PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Representatives from the Trail Blazers met with Portland city councilors on Thursday to discuss a new lease and the commitment of public funds to renovate the aging Moda Center.
The public work session comes amid the contentious negotiations over the $600 million renovation project, part of striking a long-term lease agreement with the Blazers. A current bridge lease expires in 2030.
The state has already pledged $365 million toward the deal, provided Portland contributes $120 million and Multnomah County also provides funds.
New Blazers owner Tom Dundon has previously said in interviews that he would commit to a 20-year lease that would keep the team in Portland if the state, city and county agree to fund the renovation of the Moda Center, the oldest arena in the NBA that hasn't been upgraded.
An early draft term sheet included funding caps and said any cost overruns should be paid for by the team.
Dewayne Hankins, the team's president of business operations, said the Blazers new owners "believe we can build a team that Rip City can be proud of, and they believe that Portland is the best and most obvious choice for this team.”
Hankins and the Blazers maintain that before negotiations can begin in earnest, the bridge agreement must be amended to take away a provision that requires the team to maintain the Moda Center as a “first-class” NBA arena.
The provision has been used by a city councilor to suggest the city might take legal action if the Blazers are not meeting the standard. The threat of a lawsuit has hung over efforts to strike a deal, Hankins said.
“Although we enter negotiations in good faith, the first-class standard has been wielded as a weapon, chilling our negotiations. To be clear, the first-class standard is a relic language from a 30-year-old lease. It is not standard in today’s NBA deals, and was certainly atypical at the time. Not only that, it would not be included in any new deal with the city,” Hankins said.
He said the team has already contributed more than $1 billion toward construction and maintenance of the arena since it was built.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said: “We are not contemplating suing the Blazers, Rip City Management or other parties.”
Multnomah County will vote on its contribution toward the renovations on Aug. 6, and Portland's city council is set to vote on the matter on Aug. 12.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
FILE - Portland Trail Blazers new owner Tom Dundon speaks during a news conference April 2, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
TOKYO (AP) — Sony Group Corp. reported a 32% profit growth in the fiscal first quarter Friday while warning of a negative impact from the earthquake that hit southwestern Kumamoto earlier this week.
The Tokyo-based entertainment company said its semiconductor facilities there were affected, and production remained suspended at one, while others were back up.
There was no major damage. However, the impact on Sony’s bottom line was still being assessed, so that was not included in Friday’s results. Before the quake, Sony had said it was on track to report record profit for the fiscal year.
Sony, which makes the PlayStation video game machines, Bravia TVs and “Spider-Man” movies, said net profit for the April-June period rose to 342.2 billion yen ($2 billion) from 259 billion yen. Quarterly sales edged up 8% to 2.84 trillion yen ($17.7 billion).
The 7.1 magnitude quake that struck July 28 in the Kumamoto area in Japan 's southwestern main island of Kyushu caused at least 34 deaths. It also halted operations at factories, left hundreds of homes without electricity, flattened buildings and stopped trains.
Sony’s music business did well in the latest quarter, with both digital streaming and publishing businesses recording healthy results.
Among the top-selling projects for Sony Music for the quarter were releases from Michael Jackson like “Thriller” and “Bad,” which continue to have strong global appeal, as well as more recent recordings from Ella Langley and Bad Bunny.
Sony’s imaging and sensor business saw solid profits and sales. In a separate development, camera lens maker Tamron said this week that it had received an acquisition proposal from Sony and was reviewing options.
Sony’s video-games division also did well, selling 1.6 million PlayStation 5 machines during the three months, up from 1.5 million units in January-March.
Cumulative PS5 sales are now estimated at more than 93 million machines. Active players total 125 million people, according to Sony.
The film unit did not do as well, partly because there weren’t as many box office releases in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago. The main release for the latest quarter for its Pictures unit was “The Breadwinner,” directed by Eric Appel about a stay-home dad.
On the positive side, subscribers to Crunchyroll, a Japanese animation streaming service, continued to grow. Licensing revenue from its TV catalog also worked as a plus.
Sony is projecting a 1.2 trillion yen ($7.5 billion) net profit for the full fiscal year, up 17% on year. It expects 12.5 trillion yen ($77.8 billion) in annual sales through the fiscal year ending in March 2027, little changed from the previous year, inching up less than 1%.
Sony Group stock was trading little changed in Tokyo, compared to the previous day, after the earnings results were released.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
FILE - A Sony logo is seen at the headquarters of Sony Corp. in Tokyo on May 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
