leverage it has if the team ever leaves Portland. The wording is vague enough to invite a legal fight, which is exactly why it matters so much to both sides.
Councilor Steve Novick tried to raise that issue last month when he awkwardly floated the idea of suing the Blazers during a work session. The public threat was enough to send the franchise back into its corner.
The Blazers’ case is straightforward enough from their side: if Moda Center is first-class, they say, then it should be treated as such because it hosts 41 NBA games a year. The city’s counter is just as clear. If the building were truly first-class, it would not need the $600 million in upgrades that the city, county and state are working together to fund.
Both things can be true at once. Moda Center has been maintained, and the building also needs major work.
But after months of the Blazers calling it the “oldest non-renovated building in the NBA,” the franchise cannot have it both ways. It cannot be a first-class dump when that helps its argument and a first-class palace when it does not.
Dewayne Hankins, the Trail Blazers’ president, said in a phone call on Wednesday that he will take part in the city council’s work session on Thursday morning, which breaks a weeks-long public impasse between the sides. Even so, it is hard to see meaningful progress if the Blazers stay fixed on the same position.
The city appears ready to approve a term sheet that, financially, meets the commitments the Blazers have been seeking. The bigger issue is whether the team is using the old lease language as a way to get ahead of any compensation the city might try to collect if the franchise leaves.
That is why the “first-class” clause matters so much now, even though it would only become relevant if the Blazers were to depart. Once a new lease is signed, it would be irrelevant. Right now, though, it is the city’s only real insurance policy against relocation.
Dundon, for his part, is working within the framework he inherited when Jody Allen sold him a team with an expiring lease in a dated building. As one source close to the deal put it: “He’s just doing the thing with the thing that he was told he could do when he bought it.”
Still, if that is the path he wants to take, the city has every reason to make it difficult and expensive. Moving a team should be the last resort, not a negotiating tactic.
The Blazers are too woven into Portland for the city to surrender its leverage lightly. The council seems ready to do its part on the lease. Now the question is whether Dundon is trying to keep the team in town or position himself to leave on the cheapest terms possible.
For Portland, that is the whole fight.
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