Thank You Paul Allen

[OSUBlazerfan]

You take a lot of heat from these "fans" for investing a lot of everything you have into our loved Blazer team for the ultimate goal of winning a championship. Most people dont even realize that without you, the Blazers as we know them today wouldnt exist. Its easy for beat writers and columnists and "fans" to drag you through the mud and blame you as the fall guy. So again Thank You.

Also, i remember yesterday after the news how some of you reacted to the news, and it was purely despicable. Some of you wished death on the Man. Maybe its time for you guys to check yourselves.... Unreal

 

[BGrantFan]

Who wished death on him, and why does questioning Paul Allen's ability to win a championship make someone a fake fan? 22 years, no titles, and almost 20 years since a Finals appearance.

Shouldn't you be posting about how Pritchard should have jumped into the OKC deal with Miami? Clearly you have the makings of an NBA GM.

 

[donkiez]

co-signed

As much as I liked KP I have to side with PA on this. Obviously PA had his reason, it would be nice though if we got clue'd into them. PA has always tried to do the best for the franchise often at his own financial expense. It is his team, franchise, and business and he can run it however he wants to.

 

[BGrantFan]

co-signed

As much as I liked KP I have to side with PA on this. Obviously PA had his reason, it would be nice though if we got clue'd into them. PA has always tried to do the best for the franchise often at his own financial expense. It is his team, franchise, and business and he can run it however he wants to.

LMAO. You mean like when he declared bankruptcy and left his Portland-based creditors empty-handed? If anything, I've been too accepting of Allen with my years of praise for him. Now, the harsh light of reality has opened my eyes. He's rich. That's about the only good thing I can say about his ownership.

 

[OddEnormous]

co-signed

As much as I liked KP I have to side with PA on this. Obviously PA had his reason, it would be nice though if we got clue'd into them. PA has always tried to do the best for the franchise often at his own financial expense. It is his team, franchise, and business and he can run it however he wants to.

Not sure why people keep tying this. That is blatantly obvious and no one has said otherwise.

Just as obvious is the roll that fans play in supporting, following and caring about their team.

Looking forward to our humble, milk toast of a new GM, who has no ego and mentions everyone in the front office every time he is interviewed.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Hey, Paul. Sell the team already. After all this time we now come to realize the real "Jailblazers" are you & Vulcan.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Has any other NBA owner invested more $$$ in the last 20 years on their team? I doubt it. THANK YOU PAUL ALLEN. You are still one of the best owners in all of sports. Nobody's perfect.

 

[donkiez]

Not sure why people keep tying this. That is blatantly obvious and no one has said otherwise.

Just as obvious is the roll that fans play in supporting, following and caring about their team.

Looking forward to our humble, milk toast of a new GM, who has no ego and mentions everyone in the front office every time he is interviewed.

Because it is true, and people act like KP was the heart/face/soul of the franchise when in fact he is just another employee. You are obviously not a business owner.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Has any other NBA owner invested more $$$ in the last 20 years on their team? I doubt it. THANK YOU PAUL ALLEN. You are still one of the best owners in all of sports. Nobody's perfect.

Seeing how he's still single, I think he likes sheep every bit as much as OSU football players.

 

[illmatic99]

Hey, Paul. Sell the team already. After all this time we now come to realize the real "Jailblazers" are you & Vulcan.

Considering how solid the team's lease is with the RG, I wouldn't be entirely opposed to this. But then I look at the impending Greg/Nic extensions and get scared of losing them to free agency because our new owner cannot afford a $90 million payroll.

Unless Phil Knight is interested in buying it, I don't want PA selling the team.... yet.

 

[Kaydow]

I just wish Allen would say something about why this happened. I'm sure there are reasons why he can't. From a basketball perspective, perhaps he faults KP for drafting a certain injury prone player who is still on the roster - obviously he can't come out and say that (at least not right now) I'm sure it's much more complex than that, but there has to be some basketball related decisions that Allen isn't happy about. There have been some failures in the KP Era for sure.

But the way it looks right now is that Paul Allen is becoming to the NBA what Al Davis is to the NFL. At least that's the perception that the fans have, and if you believe Steve Patterson . . . what qualified GM is going to want to come to Portland? It's not all about money, or talent on the roster with a truly elite GM. We've heard some names of possible candidates and honestly, I have my doubts about why they would want to come here. I'm thinking that when the smoke clears it may end up being someone like Chad Buchanan. Not because that was the plan all along, but because they weren't able to entice any of their top choices. And if that happens it will be painfully obvious that Allen/Vulcan is the reason, because on paper who wouldn't want to inherit a roster that is 1) one of the youngest in the league 2) has won 50 games back to back seasons 3) has good character guys 4) isn't inflated with bad contracts?? Add that with an owner who is willing to spend money and it sounds great. Until the politics are considered. It sucks.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Seeing how he's still single, I think he likes sheep every bit as much as OSU football players.

Ouch! Good one... jerk!

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

LMAO. You mean like when he declared bankruptcy and left his Portland-based creditors empty-handed?

Try he was locked into a horrendous deal and bankruptcy was the only option to re-negotiate. Remember the term SPAM? I am glad that possibly the money saved not paying two people to do one job or paying for financial terms on the level of a payday loan is going to one of his charities.

 

[crandc]

I can assure you Paul Allen has not become Al Davis.

Oden may have had injury issues, but he's NOT JaMarcus Russell.

Allen did not destroy a stadium and make taxpayers foot the bill (while libraries close and police officers are laid off).

He did not move the team to one city, then move it back, pocketing millions from both.

 

[BGrantFan]

Try he was locked into a horrendous deal and bankruptcy was the only option to re-negotiate. Remember the term SPAM? I am glad that possibly the money saved not paying two people to do one job or paying for financial terms on the level of a payday loan is going to one of his charities.

This doesn't even make sense. He entered the deal, and he didn't renegotiate, he gave up his own arena. He didn't have to stiff the people propping up his Ponzi scheme. That entire debacle is just more proof of how he operates as a business owner. It was just four years ago where David Stern was commenting on how the Portland situation was unsustainable. Allen finally gets a competent GM and coach, the fans start coming back, and now he's trying to blow it all up again.

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

This doesn't even make sense. He entered the deal, and he didn't renegotiate, he gave up his own arena. He didn't have to stiff the people propping up his Ponzi scheme. That entire debacle is just more proof of how he operates as a business owner. It was just four years ago where David Stern was commenting on how the Portland situation was unsustainable. Allen finally gets a competent GM and coach, the fans start coming back, and now he's trying to blow it all up again.

Wrong. Patterson tried for months to renegotiate the debt on the RG and the creditors did not budge. They were locked into rosy terms and were not giving them up. Not for sure if they did any better running the Garden, but it was not far after that he bought it back.

 

[BGrantFan]

Wrong. Patterson tried for months to renegotiate the debt on the RG and the creditors did not budge. They were locked into rosy terms and were not giving them up. Not for sure if they did any better running the Garden, but it was not far after that he bought it back.

It's the creditors fault that Paul Allen entered a lopsided deal and then wanted to get out of it? That's a rather homertastic take on the situation.

 

[maxiep]

Has any other NBA owner invested more $$$ in the last 20 years on their team? I doubt it. THANK YOU PAUL ALLEN. You are still one of the best owners in all of sports. Nobody's perfect.

I'm convinced Paul Allen is just like Dan Snyder, arguably the worst owner in the NFL, save for Al Davis. He is willing to spend tons of money, but doesn't have a clue how to spend it or when to not interfere.

Paul Allen fucked this team up so badly under Whitsitt bringing in unsupportable players that I was embarrassed to be a Blazer fan. There's a difference between being willing to spend money and having the wisdom when to know to leave something alone. Paul Allen can't get out of his own way. That's why it's highly unlikely we'll ever win a championship under his ownership.

 

[OddEnormous]

Because it is true, and people act like KP was the heart/face/soul of the franchise when in fact he is just another employee. You are obviously not a business owner.

Right but I agreed with you. I told you what you wrote was blatantly obvious.

Can you believe I was able to suss that out without owning my own business? I didn't even need your help. I just knew it.

FYI your yo-yo factory is not an NBA franchise.

In addition. If you were selling 5 yo-yo's a month before you hired a certain employee, who then improved your sales 100 times over and you considered him "Just another employee" and then fired him I'd call you an idiot as well.


Do you have any green ones with the light inside?

 

[maxiep]

Try he was locked into a horrendous deal and bankruptcy was the only option to re-negotiate. Remember the term SPAM? I am glad that possibly the money saved not paying two people to do one job or paying for financial terms on the level of a payday loan is going to one of his charities.

I sat on Prudential's audit board of the RG, and I can assure you that what PA did was perfectly legal, but pretty slimy and in the end bad business. The deal was not "horrendous"; it was a market deal at the time. Pru/Farmers and TIAA were willing to renegotiate the loan terms, but wanted a personal guarantee. Allen was unwilling to give it. If you want a lower rate, you have to give something, usually increased security.

What those negotiations also did was poison the well for those three firms in being available to finance other Vulcan projects. Farmer's isn't a big player, but Pru and Teachers are two of the largest private lenders in the country, with some of the best terms in the business.

Look what Global Spectrum did to RG revenues once they got rid of OAC's management group. They almost doubled them, simply by being smart managers.

 

[maxiep]

Wrong. Patterson tried for months to renegotiate the debt on the RG and the creditors did not budge. They were locked into rosy terms and were not giving them up. Not for sure if they did any better running the Garden, but it was not far after that he bought it back.

I'm not trying to be rude, but you're not as informed as you should be about the financing of the Rose Quarter. Unlike home mortgages, commerical mortgages don't come with free pre-payment. If you wish to re-finance, you have to pay a prepayment penalty, which is the cost of purchasing T-Bills at the imputed interest rate to the expiration of the current mortgage in the amount matching the cash flow of the existing mortgage.

 

[Ed O]

Thank you, Paul Allen, for caring about the team as much as so many of the Blazers fans out there.

I would love to know why KP got fired, but I am much more concerned with the team continuing to build towards titles than I am about who the GM is.

Ed O.

 

[barfo]

Maxiep, do you know what the terms were when PA re-purchased the RG?

barfo

 

[maxiep]

Maxiep, do you know what the terms were when PA re-purchased the RG?

barfo

I don't know the exact amount (as I was no longer working for Pru when the bankruptcy occurred), but was told my a former co-worker the bondholders were made whole.

 

[barfo]

I don't know the exact amount (as I was no longer working for Pru when the bankruptcy occurred), but was told my a former co-worker the bondholders were made whole.

I should have asked a more precise question. I was wondering if he has a new mortgage (with the same lenders as before or different ones?), or whether he paid them off in cash, which would be unusual I imagine but he would surely be capable of doing so.

barfo

 

[illmatic99]

"Speaking of cruel, Portland fired GM Kevin Pritchard an hour before the draft. Hey, he's only a top-seven GM -- there are plenty of those. Does anyone else think Al Davis died a year ago and took over Paul Allen's body?"

-Bill Simmons.

 

[Chuck Taylor]

There certainly are reasons to be thankful for Paul Allen, but they are starting to dwindle.

One thing that is tough to argue, whether you agree with firing KP or not, is that PA handled it very poorly. It seems like a very weird time for a PA appreciation thread.

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

I sat on Prudential's audit board of the RG, and I can assure you that what PA did was perfectly legal, but pretty slimy and in the end bad business. The deal was not "horrendous"; it was a market deal at the time. Pru/Farmers and TIAA were willing to renegotiate the loan terms, but wanted a personal guarantee. Allen was unwilling to give it. If you want a lower rate, you have to give something, usually increased security.

What those negotiations also did was poison the well for those three firms in being available to finance other Vulcan projects. Farmer's isn't a big player, but Pru and Teachers are two of the largest private lenders in the country, with some of the best terms in the business.

Look what Global Spectrum did to RG revenues once they got rid of OAC's management group. They almost doubled them, simply by being smart managers.

Just curious, but were other companies made to have their owners secure loans with their personal wealth? I know I would not mix the two personally.

Commercial real estate is not my cup of tea and am only giving my perspective. Had a nice job working nights, but daylighted for the Blazers soon after Patterson was named president. It did not get any press, but a new division was created in sales the same time the massive layoff occurred. The Blazers were an absolute clusterf*ck of mismanagement. If the same group that was flushing money down the toilet negotiated that arena deal, I would assume they did not get the best terms.

I think Larry Miller makes good decisions financially for the club and hopefull that continues. The financial decisions on the basketball side though have been terrible. Hopefully the new GM is smarter in this regard.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

All of a sudden, Paul Allen is the Kim Jun-il of the NBA.

 

[Ed O]

One thing that is tough to argue, whether you agree with firing KP or not, is that PA handled it very poorly. It seems like a very weird time for a PA appreciation thread.

I don't know that Paul Allen handled it poorly at all. We still don't know why KP was fired, which is a mystery, but given that we do NOT know, how can we say it wasn't handled appropriately?

I can't envision a scenario where KP lovers would be happy with the way KP was fired, so Allen's handling of it is sort of irrelevant to me.

As for the timing of the thread: we've seen a lot of Paul Allen hate the last 24 hours or so. Those of us who appreciate him clearly wanted to communicate that in spite of the avalanche of negativity and chicken littleism.

Ed O.