NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Tuesday that it would be a "failure" if the Portland Trail Blazers left Portland, Oregon, even as negotiations between the team's new owner, Tom Dundon, and the city grow increasingly tense.
Silver made the remarks during a press conference following the NBA Board of Governors meetings in New York. He said he and league leadership were offering to help all parties involved, but stressed that Portland had an excellent history with the franchise, and that it would undoubtedly be a failure if the sides could not reach a deal that made basketball in Portland, in both the NBA and WNBA, viable over the long term.
Relocation speculation
Talk of a possible move has circulated during the difficult talks. A framework for a $586 million renovation of the Moda Center, the Trail Blazers' home arena, has already been outlined, but no formal agreement has been signed.
The city of Portland, which owns the arena, has approved a $120 million financial stake in the project, while Multnomah County has approved $101 million. The state of Oregon has allocated $365 million toward the plan, but that funding is set to expire on December 31 if no deal is reached by then.
An aging arena
Silver said Portland urgently needs an improved or new facility. The Trail Blazers moved into the Moda Center in 1995. The Portland Fire, a newly formed WNBA team, also plays its home games there.
He said the league needs a state-of-the-art arena, adding that by almost any objective measure the current building ranks among the worst in the NBA. He said everyone in the community recognizes that, not just for NBA and WNBA basketball but for all the other uses of modern arenas, including concerts, conventions and graduations.
The Trail Blazers have played in Portland since entering the NBA as an expansion franchise in 1970 and remain the only major professional sports team based in Oregon.
Silver hopes to 'lower the temperature'
Silver said he spoke with Dundon about the situation during the New York meetings and hopes some lessons have been learned. He said he hoped the two sides could honestly lower the temperature in the negotiations. He said he had spent considerable time with Dundon while he was in New York for the meetings and discussed the Portland situation during one of the league's committee meetings with him. Silver added that Dundon had been able to exchange ideas with other owners who had gone through similar negotiations in other communities, and that there were lessons to be learned from those experiences.
Dundon's ownership
Dundon, who also owns the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, agreed in August 2025 to buy the Trail Blazers from the estate of former owner Paul Allen for an estimated $4.25 billion. Allen, the Microsoft co-founder, owned the team from 1988 until his death in 2018, after which the franchise remained under the control of his estate until the sale to Dundon.
With the state funding deadline approaching at the end of the year, the Trail Blazers, city and county officials still need to finalize an agreement on the arena renovation to keep the project on track.
