The Portland Trail Blazers are up for sale. Here’s what to know

Sports fans with a few billion dollars of disposable income have the rare opportunity to buy a long-running major franchise.

The Portland Trail Blazers are officially for sale.

The move is expected — many fans have anticipated new leadership since owner Paul Allen died in 2018. But the news this week also brought up a lot of questions.

Here are some answers:

Who is selling the team?

Microsoft co-founder Allen bought the Blazers in 1988 and owned the franchise until his death in 2018. Since then, the team has been operated by the family’s estate. Before his death, Allen directed proceeds from an eventual sale to go to philanthropy, according to the Trail Blazers.

Allen’s estate also owns the Seattle NFL team, the Seahawks, and is a quarter owner of the Sounders of Major League Soccer, but the Seattle Times reports they are not for sale at this time.

Why now?

Sports teams are always in high demand, according Lauren Anderson, director of the Warsaw Sports Business Center at the University of Oregon.

“They are a very scarce commodity,” she said. “There are a very finite number of them. There are few people who can afford to purchase them, but they’re always in high demand.”

Anderson points out that recently the Boston Celtics sold for $6.1 billion — the highest price ever paid for an NBA team. That likely gave the Allen family estate confidence that the Trail Blazers could fetch more than $3 billion.

How much is the team worth?

There’s no set price tag for the team. In recent years NBA values have varied, but are generally trending upwards. In 2017, the Houston Rockets sold for just over $2 billion. Two years later, the Brooklyn Nets went for more than $3 billion, and in 2022 the Phoenix Suns sold for $4 billion.

And then came the biggest sale ever — the Celtics.

Interested potential Blazers’ owners will be vetted and then will get to participate in an auction run by an investment bank.

“I think in an auction scenario,” said Brian Berger, host of the Sports Business Radio podcast, “this team will go for anywhere between $4 billion and $5 billion.”

Who might buy the Trail Blazers?

Nike co-founder and Oregon sports superfan Phil Knight reportedly offered to buy the Blazers in 2022 for $2 billion, but the Allen estate wasn’t interested at the time. Now, Knight has confirmed he’ll pass on the opportunity to bid.

Beyond Knight, Berger said there probably isn’t an Oregonian wealthy enough who is interested in buying the team. Even Allen hailed from Seattle, although he was a frequent Oregon visitor.

Berger said that means it’s likely an out of state, or even international, owner will step in.

“It’s someone who’s very wealthy, they’re the lead investor,” Berger said. “And if they don’t have all the money themselves, they’ll get other people or a private equity firm to supplant the rest of the money.”

Before the sale is finalized, it must be approved by the NBA’s board of governors, which is made up of a representative from each franchise.

So does this mean the team might leave Portland?

Maybe.

The Trail Blazers are expected to stay in Portland through October 2030, per the team’s lease agreement with the city of Portland to play at the Moda Center.

That kind of short-term contract, Berger said, makes the team portable — which could be an attractive selling point for a potential buyer.

“We saw this happen in Seattle with the Sonics moving to Oklahoma City several years ago,” Berger said. “You could have a scenario where an out-of-town owner or ownership group buys the Blazers. They want to build a new arena, they can’t reach a deal, and then they say, ‘Well, we’re actually going to move it to our hometown or the city where all of our investors live.’”

The board of governors would have to approve the move, and the Blazers would have to put up a hefty relocation fee.

When will we know more?

Unknown, but likely a year or more. The Trail Blazers said in the announcement about the sale that the process is expected to continue into the 2025-26 NBA season.

At this time there’s no impact to current season ticket holders and fans.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently said on Sirius XM NBA radio that when the board of governors meets this summer, they will likely discuss expansion beyond the league’s 30 teams. Many Pacific Northwest basketball fans have long hoped for the NBA’s return to Seattle and a renewal of the basketball rivalry between the two cities.