Dammit Sly.. it isn't who saved the Blazers.. its who is a better player!!! lol.
Did PA really put the team up for sale? meaning potentially moving the team somewhere else, or for sale only to local buyers, or buyers who would keep the team here?
That's kinda scary I never knew he lost interest in the team at one point.
Portland Arena Management
As a result of the bankruptcy proceedings, the Oregon Arena Corporation was dissolved and their assets (primarily the Rose Garden and the underlying land) became the property of the lenders on January 1, 2005.
[9] The lenders formed a new corporation, Portland Arena Management LLC ("PAM") to manage the property acquired in the bankruptcy proceedings, and hired
Global Spectrum to operate the arena.
[8]
For a while, the Trail Blazers (still owned by Allen) and the Portland Arena Management had a highly hostile relationship,
[11] with the two entities competing for ticket sales.
[12] Almost immediately after PAM took over the arena, the Trail Blazers demanded that new owners perform US $40 million in renovations to maintain the Rose Garden as a "first class facility."
[9]
Effects
One year after the Rose Garden was transferred to creditors, Larry Conn, an executive at
Vulcan Inc. gave an interview in which he claimed that "all options were on the table" concerning the Trail Blazers as the "economic model" was broken, and noted that without a "public-private partnership", "no businessperson can sustain losses of that kind".
[13] Conn noted that the lease agreement with Portland Arena Management gave PAM all revenue from the arena's premium seating (the black courtside seats, as well as luxury box revenue), concessions, and parking, as well as all arena-related revenue for events other than Trail Blazer games. The Trail Blazers retained the revenue for non-premium seating (the arena's red seats) for Blazer games.
[14] Paul Allen repeated the claim in an interview in March.
[15] Team officials were vague about specifics, leading to much media speculation that Allen might sell the team, attempt to move it, or was lobbying for increased public financing of Trail Blazer operations.
[16] In addition to the lease concerns, that season the Blazers posted the league's worst record (21-61),
[17] and attendance was below average.
[18]
While the financial model may have been broken for the Trail Blazers, it was anything but for Portland Arena Management. Rose Quarter GM Mike Scanlon of Global Spectrum stated that the company was "very happy with how things are going at the Rose Garden", and referred to Global's stewardship of the Garden as a "very positive experience". He noted that the arena did 45 concerts in 2005, and that same year landed another sports tenant, the
Portland LumberJax of the
National Lacrosse League.
[12]
Trail Blazers and arena go up for sale
Throughout the spring of 2006, NBA commissioner
David Stern met with both Blazer management and PAM in an attempt to repair the relationship.
[14] In the spring of 2006, Allen and PAM agreed to jointly market the team and the arena for sale.
[19] Fourteen investor groups (including one fronted by
Terry Porter) expressed interest, and paid a US$100,000 application fee. The highest initial bids were in the US$300–$325 million range.
[14] However, Allen unexpectedly pulled the team off the market.
[20]
It was speculated that Allen agreed to sell the team to learn what price Portland Arena Management would accept from a third party.
[14] Others suspected that he had advance knowledge of the upcoming purchase of the
Seattle SuperSonics by
Oklahoma City businessman
Clay Bennett, and that Allen saw an opportunity to move the Blazers to his hometown of
Seattle should the Sonics move to the Sooner State.
[21] In an interview, Allen indicated that the Blazers' strong 2006 draft, including 2006
NBA Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy, caused him to change his mind about selling the team.
[14]
Public reaction
The bankruptcy filing was widely criticized in the local media and elsewhere.
[14] Helen Jung, a reporter for
The Oregonian described the affair as a game of "
chicken" and as "bankruptcy as a business strategy", and noted Allen may have worsened his position by taking the arena into bankruptcy rather than offering a higher settlement.
[3] Lewis & Clark College law professor and noted local
blogger Jack Bogdanski was even more unkind, attacking the morality and "character" of a billionaire "weaseling" his way out of a debt that he could easily repay personally, especially at a time when the team was putting an emphasis on the off-court behavior of his players.
[22]
Claims concerning the "broken financial model" were similarly mocked. After Blazer management complained about having the "worst lease in pro sports",
[13] Dwight Jaynes of the
Portland Tribune noted that the situation was largely the team's own fault.
[23] Helen Jung noted that teams regularly complain about losing money, and suspected that such claims were often a ruse to obtain public financing.
[24]
During the bankruptcy period, the team and the state's largest newspaper,
The Oregonian, had an especially troubled relationship.
Oregonian columnist
John Canzano and then-Trail Blazers president
Steve Patterson were deeply distrustful of each other. The paper hired an outside editor to investigate the relationship between the paper's sports department and the team.
[14]
The Trail Blazers, for their part, maintained throughout putting Oregon Arena Corp. into bankruptcy was the best option for the team. Paul Allen stated that the debt service on the loan was greater than the revenues earned by the stadium, especially in the face of declining attendance. Allen also noted that the creditors, on a loan of $155 million, had recouped $195 million in cash over the years, plus the arena, which the bankruptcy court valued at US$60 million.
[15]
Paul Allen re-acquires the arena
On February 2, 2007, Allen (through his subsidiary Vulcan) and PAM announced that the parties had signed a letter-of-intent for Allen to repurchase the arena.
[25] On April 2 of that year, the deal was completed. At that point, a new Allen-owned corporation, Vulcan Sports and Entertainment, was chartered to operate Allen's sports-related properties, including the arena, the Trail Blazers, and the
Seattle Seahawks. Terms of the purchase agreement were not disclosed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Garden_arena_bankruptcy
I get that I wasn't clear on what I was asking, but Ive tried to clarify that. If that doesn't work, so be it. im not worked up over it, just hoping people CAN narrow it down
) nothing else on the roster is known...
