Trail Blazers Owner Allen Looks To Reunite Team, Rose Garden

Allen Looking To Acquire Entity That Owns And Operates Rose Garden

Trail Blazers Owner Paul Allen said Friday that his investment firm, Vulcan Inc., has signed a letter of intent to buy Portland Arena Management (PAM), the entity “created by his former creditors to own and operate the 20,000-seat Rose Garden,” according to Helen Jung of the Portland OREGONIAN. No further details, including the purchase price, were disclosed. If finalized, the agreement would “reunite [the team] with its arena under common ownership, which was the plan when the Rose Garden was built 12 years ago.” But “more importantly, it would reunite Allen ... with millions of dollars a year in income from selling luxury boxes, courtside seats, club seats, concessions and signage.” Univ. of Oregon Warsaw Sports Marketing Center Managing Dir Paul Swangard said, “Given [Allen’s] decision to take the team off the market, this was really the only logical scenario for the team to fix their economic model.” PAM Chair Thomas Luther said in a statement, “We believe this resolution benefits all interested parties.” Jung noted NBA Commissioner David Stern, who has “intermittently tried to broker a deal between Allen and PAM, jump-started talks with a meeting with PAM last month” (Portland OREGONIAN, 2/3).

DO THE RIGHT THING: In Portland, John Canzano wrote of Allen’s move is the “equivalent of the elementary-school bully apologizing and giving back everyone’s lunch money in front of the entire school yard. ... Instead of piling on Allen today, we should recognize that he’s learning from his mistakes, and he might be ready to accelerate the rebuilding of the Trail Blazers” (Portland OREGONIAN, 2/3).