NBA Franchise Notes: Trail Blazers Might File Chapter 11

Porter Says Group Needs $50- 75M From Local Investors

ESPN’s Ric Bucher cited sources as saying that Trail Blazers Owner Paul Allen “will either file Chapter 11” for the team or “simply do a Montreal Expos move and stop funding the team and turn it over” to the NBA. Bucher noted the Sonics’ situation, and said, “Allen owns some property right next to Qwest Field up in Seattle. He attempted to buy the Sonics before Howard Schultz ... and is supposedly still interested” (ESPNews, 4/18). A prospective ownership group headed by former NBAer Terry Porter said that it “needs [$50-75M] from Portland-area investors before it can make a serious bid to buy” the Trail Blazers and the Rose Garden. Porter said that that “level of local investment –-plus about $115[M] in debt financing -– should prove the group’s viability” (Portland OREGONIAN, 4/20).

FRIENDLY SKIES: American Airlines, in an effort to promote its new service from Dallas Love Field to Austin, San Antonio, St. Louis and K.C., offered free airfare to all 20,350 fans at the Mavericks’ game last night against the Clippers at American Airlines Center (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 4/20). The giveaway, part of the Mavericks’ Fan Appreciation Night, also awarded 1,000 tickets to TV viewers who text-messaged promotional codes. The airline expects that “only about a quarter of the fans who received the vouchers” will use them (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 4/20). USA TODAY’s Dan Reed on the front page of the Money section writes American saw the promotion “as a chance to poke a stick” at rival Southwest Airlines. Southwest is “leading an effort to repeal the Wright Amendment, which limits service from Love Field –- its home airport –- to points within Texas and eight nearby states” (USA TODAY, 4/20).

L.A. FORUM: In L.A., Mike Bresnahan reports Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak and coach Phil Jackson answered questions from about 1,000 season-ticket holders Tuesday night. Most of the questions were “polite and appreciative,” which had “as much to do with the team’s end-of-season success as the modified format” for the session. Instead of an “open-microphone, fire-at-will arrangement, questions were e-mailed ahead of time and read to Jackson and Kupchak” by FSN West announcer Bill Macdonald (L.A. TIMES, 4/20).