Schooling The Blazers!

Wheels are turning....Things are happening....

2006-04-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

From City Hall to Pool Halls!
From The Blazer Game to Porter's Campaign!
Everyone is talking about...

Schooling the Blazers!

Great news today from today's Oregonian!

"Porter team $75 million away from Blazers deal"

And in the article -

"The group also met with Portland Mayor Tom Potter and other city officials Wednesday afternoon to explain its plan, but not to ask for financial assistance, Kremer said. He said the group is encouraged by some ideas offered by community members, such as finding some way to raise money for both the Blazers and public schools...."

Well the word is getting out now. And because of the growing inquiries, questions and comments today's we will be presenting our original proposal:

Schooling the Blazers!

“Greetings Blazer fans wherever you may be.”

(Bill Schonely's warm welcome at the beginning of each game)

I am one of a growing group of Trail Blazer fans who applaud and support the efforts of Terry Porter, Rob Kremer, Todd Stucky and Joe Vaughn to purchase the Trail Blazers and the Rose Quarter and bring them back under local ownership. In reading the articles in the Saturday and Sunday Oregonian, no matter how much everyone likes this idea, these gentlemen are facing a monumental uphill climb to make it a reality. In the past, Portland and Oregon have come up with innovative solutions for complex problems. It is in that spirit, that we propose the following:

We propose using the Portland School District Foundation as a conduit, not only for raising some of the monies needed for the Terry Porter lead group to purchase the Trail Blazers and Rose Quarter, but also to create an on going way to help the Portland School District ease some of its budget woes and the continuance of new, “temporary taxes”. A call out to the community, rich and poor alike, to donate the monies required for the foundation to aid the Terry Porter group in their financial efforts.

Using the published figures of $300 million required to purchase the Trail Blazers and Rose Quarter the Foundation would set a goal of raising $100 million dollars. By having one entity to pool the donations of the rich and poor alike, this gives everyone the opportunity to play a part in keeping the Blazers in Portland. The money donated to the Foundation specifically for this cause, would be tax deductible, which is not only a nice benefit but could be a motivating incentive. The Foundation would then become a one third, limited partner in the ownership group. The Terry Porter group has stated that they have $100 million already available and hopefully this would assist them in securing other large investors for the remaining one third. In a limited partnership agreement between the Foundation and the Terry Porter group, that would contain very specific provisions protecting the Foundation from any and all losses incurred from the running and business dealings of the Trail Blazers and the Rose Garden.

For the Foundation's efforts in soliciting and investing, they and the Portland Public School District would be compensated as follows:

A $2 surcharge will be added to every ticket sold for every event held at the Rose Garden. That money would be paid to the Foundation, and then in turn to the Portland Public School District. Using the average attendance figures of approximately 15,000 for Trail Blazer home games and over 700,000 combined attendance of all other non-basketball events, without any increase in attendance, this would be an additional yearly income of over $2.5 million dollars to the School District. These figures do not include the hoped for increase in attendance to Trail Blazer games but also the attendance of the new Lacrosse team.

The Terry Porter group will be asked to agree to place two students from the Portland School District and one each from Portland State University and Portland Community College as non-paid members on the Board of Directors. Whether or not these Board positions would be voting, can be decided at the time a limited partnership agreement is finalized.

The Terry Porter group would also agree to use the Portland School District, Portland State University and Portland Community College to create and produce their radio, television and print advertising and to use them in other positions through out the Blazer organization, whenever appropriate and possible. Establishing programs such as internships and employment opportunities for the students of these schools, becoming a real world business classroom for students, giving them real world business experience.

Lastly, this would be fun! The Trail Blazers would hold one regular season game a year, on an early afternoon weekday, at which admission would be free to all Portland Public School High School an Middle School students. Maybe against Portland's arch rivals, the Los Angles Lakers and our kids would cheer our Portland Trail Blazers to victory and the Lakers right out the door!

This plan would be attractive of great interest to the Terry Porter lead group for the following reasons:

It gives them a giant shot in the arm towards achieving their goal
A non-demanding, truly silent partner in their ownership group
Huge amounts of positive, community based publicity

Since the Foundation's investment is being satisfied by the ticket surcharge, the Terry Porter group would only have to satisfy the debt load of $200 million to their investors from a $300 million investment, hopefully helping them garner more favorable terms than Paul Allen received when he originally financed the Rose Garden and more importantly making it easier to return the team to profitability.

These things would help to quickly bring the Community and the Trail Blazers back closer together again as in the past. I feel very strongly that this is key for the Blazers to once again enjoy success here in Portland.

While some of the more prominent, deeper pocketed members of our community, such as Mr. Knight, Mr. Pamplin and the Schnitzer family, have stated they have no interest in Trail Blazer ownership, large tax deductions, based on their donation would be a great incentive. Perhaps they could be encouraged to match the donations from those of us fans whose pockets are not deep enough to reflect how much the Portland Trail Blazers mean to us.

This plan would be beneficial to the citizens and fans of this community for the following reasons:

It keeps the team here
It keeps the team from moving in the future
It assists an underfunded school district, without any further tax dollars
It keeps the Terry Porter ownership group connected and grounded to the community, not locked away in a Seattle ivory tower, as it has seemed at times with the current ownership.

A voluntary, tax deductible donation will always be more palatable, than a mandatory tax increase.

It's a valuable lesson for our children and our children's children. When corporations threaten to move, bankrupt their obligations, disconnect and alienate their customer base, (needed to make their businesses viable), community innovation and intervention can be a powerful and successful force. Together we can take a failing, disheartening situation and turn it into something that we can take pride in, while it also benefits our community.

To the Nay Sayers:

Yes, this is terribly over simplified, and yes I'm sure there are many reasons this cannot work exactly as stated. But all too often it seems we all criticize and judge, when working together might actually get things done and make things better. I feel that it is in our best interest to have the Trail Blazers under control of local ownership. Since Terry Porter has been the only one to publicly come forward and express a desire to purchase the Trail Blazers and he is someone that I respect not only has a former Trail Blazer player but as a person, I can't help but feel that all out support of his ownership campaign is much better then the possible bankruptcy / relocation / “who knows what?” that we are being offered by Paul Allen and David Stern.

To the fans and supporters of this:

Get out your checkbooks, turn in those bottles and cans. We can do this! Do not ever forget that we are blessed to live in one of the greatest and most livable cities in the entire world.

Also, any Attorneys, CPA's and others with interest and/or knowledge of how to make this work please, we need your help! Please contact us at schoolingtheblazers@gmail.com or www.schoolingtheblazers.blogspot.com

And finally to Mr. Paul Allen and the Portland Arena Management group:

Any support and or assistance in making this happen would be greatly appreciated. But most importantly, whether the above plan happens or not a 5% tax free donation to the Portland School District Foundation or a separate foundation that includes all of the schools and districts in the Portland Metro area of the selling price you receive from the sale of the Trail Blazers and the Rose Garden would be most appreciated and sure would go along way towards mending a lot of hurt feelings in the community that truly was the innocent party in all of this, but in the end has the most to lose.

Thank You,

John Gyanti &

the rest of the Blazer Fan Forum.

Schooling the Blazers - Update #2

2006-04-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

Schooling the Blazers! - Update 2

Greetings,

Big happenings today at Schooling the Blazers! Many inquiries and many more people showing support. For all of you who have taken the time to hear us out, a great big “Thank You”! And those of you who haven't, why not?

WWW.SCHOOLINGTHEBLAZERS.BLOGSPOT.COM

Don't miss out on the fastest growing grassroots campaign to hit Portland in 30 years.

Today we received write ups from:

Helen Jung of the Oregonian - OREGONLIVE.COM/WEBLOGS/PLAYBOOKSANDPROFITS

Kevin Cosgrove at Oregonianlive.com OREGONIANLIVE.COM/WEBLOGS/BLAZERSBLOG

Award winning sports journalist Henry Abbot at HTTP://WWW.TRUEHOOP.COM

and the Schooling the Blazers proposal is featured prominently on Mayor Tom Potter's “"Mayor Potter's Perspective" web blog – HTTP://WWW.PORTLANDONLINE.COM/MAYOR/INDEX.CFM?A=113560&C=41986&#COMMENTS

So speak up! Ask questions! and get involved! This is a great way for all members of this great community to help keep the Trail Blazers here and to do some good while we're at it!

Thanks for your support,

John

Another member of the Blazer Fan Forum was busy talking about the proposal with Blazer fans and thought he would try to clarify a few things and answer a few more questions.

Some in certain forums on the Internet are suggesting that the School District would be better off if the money went directly to the schools instead of being diverted through the Blazers. Of course the school district foundation could raise the money themselves, not have anything to do with the Blazers, and get a higher rate of return as some in these forums would suggest. However, there are so many benefits of the schools and the Blazers helping each other out that would offset that higher rate of return, such as:

The exposure and goodwill

The potential donators, the schools and the Blazers would all receive tons of positive media coverage. The Blazers are already so far removed from the community, and getting hammered in the media, there would be no better way to correct that by connecting the team with the people that look up to them the most: The children of Portland.

The benefits to students

The students would be able to take pride that the Blazers organization is helping the schools and vise versa. A part of the agreement would be that the Blazers organization would provide internships and opportunities like no other investment could provide: Hands on experience. With proposed programs such as students assisting in marketing and advertising as well as students assisting on the board of directors (a program the Blazers currently call the “Fan Advisory Board”). The students of Portland would get first hand exposure to the business world. This is an experience that no stock or bond could provide.

The benefits to the district

With the City of Portland and Portland Public Schools looking at making deep cuts to programs, as well as raising taxes to close the gap, this would be an incredible program to stop the bleeding. Not only would the schools be receiving an additional estimated 2 millions dollars a year, but, this would provide an incredible free program for students wishing to learn about business. This is a program that would require no funding from the school district, unlike so many others.

The benefits to the city

The city doesn't have to worry about loosing the only professional sports franchise in the state. With the Blazers player payroll around 60 million dollars per year, that would be a huge amount of income tax that the city and state would be loosing out on if the team decided to relocate. The businesses around the Rose Quarter would also be saved as the professional sports franchise would be bringing in 15 to 20 thousand people 41 times a year.

And that's about it, if you haven't visited WWW.SUPPORTTERRY.COM please do so!

Thanks,

The Blazer Fan Forum

Questions...Questions....Questions....

2006-04-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Schooling the Blazers! - Update

Hello again everyone,

This is a follow up to the posting we put yesterday. If you haven't read that one we encourage you to please do that first. Otherwise you'll be a little confused by todays posting and we'll have even more questions to answer tomorrow.

OK, now on to some of the questions.

Are you part of the Terry Porter group?

Nope, just some fans who came up with an idea that might be an answer if Terry Porter's group needs help in raising funds.

Why the Portland Public Schools Foundation and not all schools in Oregon?

Well they are the Portland Trail Blazers. Just kidding! That is a great question and there has been a great deal of discussion about this among us at the Blazer Fan Forum. The consensus is this: The Portland Public Schools Foundation is already set up, including a Board of Directors with outstanding members from some of the biggest companies in the Portland area. The Foundation has experience in raising and administering large sums of money, which will be an important part of establishing a working relationship between the school district and the Blazers. Jobs, Internships, Student representation on the Board and helping in the advertising and other areas where appropriate, would go along way in restoring the community pride that most of us feel the Blazers have destroyed. If the sole focus becomes in distributing the money to all the school districts in the State or the Metro area then those would become to hard to set up and I'm not sure if a little money everywhere would make that much of a difference.

With that said, multiple attempts have been made to contact the Portland Public Schools Foundation with no response back from them so maybe we should look at setting up a foundation that includes all of the Portland area school districts or a foundation that awards college scholarships to students in the Portland Metro area.

What if people donate money and it still isn't enough to assist in purchasing the Blazers, will the Foundation keep the money or do we get it back?

No, not only are all us here at the Blazer Fan Forum crazy about the Blazers, we're all crazy about cars so a new one for each of us sure would be nice. Just kidding, if we use an existing Foundation as long as the donations are clearly earmarked for the assistance of the Terry Porter group or if a new foundation is created for this if the purchase does not occur returning the money should not be a problem.

Is this offer only for the Terry Porter led group or will this be available to other groups?

Strangely enough there were 2 different inquiries about this. Hmmm… which makes us wonder is there another group out there that we haven't heard about yet? As long as the other ownership group has some ties to the Portland area and are of the same outstanding character that the Terry Porter led group appears to be then sure, if they want or need our help, no problem at all.

Does Terry Porter know about this? What does Terry say about this?

I'm sure he does, we did tell him about it at his website, http://www.supportterry.com/

Don’t know, we haven’t heard from him.

Have you told the news stations and newspapers about this? How come they aren't reporting on this?

Yes we sure have. A couple of the papers and TV stations emailed us back asking for a phone number and a few questions.

Won't jobs be lost if the students start doing them?

I guess we were thinking more about all jobs that would be lost if the Blazers file bankruptcy and/or leave town.

Blazer tickets are already too high, no one will go for an extra $2 fee per ticket.

Well look at this way, if all the tickets were the same price to attend a Blazer game, from that price you would be paying $17.34 per ticket to pay Zach Randolph's salary and $11.79 per ticket goes to pay Darius Miles' salary. Considering their actions as of late the $2 to the schools seems like a bargain and money much better well spent.

Great idea but why are you doing this?

Because if all we did was sit around and complain then all we'd be is a smaller version of Los Angles. (Maybe that was a little unfair.) Why not? We've been proud to call the Blazers our team in the past, we feel that the area is much better with them than without them. There isn't a Blazer fan around that doesn't want to see some sort of a resolution that is beneficial and put an end to the mess that they are in. If this ends up helping or even if it doesn't as long as it gets all of us to come together whether that's financial or moral support to help keep the Blazers a part of our community then it's all been worth it.

OK, that's all for now, keep those questions and comments coming!

John &

the Blazer Fan Forum

Schooling the Blazers

2006-04-17T05:50:00.000-07:00

Schooling the Blazers!

“Greetings Blazer fans wherever you may be.”

(Bill Schonely's warm welcome at the beginning of each game)

For the Foundation's efforts in soliciting and investing, they and the Portland Public School District would be compensated as follows:

A $2 surcharge will be added to every ticket sold for every event held at the Rose Garden. That money would be paid to the Foundation, and then in turn to the Portland Public School District. Using the average attendance figures of approximately 15,000 for Trail Blazer home games and over 700,000 combined attendance of all other non-basketball events, without any increase in attendance, this would be an additional yearly income of over $2.5 million dollars to the School District. These figures do not include the hoped for increase in attendance to Trail Blazer games but also the attendance of the new Lacrosse team.

The Terry Porter group will be asked to agree to place two students from the Portland School District and one each from Portland State University and Portland Community College as non-paid members on the Board of Directors. Whether or not these Board positions would be voting, can be decided at the time a limited partnership agreement is finalized.

The Terry Porter group would also agree to use the Portland School District, Portland State University and Portland Community College to create and produce their radio, television and print advertising and to use them in other positions through out the Blazer organization, whenever appropriate and possible. Establishing programs such as internships and employment opportunities for the students of these schools, becoming a real world business classroom for students, giving them real world business experience.

Lastly, this would be fun! The Trail Blazers would hold one regular season game a year, on an early afternoon weekday, at which admission would be free to all Portland Public School High School an Middle School students. Maybe against Portland's arch rivals, the Los Angles Lakers and our kids would cheer our Portland Trail Blazers to victory and the Lakers right out the door!

This plan would be attractive of great interest to the Terry Porter lead group for the following reasons:

It gives them a giant shot in the arm towards achieving their goal
A non-demanding, truly silent partner in their ownership group
Huge amounts of positive, community based publicity

This plan would be beneficial to the citizens and fans of this community for the following reasons:

It keeps the team here
It keeps the team from moving in the future
It assists an underfunded school district, without any further tax dollars
It keeps the Terry Porter ownership group connected and grounded to the community, not locked away in a Seattle ivory tower, as it has seemed at times with the current ownership.

A voluntary, tax deductible donation will always be more palatable, than a mandatory tax increase.

To the Nay Sayers:

To the fans and supporters of this:

Get out your checkbooks, turn in those bottles and cans. We can do this! Do not ever forget that we are blessed to live in one of the greatest and most livable cities in the entire world.

And finally to Mr. Paul Allen and the Portland Arena Management group:

Thank You,

John Gyanti &

the rest of the Blazer Fan Forum.