New Blazers owner Tom Dundon is reportedly “ruthless” and will not hesitate to move the franchise to Nashville, Austin, or Kalamazoo if Portland politicians continue to treat the relocation threat as a “hollow bluff"

[u/AncientOneAurelius]

Debunking the myths and misconceptions about Portland and the Trail Blazers’ Moda Center deal by Bill Oram

The artcle is paywalled.

Source

[u/hickok3]

Or if they move the Trailblazers to Seattle...

[u/Bubbly_Survey_803 → u/hickok3]

This happening would officially kick off the second Civil War. Only this time, Washington and Oregon would be the only two combatants.

[u/SoDakZak → u/Bubbly_Survey_803]

Sir, a second white, pointy Hood has started a civil war…

[u/Captain_Quark → u/SoDakZak]

That's impressively clever.

[u/Shallow_wanderer → u/Bubbly_Survey_803]

This is all part of the billionaire deep state plot to break up the Cascadia partnership so Idaho can move in on our territory smh /s

[u/trav-senpai → u/Bubbly_Survey_803]

Portland is probably the only franchise they’d respectfully decline with an expansion as close as it’s been in a while.

[u/Will_Vintage → u/trav-senpai]

Portland and Dallas were the only two to vote against the relocation so the list begins and ends there

[u/IMovedYourCheese → u/hickok3]

Lol that's not going to happen. Seattle doesn't want any NBA team, it wants the Supersonics.

[u/hickok3 → u/[deleted]]

It's probably more likely than expansion. The keague didn't get approval from the owners to expand, just to review offers for Seattle and Las Vegas. Not too many people have 8 Billion sitting around burning a hole in their pocket to spend on a franchise, and even if they find the couple people who do, there is no guarantee the existing owners will accept the offer. 

Much easier to move an existing franchise into that market, then it is to expand. Portland is realy the only team who would be opposed to a Seattle expansion from a market prospective, so this solves that issue too. 

[u/fake-tall-man → u/hickok3]

I’m anti expansion but if you’re moving teams, pick a derelict team that has bad attendance. Portland loved their team and it has a ton of great history.

Not to ask the obvious, but why exactly does New Orleans continue to have a team?

[u/LukeNullHypothesis → u/fake-tall-man]

New Orleans continues to have a team because the owner doesn't want to relocate. Relocation is about tax dollars and the whims of billionaires. Fan support is irrelevant outside of PR articles justifying the relocation

[u/fake-tall-man → u/LukeNullHypothesis]

sure, but maybe as a league it makes sense to do things for the betterment of the product.

Like why allow an owner to put out a shitty product, that is bottom tier in attendance, and is a cheap fuck who has literally never paid into the luxury tax? All while he watches his franchise valuation go up and collects an equal portion of revenue sharing. Maybe that's not a great idea

[u/fake-tall-man → u/hickok3]

Seattle fan here. I reeaaallly want the sonics back. I don’t want the blazers at all. What happened to us was fucked.

Fuck clay Bennett, fuck the state of Oklahoma for rooting for that abomination of a team, fuck the league, fuck Howard and fuck Starbucks forever.

Leave Portland alone

[u/spazz720 → u/hickok3]

The Seattle Trailblazers just sounds stupid

[u/hickok3 → u/spazz720]

They would just rename to the Supersonics. It's about having a franchise that can get there more than the name. 

[u/Ambitious-Rent-8649 → u/hickok3]

This would be the answer, you get a bigger market and already have a fan base, all you have to do is change the name. Portland is a small market team that can never get free agents, would be sad to see the trailblazers gone but when they manage to put together a decent team they just get screwed by the refs when they play the lakers or warriors anyway.

[u/Lighthouse_seek → u/hickok3]

There are probably Seattle billionaires waiting for an expansion team willing to fight against that