Blazers turn up the charm

Roster, record have put the romance back in this city’s relationship with team

By ERIC BARTELS

The Portland Tribune, Mar 11, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

TIM JEWETT / TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

Blazer zealots clamored for autographs after the team beat the L.A. Lakers in 2005. Such enthusiasm seems even more widespread now.

When the Trail Blazers defeated the Golden State Warriors in a game back in early January, the streamers that fell from the rafters at the Rose Garden might as well have been stardust.

The National Basketball Association’s youngest team, which was supposed to be in a rebuilding year, had rung up its 17th win in 18 games, moving into first place in the highly competitive Northwest Division.

Something bordering on euphoria had landed in Portland, a town whose devotion to its only major professional team had been sorely tested in recent years.

And while the Blazers have come back to earth more recently, falling from playoff contention, the franchise and its followers have changed direction as stunningly as a point guard with a wicked crossover dribble.

Attendance at the team’s Rose Garden home is up more than 20 percent over last year, aided by an impressive string of sellouts. Merchandise sales there have nearly doubled. TV ratings have notched impressive increases.

But it doesn’t stop there. The Blazers’ bright future is improving fortunes – and lifting spirits – all over the city.

“It’s been good,” says Dave Matthews, buyer of Blazer merchandise for Joe’s, the 30-store Northwest chain that used to be G.I. Joe’s.

Matthews is almost giddy as he talks about sales figures over the past six months, compared to the same period a year ago – a 450 percent increase.

“It’s nice to be able to say we’re running out of jerseys,” he says.

The downtown restaurant Huber’s was Blazer Central back in the ’90s, when players would show up after home games and fans would come around to get a look. Now, some of the old excitement is back, owner James Louie says.

“When the team draws, that naturally translates into business because people are out and about,” he says. “Our biggest crowd is after the games, especially if they win. People are in a celebratory mood.”

Two Fridays ago, a crowd at the Gladstone Street Pub in Southeast Portland cheered raucously as the Blazers defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, snuffing a 10-game winning streak by the team’s longtime rival.

Last week, a more subdued bunch at the A & L Sports Pub, a cavernous tavern on Northeast Glisan Street, watched the Phoenix Suns hold off a late Blazer rally to win.

There, 23-year-old Arizona native and Suns fan Logan Tyler, who moved to Portland last summer, proved to be anything but a Blazer hater.

“I was ecstatic when they started doing well,” he says. “I’ve been going to Suns games since I was 5 years old. However, I’m also a basketball fan.”

Deborah Wakefield, vice president of communications and public relations for Travel Portland, which markets the city, says winning games means more exposure both regionally and nationally.

“The more people watch televised games, they’re getting that subliminal reminder: Portland! Portland!” Wakefield says. “And when the team is doing better, you’re going to see more people traveling into the area to watch the team play.

“If they come from any distance, they’re going to stay. They’re spending money on a hotel, they’re eating breakfast and dinner. There are little ripples of benefit.”

Mark Brennan, general manager of the Red Lion Hotel on Northeast Grand Avenue, just blocks from the Rose Garden, has seen it.

“We get a lot of last-minute reservations when they have a game, especially on the weekends,” he says. “We talk to the guests, and they’re all fired up.”

Apart from bookings, Brennan says, game nights mean revenue for the property’s restaurant and lounge as well, and the Blazers play at home 41 times a year.

“It’s part of our marketing plan,” he says. “We put that into our discussions with department heads. It’s a good piece of business.”

Old team seemed to spin out

If Portlanders are embracing the new Blazers, it’s in part because they’d had their fill of the old ones. After narrowly missing a trip to the NBA finals in 2000, the team slid toward mediocrity and worse. Losses mounted, and so did off-court incidents: drug use, dogfighting, handguns and at least one altercation in the parking lot of a strip club.

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