Portland Trail Blazers call city council's proposed Moda Center term sheet a 'non-starter'

The distance between the City of Portland and the Trail Blazers on a future deal to fund the city’s portion of a Moda Center renovation is "pretty significant," according to City Council President Jamie Dunphy. The Portland Trail Blazers made their case directly to Portland City Council Thursday, calling the city's proposed Moda Center term sheet a "non-starter" and laying out, for the first time in a public meeting, the team's biggest concerns with a long-term arena renovation deal. The nearly hour-long presentation marked the first public appearance by Trail Blazers leadership before the council since negotiations over a new lease and public funding package intensified earlier this month. "In the past few weeks, this process has become increasingly adversarial. Every day we see contradictory statements from public officials, and I too feel your frustration, but there's time to reset this conversation. We need clarity about who is negotiating for you, and all the other public entities that are involved. The March framework was successful because it brought all the parties together. We need that alignment again. But this process cannot move forward if we're all faced with threats, public negotiations, and one-sided uninformed proposals," the team's President of Business Operations, Dewayne Hankins, told councilors in opening remarks. At the center of the disagreement is the city's draft term sheet, which outlines the framework for a public investment in renovating the city-owned arena. Hankins said the document contains more than 20 material departures from the framework approved by the Oregon Legislature earlier this year, though the team declined repeated requests from councilors to publicly identify those issues. Despite calling the current proposal a "non-starter," Hankins emphasized the organization remains engaged in negotiations. "We've been at the table this whole time. We've not left the table. We've been very engaged," said Hankins.