September26,2007_____________ Minority & Small Business Week
PageB3
Blazers President Stays Focused
Larry Miller looks to the long term for a championship-winning business
by R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
Recent setbacks for the city’s
only professional-sports team will
not hamper Larry Miller, who
was made president in June.
Reporting that ticket sales and
sponsorships have increased
significantly, M iller sees the TraiI
Blazers as a long-term project
that has to make financial gains
on a yearly basis.
“I don’t want to talk wins and
losses, because we’re a young
team,’’ he says. “If the team
goes out and plays hard every
night, but they don’t necessarily
win every night, I think people
will feel good about that.”
Miller understands the alien­
ated position of many Portlanders,
since he also fought his better
judgment to remain a fan through
the mid ‘90s, when the team’s
reputation sunk considerably.
“I was still a fan of the game,
but I definitely struggled to stay
connected with the team," says
Miller, thinking back to the “Jail
Blazer” years. “I felt like com­
ing here now gives me an op­
portunity to be a part of getting
the team back to where people
can feel good about the team.”
The Blazers' moral fiber is a
big deal for Miller in striving for
Portlanders to feel better than
ever about the team's status.
“W e’ve got a group of play­
ers that represent the kind of
character that I think the city
is looking for. and that’s going
to get fans excited so that they
reconnect,” says Miller.
He considers the players’
personalities to be much more
im p o rta n t than th e ir man
power, saying, “the players are
going to be out in the com m u­
nity and doing what they can
in terms of helping the com ­
munity, but I think at the end
of the day it's really about
who they are as people."
Miller, who joined the Blazers
after 10 years in Nike’s basket­
ball sector, comes to the game
with an eye on profit margins.
He guarantees that his more
than 2(X) employees are "man­
aging the (basketball) business
like a business, and really mak­
ing sure we focus on the fact
that it is a business, and we’ve
got financial targets and respon­
sibilities that we’re working to­
w ards.”
One of his first major deci­
sions for the Blazers was to
stick with Global Spectrum as
the company to manage the Rose
Garden Arena to avoid another
transition period that might re­
open wounds from the bank­
ruptcy and contentious layoffs
that plagued the team in 2005.
Saying he has “the building
blocks to get the team back to
where it needs to be, to get
people excited about the team
again,” he considers hype his
number-one job.
“This year I think the major
goal is to get the fans back
excited again, get people back
in the arena and to really get the
city back excited about the team
again, and I think we're getting
there,” he says.
He can't promise that this
won’t eventually result in lower-
income people getting shut out
of games.
“We have taken some price
increases, but we’re trying to
maintain prices as much as we
possibly can," he says. “We’ II still
do a lot of the things that we’ve
done in the past in terms of group
sales and packages."
He responds to another sore
point from fans who don’t like
Blazer games being carried
on KXL. a radio station also
owned by Blazers owner Paul
Allen that is loaded with the
com m entaries of white con­
servatives.
Miller hopes that fans don't
associate the opinions o f the
comm entators with the team:
“That there are people on the
continued
on page HI2
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photo by R aymond R endi . eman /T he P ortland O bserver
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leadership and service
Portland Trail Blazers President Larry Miller sees the building o f a money-making,
championship-winning team as a long process that involves intensive public relations.
Learn.
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October 4,2007
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