How much will NBA's Portland Trail Blazers sell for?

Now let the speculation begin. How much will the Portland Trail Blazers sell for?

The estate of the late Paul Allen announced that they will be putting the NBA franchise up for sale, in a process that will last into the following season with the new 11-year, $76 billion media deal in place between ABC/ESPN/Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video as one of the driving forces for the timing.

The estate will not be selling the Seattle Seahawks or its 25 percent stake in the MLS' Seattle Sounders.

Setting the market

The Trail Blazers have been run by his sister Jody Allen ever since the Microsoft co-founder passed away in 2018.

CNBC recently ranked Portland as the 22nd most valuable franchise at $3.65 billion. But that's only a valuation. To put it in perspective, Nike founder Phil Knight, now 87, publicly made a $2 billion offer with Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Alan Smolinisky in 2022. A year later, the Phoenix Suns sold for $4 billion.

The Boston Celtics, the most storied franchise in the NBA along with the Los Angeles Lakers, are awaiting approval for a $6.1 billion selling price to a Bill Chisholm-led group.

Other factors affecting the price

Also waiting in the wings are two expansion franchises, reported to be happening by 2027, with Las Vegas and Seattle the clear frontrunners. The profit of those sales is split amongst the owners, so that will certainly drive the price up for the Trail Blazers.

The Portland Trail Blazers have a storied history, joining the NBA as an expansion team in 1970. By the end of the decade, they won their only NBA championship in 1977, led by Bill Walton in a surprise upset of the Dr. J-led Philadelphia 76ers.

Rip City was also dynamic in the late 1980s/early 1990s, led by Clyde Drexler, who the Trail Blazers drafted in 1983, but famously passed on Michael Jordan the following year with the No. 2 pick in the 1984 NBA Draft, selecting Kentucky center Sam Bowie instead. The rest as they say, is history. Then more recently, it was Dame time with Damian Lillard, who became a local hero in the community before getting traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Paul Allen bought the club soon thereafter in 1988 for a now laughable $70 million.

One thing hurting the value of the franchise is the Blazers no longer own the arena, selling it back to the City of Portland in 2024 for $1, and the land for $7 million as part of a public/private initiative to update the Moda Center and surrounding area.

So what's a good educated guess?

But then again, the Celtics don't own TD Garden, and that shattered the new record for an NBA franchise selling price.

Expect the Blazers to sell north of that Suns price when it's all said and done, somewhere in the $4 billion-$5 billion range.