e_blazer1

I was struck by something Paul Allen once said in one of his interviews regarding the financial problems the Trail Blazers and Sonics are facing. It was something to the effect that maybe there was only room for one team in the combined Seattle/Portland area. The quote yesterday in Helen Jung's blog about the NFL already seeing it as one market reminded me of Paul Allen's comment again. After thinking about it, I can't help but wonder if that's the new Vulcan vision to fix the "broken economic model." Rather than thinking of simply moving the franchise to Seattle if the Sonics relocate, thereby losing much of the fan base from Portland, why not look at ways to grab the Seattle market and keep the Portland fans?

With the Blazers having two Seattle-guys on the roster in Webster and Roy, and with Nate McMillan being "Mr. Sonic" and Paul Allen being in good graces with Seattle fans for rescuing the Seahawks, the Blazers are uniquely situated to look to expand their market northward. The Sonics and Blazers even share coverage at the present time on FSN and could use that as a convenient entry to expand the marketing of a single franchise for the combined market. Pull in a few of the Sonics' announcers and re-work the Blazers' uniforms with a little green in them and Sonics fans would feel right at home.

That just leaves the relatively minor dilema of where the team is based. Since bankruptcy isn't really an option if you're looking to expand the market, the Blazers still have that pesky agreement with the City of Portland to play their home games here for the next several years (anybody remember how long that thing runs?), but I'd guess that the City would be open to negotiating moving a few of the "home" games to Key Arena. The logistics would get to be a headache and the team would risk losing the home court advantage if they tried to do that too much, but maybe a few exhibition games and 5-10 regular season games could be played in Seattle.

I'll be the first to admit that I know next to nothing about NBA finances, but I would think that this model would have enormous revenue advantages to the Blazers. The restriction on the number of home games should have the effect of making there more demand for tickets so that attendance goes up. The combined TV revenue from both markets would have to be considerably more, plus having a larger television market would be much more attractive to national networks so that there'd be more revenue from that source.

I could be all wet, but I'll bet the boys at Vulcan are way ahead of me on this idea. So, what would the sentiment be around here to sharing the team with Seattle? I mean, the worst of it would be that we'd have to welcome MyElfboy as a part of our community.

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ebott

Playing games in Seattle is crazy talk. But expanding our market northward is not a bad idea. Especially when it comes to TV and merchandising. Maybe, given time, Seattle fans would come to embrace the Blazers in the same way that many Portland fans embrace the Mariners and Seahawks.

ABM

The Centralia Sonzers....proud home of Hummergate!

Blazer Ringbearer

I don't have a problem with that - then again, I live like 3,000 miles away from either place anymore so I don't pretend to speak for those still living in Portland.

Call them the Northwest Trailblazers (ala New England Patriots) and they could play some games in Seattle - maybe even Boise?! - but primarily in Portland.

It would be like the old Oregon Territory which took up all of Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Would that make the Blazers a big market team? Would the combined market size of Oregon/Washington/Idaho be comparable to that of New York/LA/Chicago/Houston?

Is there a precedent for a major pro team playing home games in multiple cities? I think it's a pretty interesting idea.

Blazer Ringbearer

It would happen a lot faster if they played a few games up there and were called NW instead of Portland... maybe it would never work, but why not?

Oil Can

Renaming the team is a bad idea. If Seattle-ites choose to change their allegiance to supporting the Blazers after the Sonics split, great. I have my doubts they will.

Meanwhile, we in Portland are crammed Mariner and Seahawk games down the old throat.


I have been wondering of late if Seattle-Portland might be something of a mega-market at some point, with NFL/MLB in Seattle and NBA/NHL in Portland. Since Seattle franchises already try to win the hearts and minds of Oregonians, a little reverse marketing the other way would be in order.

yakbladder

Why would we even play anything more than exhibition games up in Seattle?

They have a train that runs back and forth and I'm pretty sure the people up in Seattle can figure out how to ride it. Preferably on a long ride off a short pier.

Just for the record, I dislike the Mariners, I dislike the Seahawks, I dislike the Huskies, and I dislike others telling me that because I'm from Portland I must love them. I'm sure many Seattle fans would feel the same way if we were to have "one team". Heck, why don't we include Idaho and Montana as well..maybe Alaska and Hawaii. Make it a super-regional team. Come on e_blazer, don't tell me you've sapped all of your CBA-verified trade ideas!

soonerterp

Interesting idea.

But baby steps here ... is everybody just thoroughly convinced that the Sonics are Oklahoma-bound? I really don't see that, honestly. I'm still convinced that this was a power grab by Bennett and his people because George Shinn refused to sell him the majority of the New Orleans Hornets (and Shinn was still being wishy-washy about NOLA vs. Oklahoma City.) And the announcement that Bennett had bought the Sonics appeared to have thrown Shinn -- who you guys know I don't think much about -- for a loop he wasn't expecting.

And yes, Bennett is rich enough that he can light cigars with bills and it wouldn't make a dent in his pile. I'd be happy with just $50,000 of his money.

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mediocre man

I think it would be only fitting if the Portland Trailblazers played a preseason game in Seattle, or helfd a practice up there like the Seattle teams do with us.

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Samuel

I don't think it would work with basketball.

Sunday football games are a lot easier to plan a trip for. You could have season tickets to the Seahawks and be from Portland... no problem. That's only several trips up.

Baseball also works because there are 80-some games packed into the summer. That's a large enough amount where a Portland-bound Mariners fan could hop up to Seattle for a weekend and catch a few home dates. Also there's the ridiculous amount of television broadcasts, easy for any Portlander to watch.

Unlike baseball, there aren't continuous 'homestands' that Seattle fans could come down for w/ basketball. These are also primarily night games during the fall/winter (as opposed to the warm-weathered night games of baseball). It's kind of difficult to drive all the way down to Portland after work for a Blazers game.

And as for the Expos idea of 5-10 homedates at Key Arena... I think that's ridiculous. Seattle fans wouldn't embrace the Blazers (just as Blazer fans wouldn't embrace the Sonics playing here).

Now, if the Blazers moved up to Seattle, I think that just might work. We're a self-loathing city that would probably accept that type of thing, just as we've accepted the fact that we're a one-sport town.

wastro

They might be the "New England" Patriots, but they still play all their games in one arena.

It the team split games between Seattle and Portland, you'd just have two angry fanbases, instead of one.

hasoos

Last I heard the new owner of the Sonics was waiting to see if the city would cook up a new arena deal before deciding if he would move the team. Then if that falls through he would ship em out.

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Hasoos

SheedSoNasty

If that ends up happening, the Mariners and Seahawks should play half their games down here. And we'd just join states and be called Oreton...

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Boob-No-More

Or, Washegon.

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