The Glendale City Council gave Portland some hope Wednesday night, voting to void a 15-year agreement with the Arizona Coyotes. This set off some NHL-to-Portland glee given that this city has two professional-hockey venues in Memorial Coliseum and Moda Center.
A Trail Blazers spokesperson offered a "no comment," which is only to say I'm hoping the gag order means they're intrigued by the idea of sifting through this and seeing whether Portland can immediately grow its professional sports footprint.
We're too big a market to have only an NBA and MLS team. We're too hockey-ready to not seize the opportunity. And I find great irony in the idea that some other city's political red tape might be the tipping point given that Portland city leadership has long owned the trademark on anti-sports bureaucracy.
I watched the Glendale council vote, read the accounts, and understand that what fractured the city and the Coyotes was a conflict of interest clause in the 15-year, $225 million agreement. The city contends that the NHL team's hiring of the ex-city attorney who helped negotiate the contract is a conflict. The hockey club is threatening to litigate and believes the city is using the clause to get out of a contract that caused a $8.1 million loss in the 2013-14 fiscal year.
What I believe is that Portland has a real opportunity, and in the last year I've watched Trail Blazers, Inc. express more interest in filling dark nights in the multi-use arena with NHL play.
I also believe this rests with Paul Allen ultimately. NHL in the Moda Center makes sense for him. He could buy the Coyotes and bundle NBA and NHL sponsorship packages. He can bundle ticket opportunities to customers. He wouldn't pay exorbitant rent given that, like the Blazers, he'd be both the landlord and tenant.
Portland, the city, could be a secondary player here. Blazers founding father Harry Glickman told me a couple of weeks ago that his original plan for the NBA team was for it to be publicly owned. Memorial Coliseum would need massive upgrades before an NHL team could play there, though. The building is crumbling and would easily be the league's biggest joke. Leasing the building to the Coyotes would be a huge opportunity to improve the venue, but there's no way the current crop of city commissioners and Mayor Charlie Hales can cobble together the political will to ask taxpayers for a red cent. Won't happen.
So it's Allen or bust right now. And given the reaction from his lieutenants I have to think he's knee-deep investigating and simultaneously asking himself two questions: A) Do I want an NHL team for a toy?; and B) Would it kill my hopeful friends in my home state if I brought the NHL team to Portland instead of letting it go to Seattle?
That's the rub here. Because Seattle was already in play when the Coyotes locked up the deal in 2013 to stay in Arizona. Las Vegas and Quebec City were the other candidates. So Portland has opposition here. Seattle investor Chris Hansen has been trying to get a NBA/NHL arena built and Allen luring the Coyotes to Portland would cut into that plan.
NHL to Portland is a no brainer. It would work here. In fact, we'd be a better hockey town than basketball town. Long ago the prevailing fear from inside the Blazers organization was that an NHL team might cannibalize the NBA franchise's fan base. Also, that Allen just wasn't a hockey fan. So if we're asking ourselves today, "What's changed?" take a look at the guy sitting in the president's office at One Center Court.
Chris McGowan was hired away from his job at Chief Operating Officer at AEG Sports. He oversaw operations of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and the Galaxy of MLS. McGowan sees the Moda Center dark on off nights, he knows the business model and since his arrival the Blazers have been sniffing around hockey.
Fleetwood Mac and Justin Timberlake are solid acts. But an NHL team would kill it for 41 home dates in the regular season, plus the playoffs.
The gag order is currently in full effect in the Blazers organization. Nobody is talking hockey because when you're interested in making that buy you don't hold those conversations publicly.
That silence sounds sweet.