It’s unclear if anyone who purchased a $350 ticket to this year’s chamber of commerce meeting is feeling buyer’s remorse, but if they expected anything more than a pep rally, sans pep, they certainly could be.
The Portland Metro Chamber held its annual meeting at the Moda Center on Wednesday, a fundraiser for the local tax-exempt business organization. With roughly 800 people in attendance, the event’s headliner was none other than Tom Dundon, the new, Texas-based majority owner of the Portland Trail Blazers. City, county, and state elected officials spoke in uninspired monotones about their governments’ public investments in the arena and the implications if the Blazers were to leave town, which Dundon has tacitly threatened.
“We can do this, we should do it, and I want to thank everyone who is stepping up to be part of this conversation,” Governor Tina Kotek, a surprise guest, said from a stage feet from where Blazers beloved point guard Damian Lillard has hit multiple playoff-winning buzzer beaters.
Kotek added that many people are skeptical about governments’ involvement in the project, saying that debate is important, but the debate must ultimately be settled.
“We have to seal the deal,” Kotek said.
Exactly what the “deal” will entail has yet to be confirmed, but Dundon, who was interviewed toward the end of the event, reiterated little interest in contributing financially as part of it.
Outside the Moda Center, the tone diverged. Prior to the event, a raucous crowd of protesters shouted at drivers in Audis, BMWs, and other luxury vehicles as they filed into the Moda Center parking garage. A rally organized by the Democratic Socialists of America appeared to galvanize members of the public. Moda Center security and the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) increased their presence for the event, where roughly 100 people gathered with signs reading, “No Bailouts for Billionaires.”
Taylor, a protester who declined to provide their last name, shouted into a microphone, “Texas called; they want their billionaire back!”
Before the Metro Chamber’s meeting, City Councilors Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo, and Mitch Green spoke to the crowd about their perspective that Oregonians should be leery of handing over millions to a billionaire, particularly as budgets everywhere continue to face massive deficits. Immediately following their speeches, councilors left to attend a City Council work session, which was scheduled at the same time as the Metro Chamber meeting. Councilors Olivia Clark and Loretta Smith attended the Metro Chamber event, alongside a bevy of politicians from across the state.
City councilors were offered complimentary tickets to the event and encouraged by the Metro Chamber to attend, though state ethics rules could complicate things. According to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, public officials aren’t supposed to accept any gift with a value of $50 or more from a single source. Exemptions do exist under the law, including for elected officials attending chamber of commerce events in their official capacity. But that exemption does not apply when they are not officially representing the government.
Alicia Chavez, the incoming Portland Association of Teachers president, called out elected leaders who tell the public there is no money when educators are laid off, class sizes grow, and buildings need maintenance.
“That is not a funding problem, that is a priorities problem,” Chavez said. “If billionaires are your priority, then I guess you do you, because we will get you out. Our community should not be subsidizing luxury experiences for the wealthiest people in our city, while the people educating Portland’s children are receiving layoff notices.”
Rage Against the Machine songs pumped out of speakers as police officers and security guards stood nearby.
It’s unclear if the Metro Chamber paid the city, which owns the building, for the use of the Moda Center. A Trail Blazers / Rose Quarter spokesperson told the Mercury Thursday that “as host and sponsor of the event, the Rose Quarter came to an agreement with the Portland Metro Chamber, a standard practice for any event held on the Rose Quarter campus. The Chamber covered costs for the event.”
Indoors, following a brief land acknowledgement and a four-second pause, Nannette Reid, an executive for the event’s chief sponsor U.S. Bank, said the bank’s roots in Portland date back to 1891. That’s the era in which the Pacific Northwest became the top producer of lumber after Frederick Weyerhaeuser purchased 900,000 acres of timber in the region, and banks, including U.S. Bank, played a central role in development in the West at that time.
Further, Reid acknowledged that the land beneath the Moda Center—for decades a zeitgeist of the city’s thirst for economic development—was once a creative and thriving Black community before local governments demolished thousands of homes to build the Memorial Coliseum, Interstate 5, and Portland Public Schools headquarters in the lower-Albina neighborhood.
The Albina Vision Trust (AVT), a nonprofit created to address those past harms and reroot Black Portlanders into the area, was central to speakers’ justification for using taxpayer dollars to upgrade the Moda Center. AVT has not publicly commented on taxpayer dollars going to the renovations, but visions for the Moda Center will naturally impact the organization’s vast project in the area.
Winta Yohannes, AVT’s executive director, presented a video on the jumbotron above the crowd, outlining the history of dispossession and the work the organization is doing to generate affordable housing and other opportunities for Black Portlanders. She noted that a previous project to build the Memorial Coliseum, where the Blazers played for 25 years, “landed like a bomb in the middle of this neighborhood.”
“The images above reflect plainly more than $1 billion of wealth stolen from a community in the name of statewide prosperity,” Yohannes said. “What you experience today as a disjointed, dysfunctional stretch of our central city is evidence of how badly we have treated each other, and it is evidence just as plainly of the work we still have to do.”
Billed as the top attraction for the event, Andrew Hoan, the Metro Chamber CEO and president, engaged in a 20-minute interview with Dundon, the Blazers’ new owner. Hoan veered into business talk after presenting “get to know you” questions about family (five kids and a wife), early childhood memories (stickball in Brooklyn), career dreams (“I think like, a pilot, or something”), and favorite Portland restaurants (Nostrana).
Absent from the conversation was the notion that the team might pay for at least some of its renovation wishlist on the Moda Center and still stay in town. Throughout the program, leaders in charge of millions of taxpayer dollars that Dundon has demanded appeared to take his threats for granted—setting the terms of discourse as a binary in which the team either leaves and the city loses economic value, or the taxpayers pony up and save the city from rapid decline.
Asked how he kicks back to relax, Dundon said he prefers to keep moving, but loves spending time with his wife and five kids.
“Maybe I don’t do the hard parts, but I do the fun parts,” Dundon said.
Dundon’s negotiating style appears similar to his parenting style. When it comes to the arena, Dundon also appears to avoid the hard parts, instead asking the city, county, and state to pay $600 million to make state-of-the-art improvements to the Moda Center without the Blazers’ investment group pitching in.
While most of Hoan’s questions were easy as a free throw, one baseline jumper let Dundon answer the critics on why he isn’t assisting in the capital stack. Dundon said he is investing in the long term by paying fees generated through ticket sales and other tax liabilities. Critics say Dundon is using the beloved NBA team for ransom for his arena upgrade demands, and the city should be asking for more.
“Everybody can characterize things however they want,” Dundon said at Wednesday’s event. “I don’t see it the same way, but I’m not trying to get people to agree or disagree with me. I just know it feels like we’re making a pretty big investment by staying here and paying these tax rates and agreeing to these fees for dollars that go back into the building.”
Backing him up, Hoan said the main contribution Dundon is making is keeping the team here to provide investment opportunities and is indirectly paying for the capital stack through the activities generated in the building and surrounding area.
Dundon, clad in sweatpants, an athletic henley, and a baseball cap, appeared disinterested in the interview altogether. Still, Hoan offered grace and appreciation for investing in the team, and hopefully in the city.
“Thank you for stepping up in the ownership spot, and for bringing the ownership and investment group with us here today,” Hoan said. “We wish you and your team nothing but success.”
State legislators Rob Wagner and Kate Lieber, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson appeared in a panel moderated by Wagner, talking about how each of their governments view the deal, which has yet to be discussed meaningfully in public.
Wilson said in his discussions with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, they have talked about bringing the NBA All-Star game to Portland, which could generate significant revenue for the city. He said those festivities could bring in $500 million in one week, filling hotel rooms and restaurants, and cementing Portland as an international destination.
“I want you to start thinking beyond the scope of just where we are today, but where we could go tomorrow,” Wilson said. “And what’s really exciting about professional sports is they’re ambassadors for the entire nation to say that we’re open for business.”
Wilson’s office told the Mercury Thursday that the number came from Silver, citing an economic impact study of the 2025 All-Star game in the San Francisco Bay Area that showed over $328 million in economic impact and $101 million in earned media value for the area.
As Wilson began to speak, a small but impassioned group of climate activists from the Extinction Rebellion movement disrupted the meeting, holding signs and chanting. Wilson has proposed using $75 million in Portland Clean Energy Fund dollars to help pay for Moda Center renovations. As security ushered them out of the building and Wilson continued speaking, the activists chanted “hands off PCEF; PCEF is for people, not billionaires.”
What do the wealthy eat?
Following the program, attendees were treated to hors d’oeuvres and a small beer and wine bar at either end of the concrete floor that often morphs into a basketball court. Dundon did not attend the reception.
A rainbow of roses and emerald palms dotted marbled tables, black napkins, and minimalist decor ribboned around an array of charcuterie and fine cheeses stretching six feet wide. Garden crudité shooters with ranch and hummus were piled high like lofty dreams on a table beneath courtside seats. Soft lighting cast geometric shapes in motion, adding a subtle ambience to the catered offerings.
Friendly catering staff paced slowly amid the mingling crowd, offering bite-sized bulgogi steak tacos. The flank steak was presented on a fried wonton topped with pickled carrot, cabbage, and cilantro, while gochujang aioli gave a mild hint of spice. Burrata crostinis featured smashed peas with lemon and mint—a summery, fresh finger snack that creatively combined the culinary traditions of England and Italy. Tequila and charred lime prawn skewer topped with cilantro garlic tzatziki offered a peppy taste of the sea.
For dessert, a trio of flavors of mini cheesecake bites—original, berry, and chocolate—were airy and soft with a delicately thin graham cracker crust.
While Dundon’s aloof presence and local leaders’ vague vision of prosperity may not have provided quite the pep audiences were hoping for given the $350 price tag, the reception snacks may have partly justified the price of admission. Outside, as attendees drove out of the lot, protesters held signs under the hot sun, appearing to find joy in heckling the city’s most staunch supporters of free enterprise.
As “All American Saints,” a folk protest song by Seattle artist moussalangelo, played from a set of speakers under a tent, one person shouted at the passing cars:
“Aren’t you proud of yourselves?”
