Trail Blazers Owner Allen Looks To Reunite Team, Rose Garden
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Allen Looking To Acquire Entity That
Owns And Operates Rose Garden
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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).
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