More than likely, you have heard the shouting from Portland Trail Blazers ownership and city officials telling the public why their side of a very strange story is the correct one.
But here’s the thing – no one is right. It’s not right for the team to insist the city (and by extension YOU) pay for their new stadium, when it is already the fans (you) who fund the team and its top employees.
It’s not fair for the city to pressure the team to make ends meet mostly on its own, as costs will continue to skyrocket for a franchise with the 12th worst attendance in the league last season. The “jock tax” will cover a portion of the final bill, but roughly 4/5ths of the deal is still being worked out, and lines are being drawn in the sand before most people even know what this will cost them personally, if anything.
It’s also not fair to the city that the team is using all leverage possible (including but not limited to threatening or at least implying relocation) to get the city to play ball. The city is a home for the team and its fans, which, as we mentioned already, funds the well-paid top employees of the team. 4/5 of a $600M bill being covered by taxpayers in one way or another does not sound like a reasonable solution. The city found a way to keep most taxpayers from footing the bill for a new baseball stadium expected to break ground next year, and it’s not unreasonable for them to be asked to find a way to push the majority of this budget to someone other than taxpayers. All parties involved will likely find a suitable solution that doesn’t involve forcing the bank accounts of a lot of struggling citizens to find funds they probably don’t have to spare.
But what if cooler heads don’t prevail? What if Tom Dundon and his partners decide to stand by their odd public image (being the cheapest owners in the sport) and force Portland to call their bluff? If the city of Portland and the state as a whole have to dig into its residents’ pocketbooks to pay for a stadium to give to a team they already pay to watch (whether it’s at home or in the stadium itself), that may not go over well. You can’t assume every taxpayer is a sports fan, and you can’t assume every taxpayer who is a sports fan is a Blazers fan. There are going to be split factions, and the longer this drags out, the more those factions will dig their heels in and ask why they have to be part of something they didn’t support before and have no interest in supporting now.
There is talk about thousands of jobs disappearing, and while the best-paying of those are less than 100 positions, you have a lot of food vendors and parking duty workers who need to support their families, and this is how they found a way to make ends meet. This is likely not a seasonal job for them; this is a key element to make their livelihood work. Many of them are working from October through April part-time in the evenings on game nights, which means they are at work 41 times a season during non-playoff years. During playoff years, that might stretch to a max of 58 times if Portland can host 16 playoff games. Some of these folks probably have other jobs to make ends meet and like the idea of working for the team and supporting their local community in that way. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I would not want to take that away from anyone. That doesn’t mean those jobs are not important; they likely help feed a family, and without that job, that family or part of it goes hungry. We don’t need any more hungry kids in this city; there are plenty of them out there even with these jobs in place. Of the roughly 5,000 employees the team pays each month, the top 200 probably are making more than they need, and the rest are just scraping by. Letting the team move probably means that 4,800 people who are already struggling to get by will be shoved down a slippery slope, from almost in the black to deep in the red overnight. And it’s not like there are just a bunch of good jobs out there waiting for applicants; they will struggle to find replacement jobs, and their families will suffer as a result.
I don’t have $1,000 to spare right now and not sure when I will again. I say that like I ever have had that much just left over for fun, but let’s say, for argument’s sake, I would still be willing to contribute that much to the team if it means 4,800 other families can stay on their current plan, with the goal that they get a better deal out of this also. I don’t even know what the rough number for the average taxpayer in the city or state would be, so, for argument’s sake, let’s say it’s 1,000 each. I can handle that; it won’t be easy, but I will sleep better knowing it helped keep some local families on their feet financially.
And something to consider is that better amenities in a state-of-the-art stadium should mean more attendance and more businesses investing in the area, which could lead to better opportunities for the folks just scraping by. If the stadium continues down its current path, the jobs that are barely doing the job now will probably not even help keep a family afloat in the next five years. If that family has a ten-year-old kid, you are talking about an at-risk teen in the next few years. If that family also has a baby, you might make them have to choose which kid they can afford to keep and which one they have to ask the city to find a home for.
This isn’t just about sports or about a team; this is about a community. Whether you like sports or not, whether you like the Blazers or not, that’s not really relevant. This is about job retention first, and then job creation second, with the goal of the community being better when the team completes the renovations and a sparkling new arena is on display in the heart of the city.
Heart, that’s what Portland has long stood for, and I hope as a community we stand by that. Let’s look out for each other, let’s convince the Blazers to stay, and let’s build something special together.
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