PORTLAND, Ore. — Next week, Portland City Council will address an agreement that could keep the Trail Blazers in Portland through 2035.
The current lease with Rip City Management, which operates Moda Center, is set to expire next year. The proposed five-year lease extension with the city and Rip City would keep the Trail Blazers at Moda Center until at least 2030. It also includes an option for Rip City to extend an additional five years.
But the agreement does much more than that. The two groups Friday morning said the deal is the start to a "private-public" partnership that could lead to a revitalization of the Rose Quarter and the surrounding area, and to make necessary renovations to the Moda Center to keep it a viable NBA arena and potentially attract WNBA expansion in the future.
To do this, however, the city and the Blazers have said they need more time to come up with a long-term plan of action.
Dewayne Hankins, president of business operations for the Portland Trail Blazers and Rip City Management, said this partnership would ultimately "keep the Trail Blazers in Portland for years to come."
Ownership transfer
Right now, a Blazers-affiliated company owns the Moda Center, which sees nearly 1.5 million visitors a year, including Trail Blazers home games that generate more than $600 million annually for the city and support nearly 6,000 jobs regionally.
As part of the agreement, the city will purchase the Moda Center for $1, transferring ownership. This will allow it to make public investment in the center. The resolution says that a transfer of ownership was expected as part of the first arena ground lease in 1995.
It would give the city ownership of the whole area that encompasses the Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which it already owned along with the parking lots and surrounding property, except for one parcel that was a car wash before the arena was built. As part of the ownership transfer, the city would also purchase a piece of land under the arena that Rip City Management owns at market price, estimated to be between $6-8 million.
Through the ownership laid out in the agreement, Rip City will maintain full operational control of the Rose Quarter that includes the Moda Center and the Coliseum.
Economic benefits
Under the current 30-year agreement set to expire in 2025, the city collects revenue from parking in the garages and a small tax (6%) on ticket sales for Blazers games. That money, which in 2022 alone totaled approximately $4.6 million, has been used to fund updates to other city-owned sports facilities, including the Coliseum and Providence Park. Under the new agreement, that revenue will now be reinvested into Moda Center updates, repairs and maintenance.
The city said these contributions will only come from revenue received from the venue and not any other tax-dollar sources. Its costs for the work will be capped at 50% of the total costs required, with the other 50%, plus overages, being paid for by Rip City Management.
“Extending our partnerships with Rip City Management and the Trail Blazers is a win for Portland,” said Mayor Ted Wheeler. "This bridge agreement helps us maintain world-class sports and entertainment in our city while we plan for the future."
Earlier this week, Portland Public Schools reached an agreement to eventually sell its 360,000-square-foot headquarters to Albina Vision Trust, a nonprofit focused on redeveloping the Lower Albina neighborhood next to the Rose Quarter.
