A Portland Trail Blazers executive said Thursday that the threat of litigation is casting a pall over negotiations with the city of Portland on paying for Moda Center renovations.

The Trail Blazers have attacked a provision in their current lease that would allow the city of Portland to sue the team for the cost of renovating the Moda Center if the team were to leave the arena when the lease ends in 2030.

Dewayne Hankins, the Trail Blazers president of business operations, decried the “threat of litigation hanging over these negotiations.”

The provision “has been wielded as a weapon, chilling our negotiations,” Hankins said.

Trail Blazers officials and city councilors held a work session Thursday that functioned as a temperature check on negotiations over arena upgrades. The two sides appeared far apart on any agreement to renovate the nearly 31-year-old Moda Center, which the city took ownership of in 2025.

They couldn’t even agree on whether the Trail Blazers were negotiating.

“It sounds like you have walked away from the table a bit,” Councilor Loretta Smith said.

Zandria Conyers, the Trail Blazers’ general counsel, disputed that characterization.

“We’re still at the table,” she said. “We have not walked away from the table.”

Conyers said the draft term sheet the city has circulated is a “nonstarter.”

“It is just not even a document we can respond to,” she added.

The Trail Blazers’ executives ceded little ground, instead taking a maximalist position in council chambers. Hankins reiterated that the team’s ownership group, led by Tom Dundon, would not agree to spend any money to renovate Moda Center.

“Going forward, in order for this deal to make economic sense, the contribution needs to come from the public sector,” Hankins said.

Hankins said the Trail Blazers should get credit for spending nearly $1 billion in the past 30 years on previous Moda Center upgrades and maintenance — even though that spending came under previous ownership.

Councilor Angelita Morillo, who has been a vocal critic of the Blazers’ recent statements, said the team had “moved the goalposts” after the city published a draft term sheet. She also dismissed the Blazers’ fear of litigation.

“They are only sued if they choose to move the team according to the bridge lease,” Morillo said.

A Trail Blazers representative said they had had discussions with potential architects and contractors to renovate the Moda Center. The team has identified $600 million in needed upgrades.

“We have architects and general contractors that we are excited to get to work with,” Hankins said. “We, in fact, had interviews with the city and state by our sides to have those, to pick those and select those, but until we have the funds to pay those architects, we don’t have plans to show you.”

The Oregon Legislature in its previous session passed a bill to supply $365 million in bond funding for Moda Center upgrades. The city has surveyed voters on potentially spending $120 million on the project. Multnomah County is also weighing its contribution.

The City Council is moving forward with public hearings on Wednesday and Thursday, with a vote on the term sheet to follow on Aug. 12. The council plans to vote on a lease agreement in December before bonds can be issued — if the city and the Trail Blazers can play ball.

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City councilors on Wednesday blasted what some described as a rushed process to approve funding for Moda Center renovations and a lease agreement with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Councilors are beginning to grapple with how the city of Portland should manage the Moda Center, what it will take to keep the NBA team in town and who will benefit.

On Wednesday, they hosted what is expected to be the first of several work sessions on the Moda Center’s future.

An unscientific city-commissioned survey found split opinion on whether Portland should invest potentially $120 million in modernizing the arena, which dates to 1995. The city took ownership of the arena in 2025.

“It’s clear to me that Portlanders are not speaking with one voice,” Councilor Candace Avalos said. “People are divided on whether the Moda Center should be renovated, or even more skeptical about committing significant public dollars. So to me what that means is we just have an obligation to slow down, ask good questions (and) make sure that the public understands the choices that are in front of us.”

The survey garnered more than 18,000 responses, with most respondents either strongly in favor or strongly opposed to Moda Center renovations.

Avalos said it’s important that Trail Blazers ownership chip in financially. She said she wants to see a “meaningful private capital contribution from ownership, consistent with many arena deals around the country. That is probably my number-one issue.”

Avalos added, “I’m going to have a hard time agreeing to give public money if I’m not seeing a private investment.”

Councilor Dan Ryan said the city should make the Moda Center into an asset it can be proud of, comparing it to the Portland International Airport, which has undergone a more than $2 billion renovation and expansion.

“When I play this forward, I can’t see one scenario where having … the Portland Trail Blazers leave our city and that’s going to be good for the long term for my hometown,” he said.

Looming in the background is uncertainty regarding Trail Blazers’ principal owner Tom Dundon’s intentions for the franchise. Dundon has few local ties and business interests in other states, including the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. Dundon and his ownership group purchased the Blazers last year from Paul Allen’s estate for more than $4 billion.

While city councilors laid out their priorities, Dundon spoke across town to business and political leaders, including Gov. Tina Kotek, at a Portland Metro Chamber event.

“The state is committed to a new Moda Center,” Kotek said, according to a KATU video of the event. “We can do this — should do it.”

Asked whether the Blazers’ ownership would contribute to Moda Center renovations, Dundon said the Blazers will chip in through taxes on players’ salaries as part of a bill approved in the Oregon Legislature‘s last session, as well as fees on tickets.

“It feels like we’re making a pretty big investment by staying here and paying these tax rates and agreeing to these fees for dollars that go back into the building,” Dundon said.

The Moda Center actually generates more revenue from concerts and other events than it does from the Trail Blazers, as live events took off after the pandemic, a city staffer said Wednesday.  The arena also hosts the fledgling Portland Fire, the WNBA’s newest franchise.

In the runup to Wednesday’s work session, Mayor Keith Wilson and left-leaning city councilors traded barbs.

“Good process means sitting down, figuring out the math and keeping the public informed and empowered every step of the way, not duking it out in the media or on Instagram,” Wilson said in a letter he released Tuesday.

Councilor Mitch Green responded on social media that he was “unsettled” by the mayor’s viewpoint. “Rather than acknowledge that there are very real concerns about how this process has unfolded, he chose instead to cast critique as short-sighted and opportunistic in an effort to deflect from the impressive lack of rigor to date on his part,” Green posted to BlueSky.

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