PORTLAND - NBA Commissioner David Stern said he is “not confident” that the Portland Trail Blazers will remain in the city, but he is working on a plan to keep the team here.

Stern, in an interview with The Oregonian newspaper Tuesday, said he is trying to broker a deal that will bring the Trail Blazers and the owners of the Rose Garden arena back under common ownership

Stern said he should know by the end of the month whether the sides are willing to pursue such a framework.

“We're trying to see whether there's a way to put the two enterprises together so that we could look and see whether that combined entity is a viable enterprise.”

He declined to provide more specifics.

The Trail Blazers are owned by Paul Allen. The arena is owned by a group of lenders. Allen gave up ownership of the arena in 2005, when the team's sister company, Oregon Arena Corp., declared bankruptcy under the weight of construction debt. Without the arena, team revenue has declined sharply.

Allen's Vulcan Inc. investment firm announced last month that the team expects to lose $100 million in the next three years and can't survive in Portland without financial help from taxpayers.

Stern refused to say how the discussions are going, though he acknowledged that “it almost always comes down to price.”

When asked if he was confident that the team will remain in Portland, Stern was less than optimistic.

“I am not confident at this point,” he said. “That's what energizes me to try to become more confident.”

Stern said he hopes to have a resolution by June, when the NBA crowns its champion and holds its draft.

The commissioner declined to say if he has discussed the Trail Blazers with any potential buyers.

“There's a lot that we could say, but there's nothing that I am going to say on that subject.”