The Trail Blazers and City of Portland remain at odds over a new lease for the Moda Center, with a key City Council vote now a little more than two weeks away.
But despite some strong words from city officials, the Blazers say they haven’t decided whether they’ll participate in a council work session Thursday.
“We were just talking to the city administrator’s staff, figuring out the best way to move forward and show up on Thursday,” Blazers president Dewayne Hankins told Jason Quick of The Athletic.
That differs from City Council president Jamie Dunphy, who told Quick that Blazers leadership had verbally indicated it would not attend.
The disagreement is part of a larger standoff over a proposed 20-year lease and public funding to renovate the 31-year-old Moda Center.
New Blazers owner Tom Dundon has indicated he would sign a lease if the organization receives nearly $575 million in public funding. The state has approved $365 million, contingent on another $208 million coming from the city and county.
The City Council controls $120 million of that amount and wants more information about how the Blazers would use the money. A team source described the city’s proposed term sheet to The Athletic as a “nonstarter.”
The council is scheduled to vote Aug. 12.
Dunphy accused the Blazers of failing to provide enough information and raised the possibility that the organization could be “waiting for the government to give them an excuse and move the team.”
Hankins pushed back on conducting negotiations publicly.
“I’d like to turn the rhetoric down,” he told Quick. “I just want to get a deal done.”
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