PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
Trail Blazers gear up for legislative ask that would ‘guarantee’ team’s future in Portland
Bill Oram
Updated: Jan. 07, 2026, 6:02 a.m. | Published: Jan. 07, 2026, 6:00 a.m.
Late last summer, Tom Dundon revealed the market value of the Portland Trail Blazers: $4.25
billion.
We’re about to find out what the team is worth to the state of Oregon.
When legislators convene in Salem next month for the biannual short session, they will be met
with a proposal from Blazers leaders that should look familiar.
Familiar because lawmakers passed nearly identical legislation last year in support of Portland’s
pursuit of Major League Baseball.
The Trail Blazers, multiple sources close to the proposal said, are prepared to ask that state
income tax on all players and team employees and those with visiting teams — an estimated $20
million per year — be redirected from the state’s general fund toward a $600 million Moda
Center renovation that is seen as critical to keeping the franchise in Portland.
The Blazers confirmed on Tuesday that they planned to appeal to the legislature in the upcoming
session. In a statement, president Dewayne Hankins described the Blazers as “a central part of
Oregon’s economy and identity.”
“But,” he wrote, “Moda Center is bigger than basketball — it’s Oregon’s busiest entertainment
venue and one of the state’s most important gathering places.
“Since early 2023, we’ve been in meaningful conversations with the City and our public partners
about a long-term, market-rate lease extension for the Blazers that includes an investment to
extend the useful life of Moda Center. The 2026 legislative session is an opportunity to move
from conversation to action, and I’m encouraged to be working alongside leaders who see this as
an investment in our economic prosperity and culture.”
Dundon, owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, agreed to buy the Blazers from Paul Allen’s
estate in August, a month after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that Portland “likely needs
a new arena.” While the sale is not expected to close until this spring, Dundon along with the
Allen Estate, gave the Blazers the green light to pursue the funding mechanism, sources said.
Securing state funding before Dundon officially steps in as owner, one source said, “guarantees
the Blazers’ future.” Moda Center, the Blazers home since it opened in 1995 as the Rose Garden,
is frequently described as the NBA’s oldest non-renovated arena.
According to sources, Hankins has had preliminary discussions about the project with local
leaders, including Gov. Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, as well as leaders of
Multnomah County, Metro and the Albina Vision Trust. The Trail Blazers believe there is broad
support for a multi-agency project.
The team has also enlisted consultant Dan Barrett, president of CAA ICON, who has helped
negotiate numerous public-private partnerships between sports franchises and local
governments.
Last year, both chambers of the Oregon Legislature approved up to $800 million in bonds to be
paid back by income tax on home and visiting baseball players in an effort to lure baseball to the
Rose City.
A significant selling point of that proposal among lawmakers was that it was essentially found
money. The tax would be on income that does not yet exist in Oregon and would not exist but for
Major League expansion.
The Blazers’ circumstances are fundamentally different.
Team employees, notably players who earn millions, have been paying into the state’s general
fund for decades, dating back to the franchise’s founding in 1970. Will lawmakers have the
stomach to divert those funds from essential services to rebuild an arena that is home to a team
that will soon be owned by a Texas billionaire?
It raises fundamental questions about Oregon’s values but also the state’s aspirations. The Trail
Blazers are the team that made Portland a major league city and Moda Center serves as central
hub for not only sports, but arts and entertainment.
Failing to act in a moment of rebirth for the franchise would only perpetuate the perception that
this is a city and state that cannot get out of its own way and is driving business elsewhere.
Should the Blazers be penalized for already being here and therefore denied the same funding
mechanism the legislature approved for a team that may never exist? How would Major League
Baseball look at Portland if the city and state can’t keep the only “big four” sports team it already
has?
The reality is that the income tax dollars the general fund would lose in this proposal will vanish
anyway if the Blazers relocate.
While that may seem like an unlikely outcome for an institution as established as the Trail
Blazers, backers of the proposal warn that Oregonians should not take the franchise’s presence
here as a given.
This is a big gut check moment for the state.
In recent sessions, legislators have been wined and dined over sports, entertaining — and
ultimately approving — funding requests from the Hillsboro Hops, Eugene Emeralds and the
Portland Diamond Project.
But no sports organization is more fundamental to Oregon’s economy or identity than the Trail
Blazers. Previously, team leaders have estimated that Moda Center generates $670 million per
year in economic impact and draws 1.6 million visitors annually across all events.
With an eye toward the 2030 Women’s Final Four, the franchise is pitching what is often referred
to as a “generational opportunity” to invest in Portland.
And if lawmakers say no? What message does that send to Dundon, the team’s new owner?
“As far as first impressions go,” one source said, “it would be really tough.”
While the messaging from Dundon’s group — which includes Collective Global co-CEO Sheel
Tyle, Blue Owl co-president Marc Zahr and Panda Express founders Andrew and Peggy Cherng
— has been that they want to keep the team in Portland, Dundon is known as a bare-knuckled
brawler when it comes to business matters.
Many fear he would not hesitate to use resistance from the state legislature as an opportunity to
explore relocating to a state with a more friendly tax structure and a deeper sponsorship base.
The state’s challenge here is to ensure Dundon has no reason to look elsewhere.
Sources close to the proposal said the Blazers are eyeing a large-scale renovation that would span
three summers, starting in 2027 with a completion date in 2029.
That would allow the 2030 Final Four to serve as the renovated building’s coming out party and
would announce Portland as a city that is prepared to host major events.
For years, leaders ranging from SportOregon’s Jim Etzel to the Blazers’ Hankins have described
the Final Four — which was awarded to Portland in 2022 — as an opening salvo in an effort to
attract even larger events, notably an NBA All-Star Game.
But that will not happen without a modernized arena.
State funding, in the form of 20-year bonds, would be just one, albeit sizable, piece of funding for
the renovations. The Blazers will also look to tap further into the city’s spectator venues and
visitor activities fund, which uses ticket fees to pay for maintenance and upgrades to city-owned
venues, including Providence Park and Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum.
When the team and city reached a five-year bridge lease agreement last year, the sides agreed
that fees from Blazers games would be earmarked specifically for improvements to Moda Center
— funds that helped pay for the new video boards that debuted this season. The team is expected
to ask the city to broaden that to include fees from all Moda Center events.
While Dundon, who according to recent reports is trying to sell a portion of his NHL franchise to
fund the Blazers purchase, would not be putting any new cash into the project, the fees that
would otherwise go to the spectator fund are seen by the team as a contribution by ownership.
How will that sit with state lawmakers, who have 35 days this winter in the short legislative
session to address a looming budget shortfall as well as key issues such as housing, public safety
and education?
Can they justify reallocating resources that otherwise would go to those issues and instead give
them to the Trail Blazers and their billionaire owner?
The better question is what it will say about this state, and what it wants to be, if they don’t.
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