Portland Trail Blazers for sale, team announces
PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) — The Portland Trail Blazers have started a formal process to sell the NBA franchise, the team announced Tuesday morning.
In a news release and social media post, the Blazers reported that investment bank Allen & Company and law firm Hogan Lovells will lead the sales process, which is expected to continue into the 2025-26 basketball season, which runs from October 2025 to April 2026. The NBA Board of Governors must ratify any final purchase agreement.
The Blazers are currently managed by the estate of Paul Allen, the former owner of the Blazers. Before his death in 2018, Allen directed that all his sports holdings be sold eventually and that all estate proceeds be directed to philanthropy.
Allen bought the team for $70 million in 1988. According to the latest estimate from Forbes, the Blazers' franchise is currently valued at around $3.5 billion, which ranks 24th out of 30 teams in the NBA.
In 2022, Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, and Alan Smolinisky, a minority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, reportedly submitted an offer of more than $2 billion to buy the Portland Trail Blazers. At the time, the Blazers' franchise was valued at $2.05 billion, according to Forbes.
The Allen estate also manages the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise and has a 25% interest in the Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer. In the announcement, the Blazers said neither of those franchise are for sale.
