The idea would be that HE would own the hockey team... The more nights the Moda Center is busy, the more he's recouping his investment. Also, was told from THE guy who would know, we're getting very close to needing to drop in another $100M or so into it...
Yes, it would make sense if Allen owned the team. I have not heard that he has any interest in one though.
Why a covered stadium? I thought I read somewhere that Portland has fewer rain days during the MLB season than just about every MLB city? It basically doesn't rain in Oregon during summer, whereas places like Atlanta and St Louis are prone to crazy downpours.
Ths problem with the the NHL is the league policy towards the NW. Very much similar to David Stern's attitude They seem to have no interest (outside of Vancouver.) I would have thought Seattle would have been a slam dunk but nothing. The Coyotes were basically evicted at one point and the idea of Portland never even came up. We can say "Oh that makes a lot of sense. We need an NHL team." Well no. The local community have to make those moves or make the inquires to make the expansions possible. The dialogs don't just exist because they are not there. Nobisy just plops up at your door and says "Hey boys. I was in the neighborhood with this billion dollar team." They do if your LA or Vegas and willing to bend over backwards to build a stadium. But not PDX.
They would just do what Seattle does and schedule a lot of staggered road trips. But I still think covered is the way to go. It can be multi purpose then and get around a lot of headaches. Thee problem is once you lose a few baseball games to rain it's almost impossible to get them back.
FWIW, I've been told by multiple people in the NHL that it's basically down to Portland or Seattle for the next expansion team, and that there's a few franchises that view either PNW city as an upgrade... Who knows if we (Portland) ever get a team, but it feels imminent that the NHL will be coming to one of those two cities in the near future. He may not be interested any longer, but he definitely made at least one bid on the Penguins years ago...
Just curious, is it people in the administration part or like players/trainers/general staff? Just because I've heard rumors before only to come to nothing.
I think I would have more interest in NHL. I love baseball played till I was 30 but its too big of a commitment to follow a team for a year.
Both were people on the business side of things high up within their respective organizations... -- VERY high up. And just to be clear, haven't heard of anything specific in the works, just that the league recognizes that PDX/SEA would be a great area for a team and is doing what it can to get a team there eventually. Just my speculation/reading the tea leaves that it happens reasonably quickly...
He certainly wouldn't go down without a fight! I'd say he or Gates are probably the only two who would have a reasonable shot at doing something in Portland (but obviously Gates would be more likely to want to do something in Seattle anyway...)
Wasn't Allen interested in bringing in an NHL team a couple of years ago but the price wasn't right at the time? The Coyotes are a dumpster fire and I think Calgary's team is looking murky right now.
Portland Coyotes? Horrible name. Portland Pokerdogs has a much better ring to it. Or how about something with a local flavor, like The Portland Bud. Simple, sweet, and aromatic.
PA doesn't want NHL expansion because it's too expensive. Moving a team to Portland has been in play since he put a buy bid on the Penguins. Fills up another 40 or so nights of his arena.
The team that played for the Stanley cup a few years back were the Portland Rosebuds. Fun new twist on that name. I think some minor league team uses it, but the Portland Lumberjacks should be the clear favorite
This jibes with what I've heard too... PA would be very interested to 'buy low' on an existing franchise, but less interested in paying the close-to $1B for a startup franchise... Lumberjax were a very short-lived Pro Indoor Lacrosse team. I interned for them one summer, you would not believe how dysfunctional that place was...
Well he also helped keep Casey in Corvallis. A lot of people give Knight shit for backing the Ducks but he realizes that his legacy is directly tied to their success. If say, he build his shoe empire on Talahasee Juco Double Wides.... might make for a bad history. Now 19 track championships in the past few years.... That's a legacy that endures. No worse than T. Boone Pickens dumping millions into Oklahoma State University.
