The Portland Trail Blazers are now officially for sale, as the team announced on Tuesday morning that the estate of Paul Allen was beginning the formal sales process for the franchise.
“The estate of Paul G. Allen today announced it has commenced a formal sales process for the Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchise, consistent with Allen’s directive to eventually sell his sports holdings and direct all estate proceeds to philanthropy.
The estate has selected investment bank Allen & Company and law firm HOgan Lovells to lead the sales process, which is estimated to continue into the 2025-26 basketball season. The NBA Board of Governors must then ratify a final purchase agreement.
This does not affect the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise or the estate’s 25% interest in the Seattle Sounders MLS, and neither is for sale.”
Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, died in 2018 and his will directed the eventual sales of the sports teams he owned with all sales proceeds for the estate going to philanthropic efforts. However, there have been some internal disputes about when the sale needed to occur and past reported attempts made by Nike founder Phil Knight to purchase the team were rebuffed.
Now, the team is officially up for sale and will be the fifth NBA franchise to get sold in the past three years. The floor for the sales price seems to be the 2023 sale of the Charlotte Hornets for $3 billion, while the Dallas Mavericks went for $3.5 billion, the Phoenix Suns (and WNBA’s Mercury) went for $4 billion and the Boston Celtics most recently sold for a record-setting $6.1 billion earlier this year.
The Blazers won’t reach that Celtics figure, but one would expect them to aim for something in the range of the Mavericks and Suns. As the team’s statement notes, a sale is not expected to get finalized until next season.