{"id":810345,"date":"2026-08-13T01:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/810345\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T01:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:48:15","slug":"portland-approves-money-for-moda-center-upgrade-new-trail-blazers-lease-is-required","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/810345\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland Approves Money For Moda Center Upgrade; New Trail Blazers Lease Is Required"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland City Council voted Wednesday to contribute $120MM to renovate the Moda Center, but that doesn\u2019t guarantee a long-term future for the Trail Blazers in the city, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic<\/a>, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh of the Oregonian<\/a> (subscription required) and Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report<\/a> (subscription required).<\/p>\n

State, county and local officials have now combined to approve more than $573MM for the arena project, but all that money is contingent on the team signing a new lease for at least another 20 years. As Highkin explains, the Oregon legislature approved a bill in March to sell $365MM in state bonds to cover its share of the renovations, backed by \u201cjock tax\u201d revenue from state income taxes on the salaries of Blazers players and staff members, as well as other performers at the Moda Center. The bonds will expire at the end of the year if they aren\u2019t sold by then.<\/p>\n

The Blazers\u2019 current lease only runs through October 11, 2030, and a new 20-year deal is being negotiated. There are disagreements over how much the franchise should contribute to the arena upgrade, with owner Tom Dundon saying he doesn\u2019t believe the team should be required to pay anything.<\/p>\n

The bill passed by council pledges an additional $275 million in maintenance for the city-owned arena over the next two decades, per Kavanaugh. It also adds annual rent payments of more than $3MM for the team, tweets<\/a> Bill Oram of The Oregonian. Blazers officials referred to a term sheet<\/a> featuring those payments as a \u201cnon-starter,\u201d so that figures to be one of many issues addressed in upcoming negotiations.<\/p>\n

In addition, Trail Blazers management has requested that the city remove a clause in the current agreement that requires the team to maintain the arena \u201cin a first-class manner.\u201d They contend that makes them vulnerable to a lawsuit, and although city officials disagree, they haven\u2019t been willing to get rid of it.<\/p>\n

Dewayne Hankins, the team\u2019s president of business operations, issued a statement in response to Wednesday\u2019s vote, relays Wright Gazaway of KATU (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal remains the same: to reach a deal that allows the Trail Blazers to succeed on the court and as a business, supports a thriving Portland economy, and creates a path for the team to remain in Portland for decades to come,\u201d Hankins said. \u201cWe look forward to continuing to work with the City\u2019s negotiating team in good faith, addressing the issues that remain and finding a resolution that allows all of us to move forward together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vorkunov states that Wednesday\u2019s vote came after weeks of uncertainty about the city\u2019s willingness to provide funds for a Moda Center upgrade. He describes the relationship between the city and the Blazers as \u201ctesty,\u201d noting that some local politicians questioned how much the project would help the community.<\/p>\n

Per Highkin, that situation hasn\u2019t changed, as several council members expressed doubt before Wednesday\u2019s vote that Dundon will negotiate in good faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen enough from Tom Dundon to know that he is actively pursuing opportunities elsewhere,\u201d councilor Dan Ryan said. \u201cWe\u2019re not talking to Tom Dundon anymore. We\u2019re talking to NBA commissioner Adam Silver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vorkunov adds that the Moda Center is the oldest arena in the NBA that hasn\u2019t undergone renovations. The city only paid $1 to purchase it from the estate of former owner Paul Allen in 2024, and has been sharing maintenance bills with the team since then at an annual cost ranging from $8-10MM per year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Portland City Council voted Wednesday to contribute $120MM to renovate the Moda Center, but that doesn\u2019t guarantee a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,41690,6,687,471,3967,39242,1617],"class_list":["post-810345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portland-trail-blazers","tag-basketball","tag-blazers","tag-dewayne-hankins","tag-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portlandtrailblazers","tag-tom-dundon","tag-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117085687241720400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}