Elected officials need to slow down to negotiate a fair term deal benefitting all parties

We love the Blazers and support a fair public-private investment in a Moda Center renovation, but have serious concerns about the deal state, county, and city officials are making with taxpayer dollars to renovate the Moda Center.

There are many precedents for public-private arena projects, and our elected officials must negotiate a long-term deal that benefits the community as much as it does the Blazers and other Moda Center users. Every public dollar that goes into the Moda Center is a dollar that cannot be used for our schools, roadways, public health, and public safety programs.  We expect our elected officials to get a fair deal for the community:

1. Avoid using PCEF funds for the Moda Center: Passed in 2018 with 65% voter support, the Portland Clean Energy Fund is an investment in clean energy for all Portlanders, with a priority for low-income residents and people of color. PCEF was never intended to fund projects benefitting a billionaire, and we cannot let PCEF become a slush fund for projects unrelated to the original intent voters overwhelmingly supported.

2. Conduct an independent cost evaluation of the Moda Center renovation before committing public funding. The announced $600 million cost to renovate the Moda Center is based on estimates from Blazers consultants and is not supported by an actual cost evaluation. The recent 2025 NBA arena renovation in Charlotte, N.C., cost $245 million. In the last 10 years seven NBA arena renovations averaged $408 million. Why should Moda cost 2.5x as much as Charlotte, a similarly sized market? Every public dollar saved on this project is a dollar that can be invested in the community.  

3. Require billionaire Blazers owner Tom Dundon to participate in financing the Moda renovation, as many other owners have. Dundon just spent $100,000 on lobbying to pass Oregon Senate Bill 1501, committing $365M to the Moda renovation, which is the only arena deal to date in which a billionaire ownership group contributes nothing and the public gets nothing back. Across seven NBA arena renovation projects in the last decade, team owners' share of renovation costs averaged 20%. Elected officials must negotiate owner financial participation.

4. Execute a fair agreement for workers and the surrounding neighbors. The City and County should setup a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with the Blazers to ensure the investments in the Moda Center yield tangible benefits for the workers and the surrounding community including: union labor on the renovation project, allowing Moda Center employee unionization, a 30-year lease, payments in lieu of property taxes, naming rights participation, and ensuring the surrounding Albina community benefits from this investment, and the project is leveraged to reroots this historic Black community destroyed by the I-5 freeway and other public investments of the past.

Elected officials need to take the time to evaluate recent market-based arena renovations and negotiate a fair long-term deal that benefits all parties. More context about similar arena renovation deals can be found at Rip City, Not Rip Off.