April 30, 2026 • 33 mins
In the second hour, Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain visit with John Canzano in Oregon and get the scoop on the new Blazers ownership situation, how it intertwines with the Seahawks upcoming sale, and the chances they relocate to Seattle, then they discuss John’s comments regarding relocation plus fans’ feelings about owners with bad history.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, joining us right now on the radio show.
Let's get to it. Johnny Canzono Bold Face Truth Radio Show,
Johnconzono dot Com. I don't even know what the hell
he's doing anymore. Are you doing the radio show?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Still? Is that a thing of the past?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Hey, I'm still doing it. It's going to be a
new and improved show effect of July one, though. We'll
talk about that later. Let's talk about what you want
to talk about.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, what I want to talk about we can't talk
about in the air, but we can talk about a
lot of other stuff that I want to talk about. Well,
we first of all, let's just get to the news
that we had last segment. You saw this report that
came out about Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg interested in
buying the Seahawks Dylan buyers. Was just done with us
and said it's bogus. Those guys don't have interest.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Not true.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Here's why gave us the reason. Zuckerberg is firmly implanted
with meta. Tim Cook can't afford it. What's your take
on that story.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Well, there's a limited number of people who can put
a billion dollars out there, and so the list of
people that you call is short. Some of this reeks
of someone within the league or within the transaction trying
to drum up interest and float out and create leverage.
This happened with the Blazers. It happens with every sale.
People start to just go down the list. I had
somebody who was part of an ownership group that was
(01:10):
kicking the tires, and the Blazers say that, you know,
there's everybody's calling the same people because you know, to
buy these teams. Now, what are we talking about for
the Seahawks eight billion, nine billion, ten billion dollars? And
so you know the list of Steve Balmer's in the
the late Paul Allen, and the guys that can just
buy it by themselves. You kind of exhaust that list,
and then you go on to the next and I
(01:31):
just think, you know, the league knows, the NFL knows
of some groups out there that have lined up and
maybe not been successful with other team sales. They're going
to be the first calls. They're gonna create as much
leverage as they can. It's in the best interest of
all these teams in the league for the Seahawks to
go break a record and sell for the most amount
of money. I do think that the Seahawks sales different
(01:51):
than the Blazers. From one standpoint, we all saw Jody
on that stage. You saw how happy she was, you
saw her raising the flag. We never saw that in
Portland with the Blazers. And that's still a Seattle kid.
And so I do wonder if Jody might want to say, hey,
let me be part of a group. But I wonder
if she could have a little more influence that way,
if Burt and Jody want to stick around with the Seahawks.
(02:13):
But I don't see them having majority ownership. I don't
think they're in it for that kind of money.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
John, what is the vetting process to purchase an NFL team?
I mean, how much say does Jody have, how much
say does the NFL have, and who these people are
and who the final buyer is.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Well, I've talked to people who are like the majority
investors in some groups and they say, you know, the
existing owner or in this case, the trustee has to
want to sell it to you. So you want to
be on good terms with Jody if you're part of
an ownership group that's coming in. But ultimately the NFL
knows and the NFL has a process, and you know
they discouraged you know, bezos from bidding on teams before
(02:52):
because they sort of just have a pecking order of
people who have sort of lined up and waited their turn.
And I think that will happen to some extent with
the Seahawks. The difference here is, you know, Jody wasn't
very holistic in the way that she sold the Blazers.
I mean she allowed Tom Dunnan to put twenty percent
of the team on layaway. I mean this is you
know that you know twenty percent is still owned by
(03:12):
the Paul Allen estate until September of twenty twenty eight. Right,
he didn't have the money. She took the absolute biggest
deal she could get. Not very holistic.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, and what Dick said, I just want to follow
up on that because that has been I think the genesis,
the crux, if you will, of our conversation. I've been
watching what you're saying and reporting about this guy that
owns the Blazers, right about how cheap he is. Maybe
it's unfair, Maybe we need to wait a couple of
years to see what really happens with this guy. But
not off to a great start, So far. We all
(03:43):
know that with the limited time we've had to observe
this guy, and we get concerned. We get concerned, Well,
if they'd sell the Blazers to a guy like that,
who are they selling the Seahawks to?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Right? Like, do they give a damn?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Do they care who the steward of this public trust
is going to be? Or as you said, as it
simply put gonna be, Hey, look, we're just taking the
biggest check we can find.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
The owners in the NFL want the biggest check, right
because they want the valuations of their teams to all
grow with this and and the same was uh said
of the Blazers thing. But the Seahawks is it's a
little different. I think the fact that you're coming off
such success on the field, the fact that you know
that field in that stadium, and that city has supported
the team the way they have. I just think you're
(04:25):
gonna have a hard time trying to convince. I know,
I know Sonics fans are, they're they're they're scarred, right
you are you uh, you know you're you've been in
some fires and now somebody is lighting a cigarette down
the street and you're like, hey, I put that out like,
I understand, I understand why, but I don't see the
Seahawks moving. I don't think there are a flight risk.
The portability is not there as it was with the Blazers.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
We're not worried about the team moving. We're we're worried
about the new owner stinking and not and not doing
what Paul Allen did.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well one hundred percent. You should be because I think
Blazer fans took Paul for granted, you know, a nitpicked
and you know, but Paul spent. Paul cared about the
team and he spent, and so for sure this ownership
group that came in behind him. Tom dunnan comes to
the introductory news conference. Somebody asked him how many games
will you be at? And he says, I'm not really
going to be at the games, and then, you know,
(05:13):
he had this hollow look to him, his feel like
he didn't really care about the team. All he cared
about was it can't turn a profit. I went up
to him after the end of the news conference, just
to introduce myself and he says, yeah, I know who
you are, and I went to shake his hand. He
fist bumped me.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Wow. Smart, he smart, He's kissing your ass. He's smart, but.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
He didn't want to shake hands. And then he was like,
let me get out of here. He couldn't got out
of their faster. He chewed his leg off and got
away from me as fast as he could. And so
I think, you know, he you know, people have said
he doesn't care what people think of him. I think
he actually doesn't care what the consumer thinks of him.
And I think he just he looks at this as
a stepping stone. I don't even know how much of
his own money's in this team. I think, you know,
(05:55):
the NBA should have done better, Adam Silver should have
done better. And I hope Roder Goodell is a better
steward with the Seahawks.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
So tell Seattle fans that don't know anything about this guy.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Is why is he as horrible as his reputation, What's
been his biggest misstep? And why was he so successful?
Or why have the Hurricanes been successful under his ownership?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I think you got to look at him and you
got to say, how do he make his money? We
always do that, how do they make his money? Paul
Allen's got a story or Tom Dundon's got a story.
Tom Dundon's story is subprime automobile loans. And you look
at the you know, the business of some of these
you know, retail car places that really make their money
doing subprime loans, like Carvana and other places like that.
Dundon made his money there. He has money that we
(06:38):
would all love to have a few billion dollars, right,
but he doesn't have like the fu money that Steve
Balmer or Paul Allen had where he could just come
in and buy the whole team. And so when he
bought the Blazers, I immediately looked at the finances and
I said, how is this guy who's got a few
billion dollars, how is he affording the minorities, even the
majority stake fifteen percent of the team? How is he
(06:58):
coming up with seven hundred billion dollars to buy, you know,
four and a half billion dollar team. And so I
started kind of doing the math, and I was like,
this isn't mathing, Like, I don't think he can afford
the team. And so Dundon there's a little bit of
fake it till you make it in his game. I
think hockey is a completely different animal than the NBA.
It is just a different equation. I talk to NBA
executives who say, Dundon's come in. He's gonna try to
(07:21):
run this like a hockey team. This is not a
hockey team. You can't do this in the NBA. You
have to be far more worried about free agents wanting
to play for you, wanting to come to you. You
have to take care of your players. He goes on
the road in this first playoff series and he says, hey,
the two way guys who helped the Blazers make the playoffs,
they can't travel because they're going to just be in
street clothes. And by the way, we need to check
out of our hotels at twelve thirty, even though it's
(07:42):
a seven to thirty game, so that we can save
the money we don't want to pay for the extra
And he leaves home the team photographer, and he leaves
home the guy who writes for the team website, and
he says, Okay, we're saving a few dollars there, but
fans know. Fans are looking at that and they're going gush.
This is symptomatic of an owner who is really not
going to invest and not best of the ways that
helped make NBA team successful.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
So let me go back for a second, because what
you're saying there about Adam Silber the NBA, they should
have vetted this guy more. They should have maybe had
more of an interest in the steward of the Blazers,
and they didn't. I don't know who was second in
line behind Tom cond and I.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Don't think there was.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I don't think there was anybody second.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I think that's the problem exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
There will be a second place, and there will be
a third place, I would think with the Seahawks. So
in the end, in the end, is there a committee
of people at the Allena State Foundation offices wherever they are.
Do they sit there, sift through these offers and then
present one that they liked to Roger Goodell to go
to the other owners to get them to sign off
(08:46):
on the guy who's on that committee. If there is
a committee, and is Jody a part of it, and
if she's not, is there one person Bert Coled somebody
else who has a bigger voice and more votes than
somebody else.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
There's a law firm that contract with each of these
leagues that helps sort of handle the process of vetting
ownership groups and basically putting in front of the trustee.
Here are the viable ownership groups, and here are the
you know, perspective pluses and minuses with each. Now, the
league's gonna want to sign off on this because the
league wants in that room of in that Board of
(09:20):
Governor's room, they want the strongest ownership groups that are there.
And I think it's why Roger Goodell and this law firm,
New York City based law firm has told people in
the past, Hey, you know, don't bother bidding on this team.
It's not your turn. It's not your time, Jeff Bezos
or whoever. You know, your team's not gonna go to you.
So what I think is it's a little bit of both.
(09:40):
I think you're going to get the NFL presenting sort
of these viable groups through this intermediary, this law firm
in New York and uh and the name of it
is escaping me now but I've written about it. But
but they're gonna be basically take these groups to Jody,
who is the trustee, and then say here are your candidates,
and they'll work with her on that process. They ultimately
(10:02):
want it to look like somebody emerged as the bonafide
no brainer, this is the best group, and it gives
two sort of the minority owners and part there are
parts of other groups. He gives them an opportunity to say, well, I,
you know, maybe I want to be with a different group.
And so they will do some you know, creative sort
of piecing together sometimes of these groups. It happened with
(10:23):
the Blazers sale. The Panda Express family was part of
another group. And what happened Tom Dundon is announced. You know,
they made a big, visible and like loud proclamation. Oh
Dundon has the option to buy the Blazers. And I said,
why are they doing that? And another NBA president said
they're doing that because he doesn't have the money and
he wants everybody to know if they want to invest
(10:44):
in a team, call him now, because he's got the
option to buy the team. I think the NFL is
much more solid as a league. I think you're going
to see, as you said, I think there will be
a line of owners who are lined up. I think
the Seahawks will end up in good hands and you know,
they'll live to play another day. And hopefully, though you
don't get you don't get an owner like Dundon, maybe
the NFL is just a different animal because of the
(11:06):
way they share TV revenue in the salary cap. And
you know, I think, you know, you have a hard
time being cheap in the NFL, is what I'm getting at.
And you know, Robert Kraft was known as one of
the cheapest owners in the NFL. Ye that team playing
that the Patriots were flying on was terrible. It had
like ashtrays in the armrests and the players were all
upset about it. But he it's different, right because you're
an NFL team. How many road games are you taking
(11:27):
versus an NBA team that's flying around doing this on
a on a month a month basis.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, hey man, look it's one of my biggest regrets.
Never got to enjoy a smoke on a plane. Never right,
Oh no, I'm not that old man.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Nah, Yeah it was. We were like fifteen.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
They could drag off a camel life flying overseas.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Man.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
That sounds like the good old days to me, John.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
I want to talk a little bit about Dundon vis
A v the NBA expansion. Would the NBA owners nix
or hold off expansion plans if they legitimately thought that
Dundon would either flip the Blazers to Seattle owner or
try to move the team here.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yes, and I you know, ultimately Adam Silver works for
those owners. Those owners want as much money as possible.
It's his job to make them money. And if they
determined that there's a couple of scenarios here. One, is
it in the league's best interest, in the owner's best
interest to slow play expansion if it helps Dundon get
a new arena in Portland. Yes, they will slow play that.
(12:25):
That's why they'll say, hey, we're not ready to vote
on expansion. They'll wait and see what the Portland City
Council's gonna do. Will they build him a new arena?
Will they just renovate the arena. They're gonna do everything
they can to help Dundon because the owners do that
for each other. The second thing that has recently come
up is, you know, there's three years remaining on the
Blazer's lease. That's nothing, right, that's nothing in New World, right.
(12:45):
You know it, You guys know it better than anybody.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
He is pulling from the Clay Bennett playbook right now
in the way that he's acting, in the way that
he's talking, and it's scaring people in Portland because we've
seen it go down in Seattle right same way. And
so well, what I had presented to me for the
first time just to just a week ago was I
had an NBA executive, longtime executive, who said Seattle expansion
(13:10):
isn't done. It's not a no brainer. It's probably gonna happen,
probably gonna be Vegas for sure, and probably Seattle. But
he said, I could see the NBA trying to put
Portland in Seattle, move the Blazers to Seattle, and then
you know, fanning the flames for a larger payday from
someone like Vancouver, BC, or Nashville or Kansas City, because
(13:34):
they the feeling was ownership groups in those cities might
pay more and have a bigger you know, windfall payment
for the NBA owners than an owner in Seattle. So
keep an eye on that. I don't think that the
doors closed on it.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well, that's one of the reasons why we called you
right to get it on, John, because I I mean,
in simple terms, the Blazers moving to Seattle. Where did
you feel the possible ability sat six months ago and
where do you feel the possibility sits at today?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I had it at like one percent, about how about
thirty percent?
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Who?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Well, so, John, what what news should we want to
if Sonic fans just want the Sonics and not the Blazers,
and I think ninety nine point nine Sonic fans want
the Sonics and not the Blazers. But what news do
we need to hear before the expansion vote to feel
(14:37):
good that they're actually going to vote for expansion?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Forceit?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
You want Portland to get settled. You want the Portland
City Council to back up what the governor is saying, say, hey,
we'll give you all the renovations you want. Dundon's sitting
at the table like a guy who doesn't care. His
eyes are hollow. He's talking in a monotonous voice like
he doesn't give a rip where this team plays as
long as it turns a profit, you know. And if
that Portland City Council just you know, says to him, hey, look,
(15:02):
we'll give you all the We'll give you the six
hundred million dollars in renovations, and I think they're going
to do that, Or they say we'll build you a
brand new arena. Where do you want it to be?
I think Dundon takes that and takes a win, and
he you know, he walks off and Portland stays there,
and then all of a sudden got the governor's vote,
and then you get, you know, a new new version
of the Sonics or the other thing that works for
(15:24):
people in Seattle is Blazers are moving, but they're going
to Nashville, right, and and that would be a Dundon move,
right because he's already developing that NHL complex, and you
know if he put an NBA team in there, that
might work for him too.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Just feels like, we want your situation settled as soon
as possible. That is, that is really whatever it's going
to be, just settle it, figure it out. And I'm
here to tell you what, John down there, and you
can tell all your constituents in Portland that we would
much rather have an expansion team. I think we can
say that, right dick up here in Seattle. But if
the only choice is taking the Blazers, give us the Blazers.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Wow, oh, look at you.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Give us the Blazers. This whole idea that I'm not
doing to somebody else with. That's nonsense, Absolutely no, this
is business, all right. You want me to be a hypocrite,
I'll be a differend.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Don't show business.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Don't give it. Damn. I want my freaking team back.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And if it ends up being the Blazers and the
Sonics are reborn out of the Portland bosom, I'm fine
with that. That's again I don't prefer it. But if
that's the if that's option two and there ain't no
option three, give me the damn Blazers.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
So I don't know. I mean, are.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
People like, honestly, is this a dude? You went from
one percent to thirty percent in six months?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Dundon?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
That's significant. That is not a nothing burger. Do Blazer
fans you think feel that? Do they wake up and
feel that?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, they're feeling it. There there's a faction of people
who are saying, if this happens, I'm done with the NBA.
There's a faction of people saying, we can't let this happen. Oh,
you know, the governor in the state of Oregon came
out and she signed just earlier this week. You know,
he her part of the deal, the five hundred and
seventy five million dollars towards renovations to MODA Center. But
what I think Dundon really wants is I think he
(17:04):
wants a new arena, right. I think this is you know,
he's I think we're about a week or two away
from Dune and coming out and saying, you know, renovations
are fine, but what we really need is an entertainment
district around the building. And I'd like to put that,
you know, on the suburbs of Portland. And I think
that's the next move for him. Yeah, you know, there's
political will like never before good in Oregon. It's never
(17:25):
been there before, but should be. But you know how
like you know, people in Portland want major League Baseball
and they're saying, hey, we need MLB, and major League
Baseball is saying, hey, we needed the Rays and the
A's to get settled first. Seattle's a little bit in
that camp right now. I think with this expansion thing,
I think it's a no brainer that they're going to Vegas.
I think Seattle's gonna get a team. Is it an
expansion team or is it a relocation. We're gonna find out.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Ah, you're the best, great stuff, man, and we'll talk
soon anytime, see it, man, John. I mean, and look,
this would jive because you asked Dick about you know,
this would jive with the news that came out, was
it yesterday or two days ago about the NBA saying
this may not be done this summer, right, you may
have to wait d of the yearly, Well, that would
mean that they're waiting to see what's going on down
(18:08):
there before they figure out what's going on up here, right, Like,
why would we give you an expansion team today when
there's still a chance that we may.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Move the Blazers up there?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, the one thing is that thing settled first, and
then we'll figure it out.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
And if you want, let's say you're out there and
you don't give a bleep whether it's expansion team or
the Blazer, right.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Which is kind of where I'm at. I prefer expansion,
but I'm not going to lose sleep over it either way.
You'd get the Blazers first. Hell, yes, they're a better team,
but no, you'd get them early, no doubt, Yes, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
And they're already made basketball team.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
So if you're like putting your if you're putting your
list together of would I rather have the Blazers that
you know, turn into the Sonics or the expansion Sonics, right,
putting your list together, right, Yeah, it's heavier over on
Expansion Sonics. But there are some there are some positives
about having a team that moves.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
No question, they're a better product. They'd be here quicker. Now.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
They may let this thing drag on for a year
or so. If there's a fight for public money for
the arena down there, they may let it drag on.
Maybe there's a chance that Dundin flips this to somebody else.
I mean, that's probably not going to happen. But you're
exactly right that if you're just talking about basketball, you
want it fast, and you want as good a team
as you can get, then you want the Blazers. I'm
(19:23):
personally willing, I guess fifty one forty nine percent, to
maybe suffer for a couple of years to have my
own team and not have the Blazers, partly because I
want the rivalry. I want the Portland Seattle rivalry. I mean,
if Portland moves up here, the nearest rival is Golden State,
that's it. It's a thousand miles away. There's no Vancouver,
there's no Portland. So I would love to have that.
(19:44):
But guys, I am not one of these people. And
maybe I should be, and maybe I'm a hypocrite, and
that's fine. I'm not one of these people that says,
you know what, I don't want to do to somebody
else what was done to us. I do not care
about that. The NBA showed us eighteen years ago that
this is about blood. This isn't about feelings, it's not
about history, not about who deserves what and who's put
(20:05):
the work in. It's all business. Let's treat it like
business and get the damn team back. We got a break,
all right, Let's come back and pick this up next
on ninety three three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Now back to Softie and Dick on your home for
the Huskies, Krakin and the twelfth Man Sports Radio ninety
three point three kjr FM.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
The Blazers moving to Seattle. Where did you feel the
possibility set six months ago? And where do you feel
the possibility sits at today?
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I had it at like one percent? How about thirty percent?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
WHOA I thought he was going to say like maybe
ten eight whatever. He went right from one to thirty.
I mean, I just that's pretty impressive. Man just went
online and bought my Denny Afdia Jersey.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Oh, I mean, moly.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I mean, if you could buy stock or at odds
on the Blazers moving to Seattle, you might want to
bet it now, right because if they get into a
pissing match down there about the public funds for the arena,
which I'm kind of glad to hear that they're stepping up,
and I hope they do step up, and I do
hope they keep their team as many of those Oregon
schmuck football fans I despise down there, and they'd be
(21:19):
a hell of a hammer when it to hold over
at Oregon fans heads. Again, the biggest hand took your
basketball team, sucker.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
See, that's not a hammer, it's an atomic bump.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
I mean, it's like it's like what we said about
It's like what we said about winning the Pack the
final Pack twelve championship over there.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That was pretty much something that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
They can never have the PA twelve's coming back though,
But I get your point.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's that's not a hammer. Look, that's a shotgun. Yeah,
this is the biggest one.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
We're talking about something that's like, yes, there's no coming
back from this.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
In the battle between Seattle and Portland. This would be
the biggest salvo fired by anybody, right, there would.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Be no more bat Kenny Wheaton and.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
The PAC twelve championship, the years of domination by the
Oregon Ducks over U dub This would be the ultimate
hand like like to drop.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
I think about like the Sounders Timbers and not rivalry
and having Portland fans in our stadium like at that point,
like remember we talked about this a while back, and
there's like the hatred between fan bases makes a great rivalry,
but at the point where one fan base just feels
sorry for the other fan base.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
We talked about this.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
I think with the uwws exactly like Portland Timbers fans
coming to Lumen, I would like look at them and
I would then suddenly feel bad and I will feel
sorry for them, because what.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Would be the ultimate sign of disrespect to have us
feel bad? You know what, I changed my mind. I
don't want an expansion team. I want the Blazers. I know,
I want them, hate their city. Why don't we just
why don't we just what else can we take? What
else can we take? Take?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
In the hour?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah, didn't they open a voodoo Yes up here Capitol Hill.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
What else do you want? What about the crop? You
want the a crop? Have a great tiki.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Bottle, Pumpkin Ridge? Can they bring that up here? Bring
it up?
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Man?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Want Cannon Beach to take an in beach. I want Seaside. Yeah,
we're having a sale. Just go grab what you want.
Man going out of business, jos Houses. I want that story.
I want to tell the book. Yeah, I want the
ice cream factory. That's a great call.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I want the ice cream factory. We want Pumpkin Ridge.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Want Blazers and donuts on the Sun River and the
entire town of a story. We want your coast because
your coast kicks our coast.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
What is what is we advertise the to Talton Valley,
valet To.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
We want the wine we want to want we want
that to all the weirdos, the purple haired weirdose.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
You can keep them, but we want everything. We want
everything else.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
I mean for you, though, isn't the currency time right now?
Meaning I would I would take I'd rather have an
expansion team than the Blazers. It's just a matter of
what the time difference is. If it's going to be significant,
then give me the Blazer exactly if it's three years
versus one year, wait the three years. If it's yeah,
(24:13):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
If it's if it's no me, Dick, I want him
back as soon as possible, stand as soon as possible.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
But if it's one year versus three years, I'd probably
still go stake the expansion team.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
If it's one years versus five to.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Ten, for get about it. Give me my basketball. I
want you to take your dad to a basketball game.
That's what, okay. I want you to take your dad
and Dixon, and I want three generations of fans to
go to a basketball game together.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I can't have that. I want you to have that.
And you're not the only one.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
There's anybody else out there listening right now who has
an aging parent, whatever, somebody that's sick. Get him back
because we want to watch him. We want to do
it together. So I don't want to wait anymore. I
don't want to wait for a lot of reasons. Lenny's gone,
that's not going to happen, but there's a lot of
other reasons to get this done as soon as possible.
So I think we just figured it out, man. I
(25:00):
mean textas four nine, four or five one, as long
as we're taking.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
What we want? What else you want? What else do
you want from more? I'm sure we're missing some good
What do we say? We said sun River?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
We want up Drinking Ridge can also we want all
of Voodoo Donuts. We want Nike. Let's get Nike. Yeah, right,
move the move the Nike head quarters. Starbucks is going
to Tennessee. Let's get Nike. They can they can come
back here. We want we want to Nashville, right, I
want Dutch bros. Okay, you want Dutch brothers. If we
had entire town of a story and I want yeah,
(25:33):
I mean sun River is right outside of Bend, yes, yeah,
and do it all, sun River, Pumpkin Ridgevoodoo Donuts, all
of it, Nike, Tillamook, a story of the entire town
and Ben.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
If we had Nike, would would they start contributing to
the Huskies? Maybe?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Move the headquarters? Are they still in Beaverton?
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Boy? Would Phil just say, you know what, if I'm
moving to Seattle, I might as well just support The dogs.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Are in Adida school, so that have to change at
some point. But yeah, I mean you text us, what
else do you want?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
A story? Plus pretty much all the coast I want Okay,
let's replace our coast with their coast.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I think that's the coast, because don't you think their
coast is better than ours? I want the A crop.
I know it's for sale. Move it up here, bring
it to Seattle, all right? Well, a crop version two
point zero.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Bring it up. This is great.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
A crop, uh, Sun River, Pumpkin Ridge golf Course, all
of Vooda, Donuts, including corporate Nike, Tillamook cheese and ice cream.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Bring that up here.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
The entire town of Astoria, the entire town of Bend,
and Dutch Brothers band No, bring it up here, we
won't band it.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Also, how Crater Lake Crater like, bring it up?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yeah, just give us the whole freaking thing.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of people
that won't want the Blazers under any condition.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I'm not one of them.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
So it's funny because Live Pumpkin Ridge actually had a
live tournament, did they not? And then the people freaked out,
the members freaked out, and they said no more or not.
And this again, that's big in the news today because
apparently the PIF Saudi Arabia is pulling funding for the
live Tour after how many years now is it four?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Five? Whatever? It is four or five.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
And look, it was never a money maker from the start,
and I never thought it'd be a money maker. I
thought it was an ego plague by the Saudis the
whole time. And maybe if it was not, like how
many how many sports leagues have we seen events have
we seen that go belly up like right after a year, like, well,
this isn't going to work, so the hell with it?
And maybe one of the reasons why Dick it lasted
as long as it did is because they didn't give
(27:35):
a damn about.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Right, I mean, they were hemorrhaging money. And now now
the big question is do we bring these guys back?
And I think you've got to take a look at
what is the live roster and who should be able
to come back.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Well, in my opinion, everybody.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Should be given the opportunity to come back, right, But
that doesn't mean everybody deserves it. Not everybody on the
Live Tour deserves to play PGA Tour golf.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Sure they should be good enough, exactly.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
I mean, you've got you got your obvious I mean
I kind of split these up in the categories you've
got your Bryson, Ram Terrell Hatt and Cam Smith, Walke Neeman.
I mean those guys. Those guys could win a Major now,
like all those guys could win a Major. Now, those
guys need to come back the same way brooks Kopka did.
Pay your fine, you don't get equity for five years.
Do the same brooks Kopka deal with those dudes. The
(28:20):
old dudes should just go. I mean the Phills, the Bubba's,
the DJs, Poulter's, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, those type of guys.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I mean, they can go to the Senior Tour.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
So my question to you before the show was how
many guys from the Live Tour could replace players on
the PGA Tour and make the PGA Tour better?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Right now, I think there's about fifteen to twelve. Okay,
then those guys should all come.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Back, yes all, because there's the five, there's the five
that I mentioned that are elite, and there's a group
of ten to twelve guys. Now, not only these guys
would go to the PGA Tour, because some of these
guys like Thomas Dtree, Thomas Peters, Adrian Moronk, those guys
were DP War Tour guys that went to live they
weren't PGA players, So would they go to the PGA
(29:06):
after never being a PGA Tour player?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Would they just go back to the DP word Tool
World Tour? They probably go right there.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I just think that the PGA Tour should be about,
like how many players are on the PGA Tour ballpark
to wish two hundred.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Let's just take two hundred for giggles.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, the top two hundred players in the world should
be on the PGA Tour. I don't care what tour
they came from, what tour they went to and came
back from. If they're good enough, they should be there.
So if there's fifteen to twenty guys that can jump
ship right now and they're gonna might have to because
the ship might be sinking and go to the PGA,
then they should be allowed to come back. And I
(29:41):
made the analogy earlier today to the USFL. Imagine if
the NFL told Steve Young, Reggie White, Hershchal Walker, Doug Fluteie,
Jim Kelly, sorry, you can't play for us?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Are you kidding me? How stupid is that?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So these guys should get to come back and they
should get to play in this idea that they should
be punished. If that's what you want to do and
they agree to it, hey, great, good for you if
you can milk some extra money out of him. But guys, again,
they were doing what they thought was best for them
financially for their family, which is nothing different than anybody
(30:14):
else would have done. This idea that you know, blood money,
they took blood money. I mean, give me a break, right,
I mean, give me a break.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Come on, Honestly, if the PIF came to the States
and said we're going to start it American Sports Podcast Network,
and we're going to hire one person from every major
market town in America. We want to hire Dick Fan,
give him five million dollars a month to work for us,
you'd say hello, and you wouldn't give a damn where
it's coming from, nor would you care.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
And if you're a rank and file PG to remember
that is just getting by the skin of your teeth.
I'll say David Lipsky, for example, he's ranked one hundred
and fifty in the world.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Joking, Neeman comes back.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
There's there's nobody in the world that doesn't think Joaque
Nemon's a better golfer than David Lipsky is. I mean,
he's just going to be able to walk into the
PG door. And if it replaces David Lipsky, well then
David Lipsky's got to qualify earn it.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
You got to earn it.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, I mean again, I just what we talked about
earlier in the first segment of the show is that
I think a lot of people work for organizations or companies,
and the bigger they are, the more this could potentially
be in play where they do things and say things
and support things that maybe you don't right, Like we
talked about Google and Meta and Apple, Microsoft. Hell, this
(31:23):
company might do some things and believe in some things,
and say some things and support some things that I
don't necessarily agree with, And that's okay. When you're dealing
with a major corporation that employs hundreds of thousands of people,
you're bound to be able to get to a point
sooner or later where people that work for you don't
(31:43):
align with every single thing you believe in. And there's
nothing wrong with that. You don't need to believe in
every single thing your company stands for.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
But you do need to make a living. Right, all
of us need to make a living.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
And you can argue that well, PGA players and professional
golfers they have enough money where they can kind of.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Pick and choose.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Well, again, I have no idea what's happening in their
personal lives, what kind of bills they've got, what kind
of investments they have to live up to, what kind
of partners they've got and their business investments, what kind
of relatives rely on them.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
I don't have any idea.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
There's a lot of PGA tour players that just don't
make it.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Well.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Harold Varner the third was the perfect example because he
was the guy who went to live and said I
would never make this money on the PGA tour ever,
so sue me.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I had to assume me. But he's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
So again I just look, man, you want to work
for a company that believes in exactly everything you do,
and there's never going to be a disagreement, and there's
never going to be anything that will be done at
the corporate level that will turn you off. Good luck
finding that company. And the bigger the company is, the
more a problem that's going to be. So you can
(32:51):
spend your whole life trying to do something like that.
Or you can just have your own morals, your own values,
live your own damn life, and make as good a
living as you can for you and your family.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
That's what I believe and whatever. Okay, I'm done. I
feel like I'm on a soapbox. By the way, apologize
for that.
All right, joining us right now on the radio show.
Let's get to it. Johnny Canzono Bold Face Truth Radio Show,
Johnconzono dot Com. I don't even know what the hell
he's doing anymore. Are you doing the radio show?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Still? Is that a thing of the past?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Hey, I'm still doing it. It's going to be a
new and improved show effect of July one, though. We'll
talk about that later. Let's talk about what you want
to talk about.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, what I want to talk about we can't talk
about in the air, but we can talk about a
lot of other stuff that I want to talk about. Well,
we first of all, let's just get to the news
that we had last segment. You saw this report that
came out about Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg interested in
buying the Seahawks Dylan buyers. Was just done with us
and said it's bogus. Those guys don't have interest.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Not true.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Here's why gave us the reason. Zuckerberg is firmly implanted
with meta. Tim Cook can't afford it. What's your take
on that story.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Well, there's a limited number of people who can put
a billion dollars out there, and so the list of
people that you call is short. Some of this reeks
of someone within the league or within the transaction trying
to drum up interest and float out and create leverage.
This happened with the Blazers. It happens with every sale.
People start to just go down the list. I had
somebody who was part of an ownership group that was
(01:10):
kicking the tires, and the Blazers say that, you know,
there's everybody's calling the same people because you know, to
buy these teams. Now, what are we talking about for
the Seahawks eight billion, nine billion, ten billion dollars? And
so you know the list of Steve Balmer's in the
the late Paul Allen, and the guys that can just
buy it by themselves. You kind of exhaust that list,
and then you go on to the next and I
(01:31):
just think, you know, the league knows, the NFL knows
of some groups out there that have lined up and
maybe not been successful with other team sales. They're going
to be the first calls. They're gonna create as much
leverage as they can. It's in the best interest of
all these teams in the league for the Seahawks to
go break a record and sell for the most amount
of money. I do think that the Seahawks sales different
(01:51):
than the Blazers. From one standpoint, we all saw Jody
on that stage. You saw how happy she was, you
saw her raising the flag. We never saw that in
Portland with the Blazers. And that's still a Seattle kid.
And so I do wonder if Jody might want to say, hey,
let me be part of a group. But I wonder
if she could have a little more influence that way,
if Burt and Jody want to stick around with the Seahawks.
(02:13):
But I don't see them having majority ownership. I don't
think they're in it for that kind of money.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
John, what is the vetting process to purchase an NFL team?
I mean, how much say does Jody have, how much
say does the NFL have, and who these people are
and who the final buyer is.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Well, I've talked to people who are like the majority
investors in some groups and they say, you know, the
existing owner or in this case, the trustee has to
want to sell it to you. So you want to
be on good terms with Jody if you're part of
an ownership group that's coming in. But ultimately the NFL
knows and the NFL has a process, and you know
they discouraged you know, bezos from bidding on teams before
(02:52):
because they sort of just have a pecking order of
people who have sort of lined up and waited their turn.
And I think that will happen to some extent with
the Seahawks. The difference here is, you know, Jody wasn't
very holistic in the way that she sold the Blazers.
I mean she allowed Tom Dunnan to put twenty percent
of the team on layaway. I mean this is you
know that you know twenty percent is still owned by
(03:12):
the Paul Allen estate until September of twenty twenty eight. Right,
he didn't have the money. She took the absolute biggest
deal she could get. Not very holistic.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, and what Dick said, I just want to follow
up on that because that has been I think the genesis,
the crux, if you will, of our conversation. I've been
watching what you're saying and reporting about this guy that
owns the Blazers, right about how cheap he is. Maybe
it's unfair, Maybe we need to wait a couple of
years to see what really happens with this guy. But
not off to a great start, So far. We all
(03:43):
know that with the limited time we've had to observe
this guy, and we get concerned. We get concerned, Well,
if they'd sell the Blazers to a guy like that,
who are they selling the Seahawks to?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Right? Like, do they give a damn?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Do they care who the steward of this public trust
is going to be? Or as you said, as it
simply put gonna be, Hey, look, we're just taking the
biggest check we can find.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
The owners in the NFL want the biggest check, right
because they want the valuations of their teams to all
grow with this and and the same was uh said
of the Blazers thing. But the Seahawks is it's a
little different. I think the fact that you're coming off
such success on the field, the fact that you know
that field in that stadium, and that city has supported
the team the way they have. I just think you're
(04:25):
gonna have a hard time trying to convince. I know,
I know Sonics fans are, they're they're they're scarred, right
you are you uh, you know you're you've been in
some fires and now somebody is lighting a cigarette down
the street and you're like, hey, I put that out like,
I understand, I understand why, but I don't see the
Seahawks moving. I don't think there are a flight risk.
The portability is not there as it was with the Blazers.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
We're not worried about the team moving. We're we're worried
about the new owner stinking and not and not doing
what Paul Allen did.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well one hundred percent. You should be because I think
Blazer fans took Paul for granted, you know, a nitpicked
and you know, but Paul spent. Paul cared about the
team and he spent, and so for sure this ownership
group that came in behind him. Tom dunnan comes to
the introductory news conference. Somebody asked him how many games
will you be at? And he says, I'm not really
going to be at the games, and then, you know,
(05:13):
he had this hollow look to him, his feel like
he didn't really care about the team. All he cared
about was it can't turn a profit. I went up
to him after the end of the news conference, just
to introduce myself and he says, yeah, I know who
you are, and I went to shake his hand. He
fist bumped me.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Wow. Smart, he smart, He's kissing your ass. He's smart, but.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
He didn't want to shake hands. And then he was like,
let me get out of here. He couldn't got out
of their faster. He chewed his leg off and got
away from me as fast as he could. And so
I think, you know, he you know, people have said
he doesn't care what people think of him. I think
he actually doesn't care what the consumer thinks of him.
And I think he just he looks at this as
a stepping stone. I don't even know how much of
his own money's in this team. I think, you know,
(05:55):
the NBA should have done better, Adam Silver should have
done better. And I hope Roder Goodell is a better
steward with the Seahawks.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
So tell Seattle fans that don't know anything about this guy.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Is why is he as horrible as his reputation, What's
been his biggest misstep? And why was he so successful?
Or why have the Hurricanes been successful under his ownership?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I think you got to look at him and you
got to say, how do he make his money? We
always do that, how do they make his money? Paul
Allen's got a story or Tom Dundon's got a story.
Tom Dundon's story is subprime automobile loans. And you look
at the you know, the business of some of these
you know, retail car places that really make their money
doing subprime loans, like Carvana and other places like that.
Dundon made his money there. He has money that we
(06:38):
would all love to have a few billion dollars, right,
but he doesn't have like the fu money that Steve
Balmer or Paul Allen had where he could just come
in and buy the whole team. And so when he
bought the Blazers, I immediately looked at the finances and
I said, how is this guy who's got a few
billion dollars, how is he affording the minorities, even the
majority stake fifteen percent of the team? How is he
(06:58):
coming up with seven hundred billion dollars to buy, you know,
four and a half billion dollar team. And so I
started kind of doing the math, and I was like,
this isn't mathing, Like, I don't think he can afford
the team. And so Dundon there's a little bit of
fake it till you make it in his game. I
think hockey is a completely different animal than the NBA.
It is just a different equation. I talk to NBA
executives who say, Dundon's come in. He's gonna try to
(07:21):
run this like a hockey team. This is not a
hockey team. You can't do this in the NBA. You
have to be far more worried about free agents wanting
to play for you, wanting to come to you. You
have to take care of your players. He goes on
the road in this first playoff series and he says, hey,
the two way guys who helped the Blazers make the playoffs,
they can't travel because they're going to just be in
street clothes. And by the way, we need to check
out of our hotels at twelve thirty, even though it's
(07:42):
a seven to thirty game, so that we can save
the money we don't want to pay for the extra
And he leaves home the team photographer, and he leaves
home the guy who writes for the team website, and
he says, Okay, we're saving a few dollars there, but
fans know. Fans are looking at that and they're going gush.
This is symptomatic of an owner who is really not
going to invest and not best of the ways that
helped make NBA team successful.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
So let me go back for a second, because what
you're saying there about Adam Silber the NBA, they should
have vetted this guy more. They should have maybe had
more of an interest in the steward of the Blazers,
and they didn't. I don't know who was second in
line behind Tom cond and I.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Don't think there was.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I don't think there was anybody second.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I think that's the problem exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
There will be a second place, and there will be
a third place, I would think with the Seahawks. So
in the end, in the end, is there a committee
of people at the Allena State Foundation offices wherever they are.
Do they sit there, sift through these offers and then
present one that they liked to Roger Goodell to go
to the other owners to get them to sign off
(08:46):
on the guy who's on that committee. If there is
a committee, and is Jody a part of it, and
if she's not, is there one person Bert Coled somebody
else who has a bigger voice and more votes than
somebody else.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
There's a law firm that contract with each of these
leagues that helps sort of handle the process of vetting
ownership groups and basically putting in front of the trustee.
Here are the viable ownership groups, and here are the
you know, perspective pluses and minuses with each. Now, the
league's gonna want to sign off on this because the
league wants in that room of in that Board of
(09:20):
Governor's room, they want the strongest ownership groups that are there.
And I think it's why Roger Goodell and this law firm,
New York City based law firm has told people in
the past, Hey, you know, don't bother bidding on this team.
It's not your turn. It's not your time, Jeff Bezos
or whoever. You know, your team's not gonna go to you.
So what I think is it's a little bit of both.
(09:40):
I think you're going to get the NFL presenting sort
of these viable groups through this intermediary, this law firm
in New York and uh and the name of it
is escaping me now but I've written about it. But
but they're gonna be basically take these groups to Jody,
who is the trustee, and then say here are your candidates,
and they'll work with her on that process. They ultimately
(10:02):
want it to look like somebody emerged as the bonafide
no brainer, this is the best group, and it gives
two sort of the minority owners and part there are
parts of other groups. He gives them an opportunity to say, well, I,
you know, maybe I want to be with a different group.
And so they will do some you know, creative sort
of piecing together sometimes of these groups. It happened with
(10:23):
the Blazers sale. The Panda Express family was part of
another group. And what happened Tom Dundon is announced. You know,
they made a big, visible and like loud proclamation. Oh
Dundon has the option to buy the Blazers. And I said,
why are they doing that? And another NBA president said
they're doing that because he doesn't have the money and
he wants everybody to know if they want to invest
(10:44):
in a team, call him now, because he's got the
option to buy the team. I think the NFL is
much more solid as a league. I think you're going
to see, as you said, I think there will be
a line of owners who are lined up. I think
the Seahawks will end up in good hands and you know,
they'll live to play another day. And hopefully, though you
don't get you don't get an owner like Dundon, maybe
the NFL is just a different animal because of the
(11:06):
way they share TV revenue in the salary cap. And
you know, I think, you know, you have a hard
time being cheap in the NFL, is what I'm getting at.
And you know, Robert Kraft was known as one of
the cheapest owners in the NFL. Ye that team playing
that the Patriots were flying on was terrible. It had
like ashtrays in the armrests and the players were all
upset about it. But he it's different, right because you're
an NFL team. How many road games are you taking
(11:27):
versus an NBA team that's flying around doing this on
a on a month a month basis.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, hey man, look it's one of my biggest regrets.
Never got to enjoy a smoke on a plane. Never right,
Oh no, I'm not that old man.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Nah, Yeah it was. We were like fifteen.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
They could drag off a camel life flying overseas.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Man.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
That sounds like the good old days to me, John.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
I want to talk a little bit about Dundon vis
A v the NBA expansion. Would the NBA owners nix
or hold off expansion plans if they legitimately thought that
Dundon would either flip the Blazers to Seattle owner or
try to move the team here.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yes, and I you know, ultimately Adam Silver works for
those owners. Those owners want as much money as possible.
It's his job to make them money. And if they
determined that there's a couple of scenarios here. One, is
it in the league's best interest, in the owner's best
interest to slow play expansion if it helps Dundon get
a new arena in Portland. Yes, they will slow play that.
(12:25):
That's why they'll say, hey, we're not ready to vote
on expansion. They'll wait and see what the Portland City
Council's gonna do. Will they build him a new arena?
Will they just renovate the arena. They're gonna do everything
they can to help Dundon because the owners do that
for each other. The second thing that has recently come
up is, you know, there's three years remaining on the
Blazer's lease. That's nothing, right, that's nothing in New World, right.
(12:45):
You know it, You guys know it better than anybody.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
He is pulling from the Clay Bennett playbook right now
in the way that he's acting, in the way that
he's talking, and it's scaring people in Portland because we've
seen it go down in Seattle right same way. And
so well, what I had presented to me for the
first time just to just a week ago was I
had an NBA executive, longtime executive, who said Seattle expansion
(13:10):
isn't done. It's not a no brainer. It's probably gonna happen,
probably gonna be Vegas for sure, and probably Seattle. But
he said, I could see the NBA trying to put
Portland in Seattle, move the Blazers to Seattle, and then
you know, fanning the flames for a larger payday from
someone like Vancouver, BC, or Nashville or Kansas City, because
(13:34):
they the feeling was ownership groups in those cities might
pay more and have a bigger you know, windfall payment
for the NBA owners than an owner in Seattle. So
keep an eye on that. I don't think that the
doors closed on it.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well, that's one of the reasons why we called you
right to get it on, John, because I I mean,
in simple terms, the Blazers moving to Seattle. Where did
you feel the possible ability sat six months ago and
where do you feel the possibility sits at today?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I had it at like one percent, about how about
thirty percent?
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Who?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Well, so, John, what what news should we want to
if Sonic fans just want the Sonics and not the Blazers,
and I think ninety nine point nine Sonic fans want
the Sonics and not the Blazers. But what news do
we need to hear before the expansion vote to feel
(14:37):
good that they're actually going to vote for expansion?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Forceit?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
You want Portland to get settled. You want the Portland
City Council to back up what the governor is saying, say, hey,
we'll give you all the renovations you want. Dundon's sitting
at the table like a guy who doesn't care. His
eyes are hollow. He's talking in a monotonous voice like
he doesn't give a rip where this team plays as
long as it turns a profit, you know. And if
that Portland City Council just you know, says to him, hey, look,
(15:02):
we'll give you all the We'll give you the six
hundred million dollars in renovations, and I think they're going
to do that, Or they say we'll build you a
brand new arena. Where do you want it to be?
I think Dundon takes that and takes a win, and
he you know, he walks off and Portland stays there,
and then all of a sudden got the governor's vote,
and then you get, you know, a new new version
of the Sonics or the other thing that works for
(15:24):
people in Seattle is Blazers are moving, but they're going
to Nashville, right, and and that would be a Dundon move,
right because he's already developing that NHL complex, and you
know if he put an NBA team in there, that
might work for him too.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Just feels like, we want your situation settled as soon
as possible. That is, that is really whatever it's going
to be, just settle it, figure it out. And I'm
here to tell you what, John down there, and you
can tell all your constituents in Portland that we would
much rather have an expansion team. I think we can
say that, right dick up here in Seattle. But if
the only choice is taking the Blazers, give us the Blazers.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Wow, oh, look at you.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Give us the Blazers. This whole idea that I'm not
doing to somebody else with. That's nonsense, Absolutely no, this
is business, all right. You want me to be a hypocrite,
I'll be a differend.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Don't show business.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Don't give it. Damn. I want my freaking team back.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And if it ends up being the Blazers and the
Sonics are reborn out of the Portland bosom, I'm fine
with that. That's again I don't prefer it. But if
that's the if that's option two and there ain't no
option three, give me the damn Blazers.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
So I don't know. I mean, are.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
People like, honestly, is this a dude? You went from
one percent to thirty percent in six months?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Dundon?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
That's significant. That is not a nothing burger. Do Blazer
fans you think feel that? Do they wake up and
feel that?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, they're feeling it. There there's a faction of people
who are saying, if this happens, I'm done with the NBA.
There's a faction of people saying, we can't let this happen. Oh,
you know, the governor in the state of Oregon came
out and she signed just earlier this week. You know,
he her part of the deal, the five hundred and
seventy five million dollars towards renovations to MODA Center. But
what I think Dundon really wants is I think he
(17:04):
wants a new arena, right. I think this is you know,
he's I think we're about a week or two away
from Dune and coming out and saying, you know, renovations
are fine, but what we really need is an entertainment
district around the building. And I'd like to put that,
you know, on the suburbs of Portland. And I think
that's the next move for him. Yeah, you know, there's
political will like never before good in Oregon. It's never
(17:25):
been there before, but should be. But you know how
like you know, people in Portland want major League Baseball
and they're saying, hey, we need MLB, and major League
Baseball is saying, hey, we needed the Rays and the
A's to get settled first. Seattle's a little bit in
that camp right now. I think with this expansion thing,
I think it's a no brainer that they're going to Vegas.
I think Seattle's gonna get a team. Is it an
expansion team or is it a relocation. We're gonna find out.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Ah, you're the best, great stuff, man, and we'll talk
soon anytime, see it, man, John. I mean, and look,
this would jive because you asked Dick about you know,
this would jive with the news that came out, was
it yesterday or two days ago about the NBA saying
this may not be done this summer, right, you may
have to wait d of the yearly, Well, that would
mean that they're waiting to see what's going on down
(18:08):
there before they figure out what's going on up here, right, Like,
why would we give you an expansion team today when
there's still a chance that we may.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Move the Blazers up there?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, the one thing is that thing settled first, and
then we'll figure it out.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
And if you want, let's say you're out there and
you don't give a bleep whether it's expansion team or
the Blazer, right.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Which is kind of where I'm at. I prefer expansion,
but I'm not going to lose sleep over it either way.
You'd get the Blazers first. Hell, yes, they're a better team,
but no, you'd get them early, no doubt, Yes, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
And they're already made basketball team.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
So if you're like putting your if you're putting your
list together of would I rather have the Blazers that
you know, turn into the Sonics or the expansion Sonics, right,
putting your list together, right, Yeah, it's heavier over on
Expansion Sonics. But there are some there are some positives
about having a team that moves.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
No question, they're a better product. They'd be here quicker. Now.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
They may let this thing drag on for a year
or so. If there's a fight for public money for
the arena down there, they may let it drag on.
Maybe there's a chance that Dundin flips this to somebody else.
I mean, that's probably not going to happen. But you're
exactly right that if you're just talking about basketball, you
want it fast, and you want as good a team
as you can get, then you want the Blazers. I'm
(19:23):
personally willing, I guess fifty one forty nine percent, to
maybe suffer for a couple of years to have my
own team and not have the Blazers, partly because I
want the rivalry. I want the Portland Seattle rivalry. I mean,
if Portland moves up here, the nearest rival is Golden State,
that's it. It's a thousand miles away. There's no Vancouver,
there's no Portland. So I would love to have that.
(19:44):
But guys, I am not one of these people. And
maybe I should be, and maybe I'm a hypocrite, and
that's fine. I'm not one of these people that says,
you know what, I don't want to do to somebody
else what was done to us. I do not care
about that. The NBA showed us eighteen years ago that
this is about blood. This isn't about feelings, it's not
about history, not about who deserves what and who's put
(20:05):
the work in. It's all business. Let's treat it like
business and get the damn team back. We got a break,
all right, Let's come back and pick this up next
on ninety three three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Now back to Softie and Dick on your home for
the Huskies, Krakin and the twelfth Man Sports Radio ninety
three point three kjr FM.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
The Blazers moving to Seattle. Where did you feel the
possibility set six months ago? And where do you feel
the possibility sits at today?
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I had it at like one percent? How about thirty percent?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
WHOA I thought he was going to say like maybe
ten eight whatever. He went right from one to thirty.
I mean, I just that's pretty impressive. Man just went
online and bought my Denny Afdia Jersey.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Oh, I mean, moly.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I mean, if you could buy stock or at odds
on the Blazers moving to Seattle, you might want to
bet it now, right because if they get into a
pissing match down there about the public funds for the arena,
which I'm kind of glad to hear that they're stepping up,
and I hope they do step up, and I do
hope they keep their team as many of those Oregon
schmuck football fans I despise down there, and they'd be
(21:19):
a hell of a hammer when it to hold over
at Oregon fans heads. Again, the biggest hand took your
basketball team, sucker.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
See, that's not a hammer, it's an atomic bump.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
I mean, it's like it's like what we said about
It's like what we said about winning the Pack the
final Pack twelve championship over there.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That was pretty much something that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
They can never have the PA twelve's coming back though,
But I get your point.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's that's not a hammer. Look, that's a shotgun. Yeah,
this is the biggest one.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
We're talking about something that's like, yes, there's no coming
back from this.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
In the battle between Seattle and Portland. This would be
the biggest salvo fired by anybody, right, there would.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Be no more bat Kenny Wheaton and.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
The PAC twelve championship, the years of domination by the
Oregon Ducks over U dub This would be the ultimate
hand like like to drop.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
I think about like the Sounders Timbers and not rivalry
and having Portland fans in our stadium like at that point,
like remember we talked about this a while back, and
there's like the hatred between fan bases makes a great rivalry,
but at the point where one fan base just feels
sorry for the other fan base.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
We talked about this.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
I think with the uwws exactly like Portland Timbers fans
coming to Lumen, I would like look at them and
I would then suddenly feel bad and I will feel
sorry for them, because what.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Would be the ultimate sign of disrespect to have us
feel bad? You know what, I changed my mind. I
don't want an expansion team. I want the Blazers. I know,
I want them, hate their city. Why don't we just
why don't we just what else can we take? What
else can we take? Take?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
In the hour?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah, didn't they open a voodoo Yes up here Capitol Hill.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
What else do you want? What about the crop? You
want the a crop? Have a great tiki.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Bottle, Pumpkin Ridge? Can they bring that up here? Bring
it up?
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Man?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Want Cannon Beach to take an in beach. I want Seaside. Yeah,
we're having a sale. Just go grab what you want.
Man going out of business, jos Houses. I want that story.
I want to tell the book. Yeah, I want the
ice cream factory. That's a great call.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I want the ice cream factory. We want Pumpkin Ridge.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Want Blazers and donuts on the Sun River and the
entire town of a story. We want your coast because
your coast kicks our coast.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
What is what is we advertise the to Talton Valley,
valet To.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
We want the wine we want to want we want
that to all the weirdos, the purple haired weirdose.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
You can keep them, but we want everything. We want
everything else.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
I mean for you, though, isn't the currency time right now?
Meaning I would I would take I'd rather have an
expansion team than the Blazers. It's just a matter of
what the time difference is. If it's going to be significant,
then give me the Blazer exactly if it's three years
versus one year, wait the three years. If it's yeah,
(24:13):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
If it's if it's no me, Dick, I want him
back as soon as possible, stand as soon as possible.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
But if it's one year versus three years, I'd probably
still go stake the expansion team.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
If it's one years versus five to.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Ten, for get about it. Give me my basketball. I
want you to take your dad to a basketball game.
That's what, okay. I want you to take your dad
and Dixon, and I want three generations of fans to
go to a basketball game together.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I can't have that. I want you to have that.
And you're not the only one.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
There's anybody else out there listening right now who has
an aging parent, whatever, somebody that's sick. Get him back
because we want to watch him. We want to do
it together. So I don't want to wait anymore. I
don't want to wait for a lot of reasons. Lenny's gone,
that's not going to happen, but there's a lot of
other reasons to get this done as soon as possible.
So I think we just figured it out, man. I
(25:00):
mean textas four nine, four or five one, as long
as we're taking.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
What we want? What else you want? What else do
you want from more? I'm sure we're missing some good
What do we say? We said sun River?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
We want up Drinking Ridge can also we want all
of Voodoo Donuts. We want Nike. Let's get Nike. Yeah, right,
move the move the Nike head quarters. Starbucks is going
to Tennessee. Let's get Nike. They can they can come
back here. We want we want to Nashville, right, I
want Dutch bros. Okay, you want Dutch brothers. If we
had entire town of a story and I want yeah,
(25:33):
I mean sun River is right outside of Bend, yes, yeah,
and do it all, sun River, Pumpkin Ridgevoodoo Donuts, all
of it, Nike, Tillamook, a story of the entire town
and Ben.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
If we had Nike, would would they start contributing to
the Huskies? Maybe?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Move the headquarters? Are they still in Beaverton?
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Boy? Would Phil just say, you know what, if I'm
moving to Seattle, I might as well just support The dogs.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Are in Adida school, so that have to change at
some point. But yeah, I mean you text us, what
else do you want?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
A story? Plus pretty much all the coast I want Okay,
let's replace our coast with their coast.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I think that's the coast, because don't you think their
coast is better than ours? I want the A crop.
I know it's for sale. Move it up here, bring
it to Seattle, all right? Well, a crop version two
point zero.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Bring it up. This is great.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
A crop, uh, Sun River, Pumpkin Ridge golf Course, all
of Vooda, Donuts, including corporate Nike, Tillamook cheese and ice cream.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Bring that up here.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
The entire town of Astoria, the entire town of Bend,
and Dutch Brothers band No, bring it up here, we
won't band it.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Also, how Crater Lake Crater like, bring it up?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yeah, just give us the whole freaking thing.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, you know there's gonna be a lot of people
that won't want the Blazers under any condition.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I'm not one of them.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
So it's funny because Live Pumpkin Ridge actually had a
live tournament, did they not? And then the people freaked out,
the members freaked out, and they said no more or not.
And this again, that's big in the news today because
apparently the PIF Saudi Arabia is pulling funding for the
live Tour after how many years now is it four?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Five? Whatever? It is four or five.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
And look, it was never a money maker from the start,
and I never thought it'd be a money maker. I
thought it was an ego plague by the Saudis the
whole time. And maybe if it was not, like how
many how many sports leagues have we seen events have
we seen that go belly up like right after a year, like, well,
this isn't going to work, so the hell with it?
And maybe one of the reasons why Dick it lasted
as long as it did is because they didn't give
(27:35):
a damn about.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Right, I mean, they were hemorrhaging money. And now now
the big question is do we bring these guys back?
And I think you've got to take a look at
what is the live roster and who should be able
to come back.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Well, in my opinion, everybody.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Should be given the opportunity to come back, right, But
that doesn't mean everybody deserves it. Not everybody on the
Live Tour deserves to play PGA Tour golf.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Sure they should be good enough, exactly.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
I mean, you've got you got your obvious I mean
I kind of split these up in the categories you've
got your Bryson, Ram Terrell Hatt and Cam Smith, Walke Neeman.
I mean those guys. Those guys could win a Major now,
like all those guys could win a Major. Now, those
guys need to come back the same way brooks Kopka did.
Pay your fine, you don't get equity for five years.
Do the same brooks Kopka deal with those dudes. The
(28:20):
old dudes should just go. I mean the Phills, the Bubba's,
the DJs, Poulter's, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, those type of guys.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I mean, they can go to the Senior Tour.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
So my question to you before the show was how
many guys from the Live Tour could replace players on
the PGA Tour and make the PGA Tour better?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Right now, I think there's about fifteen to twelve. Okay,
then those guys should all come.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Back, yes all, because there's the five, there's the five
that I mentioned that are elite, and there's a group
of ten to twelve guys. Now, not only these guys
would go to the PGA Tour, because some of these
guys like Thomas Dtree, Thomas Peters, Adrian Moronk, those guys
were DP War Tour guys that went to live they
weren't PGA players, So would they go to the PGA
(29:06):
after never being a PGA Tour player?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Would they just go back to the DP word Tool
World Tour? They probably go right there.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I just think that the PGA Tour should be about,
like how many players are on the PGA Tour ballpark
to wish two hundred.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Let's just take two hundred for giggles.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, the top two hundred players in the world should
be on the PGA Tour. I don't care what tour
they came from, what tour they went to and came
back from. If they're good enough, they should be there.
So if there's fifteen to twenty guys that can jump
ship right now and they're gonna might have to because
the ship might be sinking and go to the PGA,
then they should be allowed to come back. And I
(29:41):
made the analogy earlier today to the USFL. Imagine if
the NFL told Steve Young, Reggie White, Hershchal Walker, Doug Fluteie,
Jim Kelly, sorry, you can't play for us?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Are you kidding me? How stupid is that?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So these guys should get to come back and they
should get to play in this idea that they should
be punished. If that's what you want to do and
they agree to it, hey, great, good for you if
you can milk some extra money out of him. But guys, again,
they were doing what they thought was best for them
financially for their family, which is nothing different than anybody
(30:14):
else would have done. This idea that you know, blood money,
they took blood money. I mean, give me a break, right,
I mean, give me a break.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Come on, Honestly, if the PIF came to the States
and said we're going to start it American Sports Podcast Network,
and we're going to hire one person from every major
market town in America. We want to hire Dick Fan,
give him five million dollars a month to work for us,
you'd say hello, and you wouldn't give a damn where
it's coming from, nor would you care.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
And if you're a rank and file PG to remember
that is just getting by the skin of your teeth.
I'll say David Lipsky, for example, he's ranked one hundred
and fifty in the world.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Joking, Neeman comes back.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
There's there's nobody in the world that doesn't think Joaque
Nemon's a better golfer than David Lipsky is. I mean,
he's just going to be able to walk into the
PG door. And if it replaces David Lipsky, well then
David Lipsky's got to qualify earn it.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
You got to earn it.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, I mean again, I just what we talked about
earlier in the first segment of the show is that
I think a lot of people work for organizations or companies,
and the bigger they are, the more this could potentially
be in play where they do things and say things
and support things that maybe you don't right, Like we
talked about Google and Meta and Apple, Microsoft. Hell, this
(31:23):
company might do some things and believe in some things,
and say some things and support some things that I
don't necessarily agree with, And that's okay. When you're dealing
with a major corporation that employs hundreds of thousands of people,
you're bound to be able to get to a point
sooner or later where people that work for you don't
(31:43):
align with every single thing you believe in. And there's
nothing wrong with that. You don't need to believe in
every single thing your company stands for.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
But you do need to make a living. Right, all
of us need to make a living.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
And you can argue that well, PGA players and professional
golfers they have enough money where they can kind of.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Pick and choose.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Well, again, I have no idea what's happening in their
personal lives, what kind of bills they've got, what kind
of investments they have to live up to, what kind
of partners they've got and their business investments, what kind
of relatives rely on them.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
I don't have any idea.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
There's a lot of PGA tour players that just don't
make it.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Well.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Harold Varner the third was the perfect example because he
was the guy who went to live and said I
would never make this money on the PGA tour ever,
so sue me.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I had to assume me. But he's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
So again I just look, man, you want to work
for a company that believes in exactly everything you do,
and there's never going to be a disagreement, and there's
never going to be anything that will be done at
the corporate level that will turn you off. Good luck
finding that company. And the bigger the company is, the
more a problem that's going to be. So you can
(32:51):
spend your whole life trying to do something like that.
Or you can just have your own morals, your own values,
live your own damn life, and make as good a
living as you can for you and your family.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
That's what I believe and whatever. Okay, I'm done. I
feel like I'm on a soapbox. By the way, apologize
for that.
Dave 'Softy' Mahler and Dick Fain News
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