Blazers Lease Talks Hit New Standoff Before Aug. 12 Vote

The Trail Blazers' arena talks with Portland have moved from tense to openly stalled.

Portland City Council president Jamie Dunphy invited Blazers president Dewayne Hankins to a Thursday work session with the 12-member council, asking the team to explain its concerns with the city's draft term sheet for the Moda Center lease. According to Jason Quick of The Athletic, the team rejected that invitation as the two sides remain apart on the terms around a long-term arena deal.

The timing is not small. The city council is scheduled to vote Aug. 12 on a term sheet for a 20-year lease at the Moda Center. New owner Tom Dundon has said he would sign a 20-year lease if the team receives nearly $575 million in public funding for renovations. The state legislature already passed a bill that would provide $365 million, but that money depends on the city and county adding another $208 million.

The council controls $120 million of that local piece. City officials say they still need to know how the Blazers plan to use the money. The team has pushed back on releasing more detail, arguing that it believed a deal was promised in March and that the city should help pay for an architect to produce specific renovation plans.

Dunphy's frustration came through clearly in the report. He said the Blazers had told the council verbally that they would not attend and would not answer the invitation in writing. He also said the city had not received the requested documentation before the work session.

"Without that information, or the participation of the Blazers, I'm not sure what purpose the work session can even serve," Dunphy said. "Very disappointing."

The term sheet itself has already changed. Portland had been negotiating with the team since March and initially wanted to include items such as beverage tax, street pricing and rent. Those three pieces were not included in the draft term sheet. The city did include a $3 million annual payment and a labor-harmony agreement tied to union labor for construction, concessions and other arena-related work.

A Blazers source called the term sheet "a non-starter," but Dunphy said the council still does not know exactly what the team objects to because the Blazers have not shown up with details. That is where the dispute has taken on a sharper edge. From Portland's side, the issue is transparency around public dollars. From the team's side, the objection appears to be that the current term sheet does not match what it thought was already agreed earlier in the year.

The city says it has mainly heard the team's dissatisfaction through the press, not through a direct list of changes. That distinction matters because the council is being asked to move public money while the team is withholding the renovation detail officials say they need. It also makes the Thursday session less symbolic and more practical: Portland wants the Blazers in the room before the vote clock runs out.

Dunphy also raised the relocation concern directly. He said it feels like the Blazers are either not interested in transparency and accountability or are "going through the motions to run out the clock" and leave government officials to take the blame if the team moves.

Hankins did not immediately respond to a phone message, according to the report. That leaves the public record tilted heavily toward the city for now, with the Blazers still needing to explain what terms would make a deal workable.

The next pressure point is Thursday's work session. If the team stays away and the documentation still does not arrive, the Aug. 12 vote becomes less about a clean lease extension and more about whether Portland is willing to approve money without a clear renovation plan in front of it.