NBA All-Star Game bid: Portland an underdog when it comes to hotel rooms

The Portland Trail Blazers' bid for an NBA All-Star Game has landed in the NBA's inbox, The Oregonian's Mike Tokito reported late Thursday. Does Portland, one of three cities with an NBA franchise that's never hosted an All-Star Game, have a shot?

The Oregonian recently examined a piece of that question when it came up in the debate over whether to publicly subsidize a hotel at the Oregon Convention Center, where it could could also serve the Rose Quarter. Reports at the time characterized the hotel as factor that could finally make an All-Star bid stick.

But even with a convention center hotel, Portland would still trail other cities in its ability to house attendees.

The league needs a block of about 6,000 rooms, it has told The Oregonian, just to house its teams, media and VIPs. It prefers that they are centrally located and spread across as few hotels as possible.

That's where things get tricky for Portland. It could take 20 of Portland's largest hotels to come up with that package.

And that's before housing the traveling fans. The Portland area has some 26,000 hotel rooms in all, according to data firm Smith Travel Research, far fewer than other metros that have hosted the game.

New hotels are on the way. The Metro regional government has approved a subsidized Hyatt Regency hotel, though it faces legal challenges. The Blazers have testified several times in favor of the project.

Hilton has announced a new 300-room downtown hotel. And 233-room Residence Inn by Marriott opened this year in the Pearl District. Others are in the pipeline.

The only known competition for the All-Star Game is Charlotte, N.C., whose Hornets announced their bid for the same games earlier this week. A recent report from the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce said that Mecklenburg County, of which Charlotte is the county seat, had 23,000 hotel rooms in July 2011.

But Blazers president Chris McGowan said he's heard rumblings that as many as 10 teams may ultimately vie to host the games.

-- Elliot Njus