Royal proclamation

I see that Little Lord Paulson surfaced the other day and expressed his views about public funding of a major renovation of the Trail Blazers' hoops palace, the Moda Center. Of course, he was wildly in favor. I don't know if he wheeled out the L word – linchpin – from his heyday in the 2000's, but he might as well have.

Portland had better wake up, spaketh Lord Merritt. The Blazers must be preserved as a Portland institution, or else!

I was a little surprised to see him sound off on this topic, or really anything for that matter. In the wake of several years of bad publicity involving abuse of female players by his minions, Paulson sold control of the Thorns soccer team a couple of years ago, after he had stepped away from active management of the Timbers in the midst of the scandals in 2022. I figured that his opinion no longer meant much around town, but I guess people's memories are not that long.

One point Paulson brought up in his comments on the Moda Center was that he moved to Portland when he bought the Timbers. (This is in contrast to Tom Dundon, the Texan who controls the Blazers.) Well, not exactly Portland – His Lordship's castle is in Dunthorpe, where the über-rich don't pay city taxes – but close enough. 

LLP then pointed out that his own sports playpen, the city-owned Providence Park, also is going to need some work soon. And though it wasn't mentioned, you can bet that he'll be looking for the taxpayers to foot a goodly part of the bill. I believe the deal between him and the city, which ran baseball out of the central city, goes through 2035. 

But hey, forking over sweet construction play-dough to Merritt won't be bailing out a billionaire! At least not until he inherits his father's wealth. The senior Lord Paulson, a robber baron from the Bush circle, is probably pushing a billion in net worth at this point. He's 80 years old. Merritt, now in his mid-50s, is probably in the low nine figures.