From Hoopshype Maybe the best news to emerge from all this, from a source who knows Allen: She doesn’t want to do anything that would hurt the value of the team, because one of these days she’s going to sell it. And more!?!?!? WTF? Since Paul’s 2018 death, the team has been run by Paul’s sister Jody. Levi Pulkkinen in the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported the story of several lawsuits brought by bodyguards for Paul’s company, Vulcan, where Jody was long the CEO. In the fall of 2010, a new head of security arrived from the FBI and found the security team in disarray “because of Jody Allen’s sexual harassment of team members,” and—in some allegations—messing with the pay of those who rebuffed her advances. One former military man said under oath he didn’t feel comfortable being alone with Jody Allen. Pulkkinen writes: Another former Vulcan bodyguard, also a retired Navy SEAL, said Jody Allen bought tight, revealing swimsuits for the security detail and asked the men to “do a fashion show.” Vulcan contends that any conduct resembling that described was entirely innocent and occured in the spirit of fun. In 2012, one veteran testified, “I’d rather get shot at than do this.” One remembered telling a Vulcan attorney that Jody Allen’s behavior was “going to bring the company down.” and then more!!!??? This is weird Wrapped up in those lawsuits and arbitration—some of which were settled—were several allegations about the bones of rare animals being smuggled for Jody Allen. The FDA reportedly collected and destroyed 78 pounds of Allen’s giraffe bones. And then there were the penguin parts. In a memo, a security officer noted that they were able to make sure “the penguin bones that JA picked up in Antarctica were boxed and put on the plane without being scanned at customs.” Jody Allen emailed her nanny looking for a penguin skull that went missing during the return from Antarctica; a friend apparently wanted to make jewelry from it.Deposed during the lawsuit, Jody Allen refused to say whether she took the bones or trespassed into a protected penguin nesting area. Even security guards with special forces training needed protection from these billionaires. What chance did the penguins stand? 39 mins ago – via Henry Abbott @ TrueHoop
If we look at the Packers, I don't think the government of the city or state could own the team. I think the people of the city or state could. The truth is, the way the Packers are set up pretty much guarantees they'll never be moved because they can't be sold for profit and no one is looking to make a profit... since it's a non-profit. The shares actually can't even be sold... they can just offer more shares to raise capital. So if the Blazers tried something like this they could make a stipulation that buyers of shares could only live in Oregon and the Portland Metro Area but I guess shareholders could move out. That being said, if the limitation on share owning was similar to the Packers, again you'd ensure the team never moved. If you had a million people interested they would just have to pay $1500 each, I'm sure some people would buy more than one share to have more votes in major team decisions... like electing the board of directors or new share offerings. I think this is a place that could actually pull it off. The demand, just to be able to say you're one of the owners has allowed the Packers to raise a lot of money over the years by just offering more options to knew share holders... this didn't make it so the people who were current owners made money by selling split shares, it just diluted their vote but due to the fact that these people don't make money off this shit anyway, they were cool with it so it could generate money to improve aspects of the franchise. I actually think there are so many Blazers fans in the area with an interest in really being part of the team that there would be high demand for the shares if it were a million shares at $1,500-2,000. You have to think that there are some rich fans that would want more votes and would throw a couple hundred thousand in. I think a ton of people would want around ten shares. Some working class fans might forgo buying a fishing boat or something to have a couple shares. So really you'd probably only need 100,000 or so fans and you'd probably have to put a strict limit on the percent of the team a person could own so people that just want a share or two could do so. I think the demand for shares in this area would be more than sufficient. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers,_Inc.
Any chance this can be merged into one of the other threads that covers all of this? This need to feed the angst is getting repetitive. Thanks
Agreed, I was discussing its viability, not its probability. There is too much money to be made off of this franchise or any pro sports franchise for rich people to allow the people to decide to make it a public, nonprofit entity. The people that want to make that money off of the team would use there influence to make sure they kept that ability. The Green Bay situation will only happen again if it's mandated in the will of a team's owner who passes. Otherwise we'll never see it again. I know it can't happen again in the NFL because they require one person to be at least the 30% owner of a team and only allow the Green Bay situation to continue because it's grandfathered in. The team was formed this way in the 1920s and rules and regulations have been written in by the board of directors and voted on by the share holders from time to time to keep it current and lawful but... yeah it's not happening again.
This I get. That's my hunch as well. The wealthy would buy it up before enough momentum could build. But it would still be worth a shot, IMO.
Because where would you get enough people to pool up 2+ billion that it would cost to buy the team, plus then the costs incurred to run the team, let alone balance the teams budget. The last time the GBP's sold stock (about 10 years ago), it was 250 a pop. IF the team set that as the bar, it would take 8 million people at 250 (or 8 million shares). Even if you did 1K per share, it would take 2 million shares. But that's *just* to buy the team. It would be difficult to find 2 million people to buy 1 share at 2K a pop, so clearly there would be people buying multiple shares. Plus anything done to improve the arena (etc) would have to come from the sales of stock, because they surely wouldn't profit enough during the season to make any kind of improvements. I.e., a bank is more likely to deal with a billionaire (or a group of billionaires owning the team) than several thousand to potentially million stock holders. And mostly, the NBA would never in a million years, allow it.
We're currently having a virtual conversation about a team that is not playing. How's that for reality?
The league may not allow it. But I don't see why it would be much different than what we're have now. We'd hire a CEO to run it and that's who the league and banks would deal with. The Blazers have been profitable. The Arena can be owned by its own company, so the Blazers don't need to be on the hook for those costs. I think you'd have many people buying dozens to hundreds of shares. I'd buy at least a share, and I'd be happy to pay a yearly fee per share if that's what it took to keep us competitive. There are 90k millionaires in Oregon. If 10k of them invested 100,000 that's $1 billion right there.
This would be a recipe for failure and expenses that would hamstrung the teams financial viability for decades. The NFL business model is not the same as the NBA's. They have 8 home games to worry about, and an insanely lucrative tv deal that helps them (the NFL tv deal is worth 110 billion, whereas the current NBA one is worth 24). So what happens if the Arena, owned by a separate entity, decides they want to remodel it? They're going to foot the bill (ahahahahahahahah)? Or what if the team decides they want a better arena, but the owners of the arena don't want to pay for it, what happens then? What happens if the team loses money? Paul Allen probably spent almost 750 million keep the team afloat during the time he owned it (I remember years where the team lost 100 million per year). The team is just NOW profitable, after barely making any money for most of the last 20 years.
There is a lease agreement. The arena can't just decide to bill the team more until the lease is up. That's not how it works. If the team wants a better arena it'll have to come up with the money to build it. Either the owners will have to fund it, get a loan, or ask the city to fund it. Just like has to happen now... If the team loses money it'll have to have reserves or the owners will have to pay up. If 100k shares kick in $250 per year that's $25 million. The $750 million Paul Allen spent over his 40 years owning the team works out to just over $18 million per year.
