The Latest From Canzano\Vulcan
by LaColin on Jul 9, 2009 10:23 PM PDT
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"Then, on Thursday, Tod Leiweke, the head of Vulcan Sports and Entertainment said: 'Paul Allen shouldn't subsidize the Blazers to be in Portland and we're getting closer and closer to that magical break-even number which Paul's asked for.'"
Reading that made me raise my eyebrows a little. I wouldn't have done so if he hadn't included the "to be in Portland" part. True, a good sports owner should not have to subsidize his team but is Portland to blame, really?
Discuss.
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that graph is so perfect right now
because it totally looks like it’s giving vulcan the middle finger.
now it doesn't..
but seriously, think about how long allen has been a part of this. there is no way in hell that someone who has put in this much effort, and has this much disposable income would bail. he’s no mark cuban, but as far as i can tell, allen really enjoys his role with the blazers. it’s as much of a hobby as it is a job.
He's spent more than Cuban to this point, and
he’s reputed to be the owner most likely to spoil his players.
I'm a really really ridiculously good looking orange mocha frappaccino drinking manhammer sandwich
Ben, please use LaColin as an example for the rest of us
and ban him for 22 hours. This will show you mean business and give us something to think about over this anxiety-filled weekend.
Darius Miles Tribute Vid
Treat people well because Karma can hit you at any second.
by Net Ranger on Jul 10, 2009 11:06 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Hopefully not much...
But I really don’t know (which was not an option). I heard that on the BFT as well, which I regretably listen to from time to time. Hopefully it has nothing to do with Roy’s extension controversy, or rather percieved controversy as he implied. Probably just Crapzano stirring the pot as usual.
For once, I'm in 100% agreeance with John Canzano.
Vulcan Sports and Entertainment CEO Tod Leiweke has done a wonderful job thus far operating the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers from a business perspective; however, he’s out of his mind to force GM Kevin Pritchard and the basketball operations department into using hardball tactics in negotiations with Brandon Roy.
Whether the blame here belongs to Leiweke — or, perhaps, the Vulcan, Inc. trio of Chairman Paul Allen, Vice Chairman Bert Kolde, and CEO/President Jody Patton — is a trivial matter. Either way, upper management is backing middle management into a corner regarding its dealings with the employees. Man, I hope everything ends well for all parties; yet, at this moment in time, my faith in Allen and his $10,500,000,000 is similar to my religious faith: 0.
Canzano is making stuff up. Why would you fall for it?
Canzano’s entire column is a bunch of hot air. He doesn’t cite a single source. It is pure conjecture.
He took one quote from Leiweke, entirely out of context, and then spun the rest out of thin air. I listened to Canzano’s entire show yesterday, and he was doing what he does best, which is stirring the pot. He interviewed KP, and then based on absolutely nothing, said KP sounded defeated and frustrated. It was all a fabrication to try to support the angle that “Clownzano” had already decided to take: “the Blazers are having a disastrous summer and KP is a failure.”
Canzano is not a journalist. He does not follow any journalistic conventions. He is decent writer and he has a knack for spotting a fresh angle for his columns, but he is not a journalist. Above all else Canzano is an entertainer. He is all about attracting attention to himself. He does so be creating false controversies.
If I were KP, I would be tempted to never talk to the Clown again.
by upper left corner on Jul 10, 2009 6:54 AM PDT up reply actions
I was ready to pull my hair out listening to that KP and Canzano interview
The whole “you sound depressed” bit was over the top. And the repeated “are you buying what he’s (KP) is selling?” finally made me turn it off. It’s like Canzano doesn’t want to admit or is clueless that a GM is not going to come on his show the details of ongoing trade discussion and contract negotiations. Or that KP is not going to look for the positive in each situation. What did he want him to do? Start crying and repent? I’m sure that’s what Canzano was hoping for.
How could anyone logically not vote for "A Lot" in LaColin's poll? What's with the widespread ignorance?
Vulcan Inc. owns the Portland Trail Blazers; therefore, Paul Allen has the final say on anything and everything involving this organization.
Oh, and on another note, the City of Portland isn’t to blame whatsoever for Allen’s fiscal imprudence over the past several years. For someone who supposedly has an outstanding business acumen, Allen has definitely blown his fair share of cash and had companies of his — such as Charter Communications Inc. and Oregon Arena Corp. — declare for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
His wallet is getting thinner
But he still invests a lot in his favorite toys. Still if I was the owner of a team I would also demand that one of their business goals was to break even.
If you want to trade our spare parts for Devin Harris, I have three quarters I would like to trade for your dollar
Seems pretty reasonable to me.
"Aneurysm".
When Outlaw wins a game on a last-second shot, it’s called an "annthefaneurysm". QualityPie
The problem with Paul Allen, however, is that he's got the basketball acumen of my 17-year-old ...
sister, who’s mentally challenged due to Prader-Willi Syndrome. Since Allen is reportedly to blame for such miscues like re-signing Darius Miles back in 2004, it just astounds me that he’d involve himself in what should be simple negotiations to sign Brandon Roy to a long-term contract extension.
If I was hired to consult Allen, my advice to him would be to let the team president (i.e., Larry Miller) do his job by staffing a qualified basketball operations department — which is currently headed by Kevin Pritchard — and let those folks go about their business without outside interference.
Unless Allen puts in the time and effort necessary to be a 100% hands-on owner like Mark Cuban, he should stay out of the way of those qualified people hired on his dime. Man, there are times in which I think that Allen has a Napoleonic-esque hubris.
All right, I’m done ranting for now.
I don't understand how this could be called controversial.
Does anyone buy a business for the purpose of losing money? No.
Some might take the idea that Paul Allen wants to break even with this particular business as an end to the heady days of loose spending and the idea that PA’s money is a never ending fountain. I don’t think that having a goal of breaking even signals any such event.
The checkbook is obviously still open if they were willing to go for a guy like Turkoglu and offer him as much as they did. Besides this, as the team becomes a reliable playoff contender over the next couple of years, the star players like Roy, Aldridge, Oden and Rudy are all going to get national and more international followings, which will boost revenues for the team, which in turn will create a fatter wallet with which to play with.
Lets not fall into the temptation of seeing this sentiment as a line in the sand with a certain dollar amount attached. I believe that PA will still do whatever it takes to make the team as successful as possible, because after all, your team doesn’t make money without success.
"She turned me into a newt!
A newt?
...I got better."
I don't think that...
running a proper business is controversial at all. However, with respect to the Blazers breaking even, I do think that they are inviting controversy by classifying Portland as the albatross around their neck.
Yeah, it reminds me vividly of how wretchedly Basketball Club of Seattle, LLC Chairman Howard ...
Schutlz acted toward the City of Seattle and the State of Washington. That sense of entitlement greatly irks me.
I don't think his comments had anything to do with Portland being an albatross around his neck.
I heard that interview, and really I didn’t hear anyone trying to single out Portland in those comments. They were talking about the Seahawks as well as the Blazers and just the general goals of the franchise as well as how Todd Leweike (spelling?) see things. They talked about the performance over the last few years and what his perspective was about how things are going now. There wasn’t anything negative about it really, it was simply a general observation that Canzano brought up.
"She turned me into a newt!
A newt?
...I got better."
the part I don't get
is that Allen oks the team to spend 3 to 6 million every year on draft day so he can buy a late 1st rounder, or move up a few spots in the 2nd round, or dump a player he doesn’t want anymore.
But then it comes time to deal with his two best players, and all of a sudden he gets cheap. Hello! Don’t you think those guys (and their agents) see you throwing around cash the past 3 years. You could pay LMA an extra mil or two on his deal just by not doing that anymore. You could finance Roy’s 5th year by not overpaying for a veteran FA right now.
How did you guys win that?
"We scored enough points. We scored 107, they scored 105.
-Nate McMillan Postgame, 3/4/2009
Brandon will get his contract
Cmon guys relax would ya? By letting this stuff get to you are playing right into Canzanos ego.
by tmundal on Jul 10, 2009 6:20 AM PDT via mobile reply actions 1 recs
NO HE'S GOING TO HATE US ALL AND BECOME A KNICK!!11111
111111111111111
Blazer Fan
by leeroyjenkins on Jul 10, 2009 9:51 AM PDT up reply actions
Vulcan
What pisses me off is Vulcan talks about breaking even.
Well Paul Allen should have never thrown $9 million a year at Darius Miles. Unbelievable!
Don’t blame KP for that! Sign Roy! Pay the luxury tax.
"Oh yeah? You can Derelique my balls."
"I can Shavlick my own balls."
Ugh
It makes me personally upset that people are so easily manipulated. Can we get some kind legal ruling or decree that nothing this columnist writes or says should be taken seriously at any time ever? Dave?
by goblazer1 on Jul 10, 2009 9:01 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
I'll repost this year,
I did some research on this awhile back, if anyone has more info, (since some of this is a year or two old) please feel free to add/correct what I found.
Wow, okay it appears that this is not common knowledge. Last year the avg ticket price at the RG was $61.21, that doesn’t include suite’s or comp tickets. The Blazers avg about 17,000 paid customers per game, that is about $45.2 million per season in ticket sales alone, give or take. (road teams get a part of the gate, but it should about wash as the Blazers get their part of the gates as a visitor as well).
Then add in the consessions, parking, gift shops, etc..the NBA doesn’t seem to release these numbers, you have bet that they are at least $10-20 bucks per seat on avg. Then you have to factor in that the total amount of people in the RG, which is closer to 19,000+. If that is the case, then using $10 per seat that is another $7.79 million in change per year, giving a total of about $53 million, and that is conservative.
On top of that the league’s TV deal nets each team about $28 million per year, the Blazers local deal with comcast I hear was about $10 million per year, if those numbers are good that is a total of about $91 million. And we still havn’t talked about suite money, corporate sponsorships, money from league merchandising, etc… which can all add up to more than $25 million per year even for a small market team like PDX.
So the Blazers, even on a conservative estimate, are pulling in $116+ million per year in revenue, which makes it easy to see why PA was losing so much money back in the early 2000’s. But after this year, when they are no longer a tax paying team they will start getting money back, (teams who don’t pay the tax, get the total tax paid back, minues a few dollars for the league), which could be a $5 or even 6 million dollar swing easily.
With the Blazer payroll slated to be between $55 and $60 million for the next few years, that leaves quite a bit of cash for PA to pay the people who operate the RG, KP, Nate, and all the front office staff, it even leaves him enough to pay his light bill.
This team is sitting pretty for the future, it is the past that has cause it to still bleed a bit of red ink, not the present and the future is looking very good.
Ben II Blazersedge.com || New to Blazers' Edge?
by usmcr3049 on Jul 10, 2009 11:19 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
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