Seriously... Paul Allen and company really ought to think about crap like that.  I'd totally donate some cash if I thought i'd help.

Larger donors could also be recognized with top ten name recognition.  It could be an NPR type drive.

I just think people are looking at it the wrong way, its not 9 million Paul Allen is now not paying out of his pocket, its an extra 9 million.  If Arena names are so important then why aren't more fan bases petitioning to get theirs changed?  Its nice that we have it, but after its gone for a while no one will really notice, or we will just keep calling it the Rose Garden, like Mile High (now Invesco Field at Mile High) in Denver.

Really, I think Paul Allen deserves some slack since he did buy back the Rose Garden, keeping the Portland Trailblazers in Portland.  If someone had proposed last year that all it would take to keep the Blazers in Portland and Paul Allen interest in the franchise is renaming the arena, I think most would have taken up that offer.  It's easy for us to say that SPAM, paulallensbig$$$, and why does he worry about money, but he has taken a huge hit in his net-worth dropped by over 55% over 7 years and he deserves some slack, its not like he is the Bobcat's or Clipper's owners who are in it only to make money.  

It is like we are spoiled children who have everything but want more.  We have the the best owner in all of basketball, (Come on, who is better?  Only Dolen spends more money and at least I'd argue that Paul Allen is better).  But when Christmas roles around we want the helicopter and the Bugatti Veryon?!?!?  Can't we just be happy with what we have?

  I'll be slightly bummed if The Rose Garden becomes some totally corporate named arena but I do feel that is the nature of the game.

  Given the huge expenditure of resources (cash) that Paul Allen has invested into The Blazers I guess I have no right to be too upset if he tries to get some revenue back in a manner that many, many teams embrace.

  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that whomever purchases the naming rights only adds there name as a pre-fix.

In addition he just bought back the arena, spent tons of money upgrading the areas of the garden that needed it most (club level, though the help of Lexus I'm sure and the jumbo-tron.  About a year earlier he replaced all of banner lights at about mid-level.  This year they also renovated the garden to make the Pyramid Tap room, which is something that was sorely needed for a while.  My point is that he made updates prior to selling rights to a company, rather than after, plus he made these improvements and has begun soliciting companies.

It's not about whether PA can afford it or not, it's about someone looking at a sizable negative bottom line for ten straight years, and it's the norm, has been for a while.

This one is half joking, but it actually comes up from time to time... I can stop explaining which Rose Garden I mean... it came up just a few days ago and I wasn't talking about the arena.

I just don't see what the huge problem is with this.  It's not like I support large corporations all the time, if anything I'd support this sort of an effort if I believed in it, I just don't see what the problem is.  If it's called Nike Arena instead of the Rose Garden it really doesn't effect me at all, but it does help the team.

For me the bottom line is I want Portland to create as viable a revenue stream as possible for Allen without hurting the fans via major ticket price leaps, etc.  This is something that should only really effect us in one way: Help cement the fact that the TrailBlazers are staying in Portland.  The more viable the cash flow is, the less interest Allen would have in pursuing relocation, and the less the league would be apt to allow it and I am all for that.

The Comcast agreement:  

I've been a season ticket holder for years (some sort of package for 7 now, I think), and I try to watch whatever games I'm not at at home, have since I followed the team.  

The Comcast deal is the best thing to happen in broadcasting our team since I've been following.  

I am empathetic to those who don't have broadband service that are in rural areas but am hopeful that eventually Dish will strike a deal with Comcast to broadcast that channel.  I'm sure Comcast will sell it, if satellite services will pay enough for it.  This will probably mean that everyone will need to increase what they are paying.  My guess is that the providers are trying to negotiate the best deal and playing some hardball.  

Those that have satellite and either don't want to or can't switch services due to location should really be trying to organize a major mail campaign to their providers if you genuinely believe that the channel is not coming.  I would encourage getting signatures from as many customers as possible who pay for satellite service... demanding that something be done.  My guess is that if enough people document their willingness to pay more, providers will buy the channel.

I applaud the Blazers for setting this up, sure they are getting money from Comcast for the rights to broadcast the games on their channel, just like they do from local NBC affiliates, TNT, and NBA TV  both via the basic channel and via league pass.  This is great for the team and great for most fans, hopefully it will become great for all fans in the near future.

Again I'm empathetic about the situation, but we have never had something like this, and it is pretty great.  This is the sort of service that major markets have had for a number of years now and I for one am really, really glad that most of us now have the option of this service.  In past years we were lucky to have 20ish games aired, now we have 82, is it perfect, obviously not, but hopefully those who are genuinely being effected are doing productive things to address this issue.  

PS If I were in your shoes as someone who is out of area I'd probably take the initiative to write a clear concise letter requesting that this service be paid for and brought to these satellite customers pronto stating that the following are signatures and addresses of just some locals supporting this action.  Post the letter online, on this site and on every other Blazer related blog out there offering for people to copy and paste this letter, and get hoofing... gather your signatures and send it off... If Direct TV starts receiving letter after letter like this each accompanied by another few dozen to thousand signatures depending on how large the community is and how pro-active the sender is I'm quite sure they'll settle with Comcast sooner.  It's just an idea, but I think it could be pretty effective if these letters backed by massive numbers of signatures become a common thing.

Not bad reasons, but I'm not nearly as empathetic to PA's losses over the years (who signed Darius Miles to a $48M contract???), and I still believe there is a better way.

I think the team has an opportunity to make a grander statement here ("We will NOT sell out The Rose Garden"), and I want to support any inkling they might have to do so, however faint.

As an aside, the topic of the team moving elsewhere and how grateful we should be to PA for keeping us here is enough for its own diary.

I'd like to think, perhaps naively, that the town could rally and put pressure on local politicians to strike a deal with PA or just buy the franchise outright in the hopes of soliciting to new, and more stubbornly pro-Portland, ownership.

A discussion for another day.  For now, I'm content to work this issue and watch our team get its brains bashed in by the Nuggets.