Paul Allen only put ~$100m of his own money into the RG, if even that. The rest were through Vulcan loans, the city of Portland, and the $46m of his own money he put up to build the arena. He may as well just give it to the City of Portland.
Good luck selling an almost 20 year old building with the main tenant being a minor league hockey team and a soon to be defunct arena football team.
Merrit Paulson isn't actually that wealthy. And by "that wealthy" I mean "that he can realistically afford the cost of running an NBA team, even if there is a group he brings in". Running an NBA team has turned into a billionaires club. And if it costs 500 million for a team like the Bucks and with the Clippers setting the bar insanely high, it'd cost probably close to (all told) a billion dollars to move another team to Portland (NBA wise). Merrit is a lot of things, but a miracle worker he ain't.
He may not be worth it but his connections I would think gives him access to it. Also, I didn't say Merritt as in the way I would say 'Paul'. I said group lead by Merritt. Merritt seems like a guy that would save basketball for a town like Portland.
I think the problem with that thinking is, having a group of semi-rich people owning the Blazers would suck. Since I'm not worried about Paul Allen selling the team or moving it (because of the reasons I outlined earlier), I think it's a lot of hair pulling/discussion for naught.
How did this thread get hijacked into never-never land? What a pointless discussion about a non-subject.
His dad and family are wealthy enough, and the connections they have to wealth are almost w/out peer. Hank Paulson is a legendary Wall Street villain, considering how he help orchestrate the destruction of other firms outside of his Goldman Sachs while Fed Secretary.
unfounded fear find their way into the hearts of every thread that involves another team moving/being sold or anything to do with Seattle getting a team.
I don't think Paul would do this but to continue to say that city of Portland has an iron clad lease agreement with him and there is no way out of it I'm just not buying it. There is a loophole and I think there is an attorney that would find it if he really wanted the move.
The Clippers have the worst leases in sports right now. If I were Balmer I'd demand the city build me my own arena, or simply move it to Seattle or Anaheim
Shelly Sterling said in a statement. “We have worked for 33 years to build the Clippers into a premiere NBA franchise. I am confident that Steve will take the team to new levels of success.” There's no way she said that with a straight face. In the 33 years they "worked to build the Clippers into a premiere NBA franchise", they made the playoffs a grand total of 7 times. And have been the laughingstock of the NBA for the vast majority of the time he's owned them. And it was not because of the fact they're in the same city as the Lakers. http://nba.si.com/2014/05/30/shelly-sterling-sells-clippers-steve-ballmer-microsoft/
Nope, Ballmer would need permission to move the team, it won't happen they would not even let them move the Kings let alone a revitalized Clippers team leaving LA. The 2 billion will stand and the team will stay in LA. At least for the remainder of their lease 8 years I believe.
Maybe this was the plan all along, Sterling wanted to sell but he knew they were over rated so he decided to give them an opt out or some extra motivation. Clippers lost because they were distracted by this whole situation not because they are inferior to the Thunder. Had they won it would have made them even more attractive to potential buyers. Plus he streamlined the sale process and timeline Sterling is a genius.
Yeah, I said elsewhere that I think he had this whole thing planned. Every owner should pull this stunt to double his team worth.
