The Portland Trail Blazers, the only National Basketball Association (NBA) team in the Pacific Northwest, is being sold. The last time the Blazers were sold was to Paul Allen in 1988. Allen was the co-founder of Microsoft and the owner of the National Football League team, the Seattle Seahawks, who unfortunately passed away of lymphoma at 65-years-old, in 2018. After his death, the ownership of the Trail Blazers went to the Paul Allen Estate.
Since Allen’s death, Jo Lynn “Jody” Allen, Paul’s younger sister, acted as the Trail Blazers and Seahawks franchise chair. In this position, she oversees the team’s successes and challenges by managing the financial and operational aspects of the team. After seven years, the Allen Estate announced the official beginning of the franchise sale on May 13, 2025. The franchise is currently estimated to be worth $3.6 billion.
“There’s some excitement for a change,” says Josh Martin, a Health teacher, physical education and basketball coach at Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School. “That something is finally happening because this has been on the horizon for years since Paul Allen died.”
For now, the Trail Blazers will stay in Portland, as their current lease agreement with the City of Portland goes for another five years, though the Moda Center is 29 years old and needs renovation. The agreement they signed includes a possibility of renovation, so there is a chance the Trail Blazers will be moving soon.
With that comes many questions from fans, like, where will the Blazers go? Who will pay for the renovations? The answers to these questions are currently unknown, but smaller changes, like vendor agreements or ticket prices, are expected.
On April 13, the Trail Blazers announced that head coach Chauncey Billups and General Manager Joe Cronin signed a multi-year contract extension. So, the Blazers players and fans will have some familiarity with the leadership within the franchise.
Trail Blazers fans have eagerly been awaiting the team to be sold. The team has been in their “worst four-year stretch of losing (117 – 211) since the first four years of the franchise from 1970-1974 when they went 95-233,” according to The Oregonian.
In 2022, Phil Knight, the Nike co-founder, offered over $2 billion to own the franchise, but the Allen Estate declined this offer. Knight has stated he will not be bidding for the franchise again.
Trail Blazers fans are hopeful that new ownership can change the team’s performance and the culture in Portland. Tim Loveless, an Advanced Placement government and philosophy teacher at IBW, says, “The culture of Portland is better when the team is good, there’s a buzz around the city.”
Right now, the next Trail Blazers franchise owner is unknown. This process may continue into the 2025-2026 NBA season.
Although the Trail Blazers’ ownership will be changing, Rip City never will.
