The Portland Trail Blazers fought their way to the 2026 NBA playoffs, but now, their toughest opponents may be in City Hall.
The team’s majority owner, Tom Dundon, is trying to iron out a deal with the city for a major, state-of-the-art renovation of the Moda Center that could cost more than $600 million. Recently released records and memos show that’s a far more ambitious responsibility than the city had in mind when it agreed to take ownership of the Moda Center in 2024. Will the city splurge on a venue remodel it can’t afford, or flex its negotiating power?
This (not so) old house
The Moda Center—initially called the Rose Garden Arena—was privately owned when it was built in 1995 on city-owned land. According to the terms of a lease, the city of Portland was expected to take ownership of the arena after 30 years. In 2024, the city agreed to assume ownership a year early as part of a lease deal that would keep the Trail Blazers playing at the Moda Center until at least 2030, according to city records.
At the time, the team was still owned by the estate of the late Paul Allen, and operated by his sister, Jody Allen.
The city commissioned a third party to perform a facility condition assessment of the Moda Center, akin to an inspection done on a home before its purchase. The verdict? Despite three decades of games, concerts, rowdy crowds, spilled beer, and blood, sweat, and tears from fans and athletes alike, the venue is in pretty good shape, overall.
“Moda Center as a 30 year old facility is in good condition for its age,” Venue Solutions Group wrote in its 2024 report to the city. “It would be difficult to say there are any failing architectural aspects of the facility, as the building has generally been well maintained for the duration of its lifespan.”
Venue Solutions Group estimated the city could expect to spend about $482 million to keep up with needed repairs, replacements and technology upgrades over the next 20 years, not including replacement of the arena’s decommissioned ice floor, which is no longer used.
Then came 2025.
The penny-pinching billionaire
When news broke that the Trail Blazers were sold to an investment group led by Dundon, reactions were mixed. They later soured when it was revealed that Dundon, a notoriously frugal business investor worth an estimated $2.3 billion, wouldn’t spring for special edition fan shirts when the Blazers made it to the Western Conference playoffs in the 2025-26 season for the first time since 2021. The team’s owner had also scaled back heavily on standard travel expenses and hotel costs.
“Never, ever in my entire life have the Portland Trail Blazers ownership group looked like broke [bargain] basement … nonsense,” Trysta Krick, a podcaster and WNBA and NBA analyst for NBC Sports said in an April 18 Instagram post, railing against Dundon for refusing to pony up for accoutrements. “These guys are billionaires.”
Krick, never one to mince words when it comes to basketball, likened Dundon to a “government cheese” “broke bitch” whose penny-pinching ownership was unparalleled.
Around the same time, the team’s new ownership revealed its stance that the Moda Center needs more than just the standard upkeep and renovations identified in the facility assessment. The Blazers, Dundon argues, should have a state-of-the-art arena if Portland is serious about keeping its NBA team; just don’t ask the team to pay for it.
Despite the Oregon Legislature committing $365 million toward Moda Center upgrades via Senate Bill 1501, Dundon has yet to woo Portland city councilors, whose votes he’ll need if he wants a fully publicly-funded Moda renovation included in the Blazers Moda Center lease. Portland’s elected leaders have promised transparency and due diligence in long-term lease negotiations with Rip City Rising–the Blazers ownership group primarily owned by Dundon. Dundon also owns the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team.
Karl Lisle, the city of Portland’s spectator venues program manager, laid out what the city should expect over the next 20 years under different scenarios.
“It is critically important to note that the [facility condition assessment] looks only at what investments would be necessary to maintain the building in its current configuration in good working order for 20 years,” Lisle stated in a memo to Portland’s Deputy City Administrator of Community and Economic Development, Donnie Oliveira. “It does not contemplate the transformative renovation that is being proposed publicly by the Blazers.”
If the Blazers were to leave after 2030, it would present unique challenges for the city to recoup the revenue loss, Lisle noted, but it could also give the city an opportunity to recalibrate its lease terms.
One group that hasn’t been present in the conversation: the Portland Fire. The city’s recently resurrected WNBA team doesn’t have a lease agreement with the city and instead sublets the Moda Center through the Blazers.
“The City and Trail Blazers intend to ensure that the renovation meets the needs of the WNBA and all other subtenants, including concerts and other events,” Alison Perkins, a public information officer for the city of Portland, told the Mercury.
Some speculate that Dundon’s threat of moving the Blazers out of Portland has lost steam since the approval of an NBA expansion that is likely to put additional teams in markets like Seattle and Las Vegas, and the sheer fact that moving the team could cost more than the arena renovation. Still, the prospect looms over forthcoming contract negotiations between Dundon and the city.
At the Portland Metro Chamber’s annual meeting in June, its CEO and president, Andrew Hoan, asked Dundon how he kicks back to relax. Even in a city that generally eschews dressing for anything but utility, Dundon stood out in his signature athleisure wear at a high-priced ticketed event that called for business wear. The 54-year-old Texas-based sports team owner said he prefers to keep moving, but loves spending time with his wife and five kids.
“Maybe I don’t do the hard parts, but I do the fun parts,” Dundon said.
Dundon’s negotiating style appears similar to the way he parents. When it comes to the arena, Dundon also appears to avoid the hard parts, instead asking the city, county, and state to pay $600 million to make state-of-the-art improvements to the Moda Center without the Blazers’ investment group pitching in.
In Dundon’s eyes, him buying the team was enough of an investment.
“Everybody can characterize things however they want,” Dundon said. “I don’t see it the same way, but I’m not trying to get people to agree or disagree with me. I just know it feels like we’re making a pretty big investment by staying here and paying these tax rates and agreeing to these fees for dollars that go back into the building.”
How the city cashes in
It’s unlikely the Blazers management group, Rip City Rising, can fully duck out on splitting the bill for arena renovations. An agreement between the city and the team’s owners includes a stipulation that the team, not the city, would operate and maintain the Moda Center with “first-class improvements in accordance with then prevailing standards for similar properties of equivalent age, in good operating order and condition.”
That contract language could be key in making sure Dundon doesn’t try to stick the public with the full cost of renovating a venue that is all but guaranteed to drive up revenue for his team.
“I thought the whole point of this $600 million investment was to make it a first-class arena, so why haven’t we filed a lawsuit asking for $600 million dollars?” District 3 City Councilor Steve Novick asked during a June 24 work session to discuss the Moda Center. “I say that playfully, but not lightly.”
It’s unclear exactly how the city will enforce the terms of its lease agreement that call for venue upgrades.
Proponents of a remodel deal that aligns with Dundon’s requests argue the Moda Center—primarily the Blazers—have a sizable impact on Portland’s economy, but quantifying that impact can be difficult.
The city’s economic impact analysis measures direct sales generated from the Moda Center, but it also gauges economic impact using a “multiplier effect” as part of a proprietary software modeling system called IMPLAN. That economic multiplier looks at additional economic impacts “produced through the re-spending of direct spending.”
In 2022-23, direct spending associated with the Rose Quarter campus (Moda Center and the Veterans Memorial Coliseum) was reported at just over $322 million. By the time indirect and induced spending was factored in, the Moda’s estimated impact ballooned to more than $631 million, not counting the $294 million in labor income from the Moda and Trail Blazers salaries.
Currently, the city collects money on the Moda Center in a few different ways. It collects income from event bookings, fees from suites, parking garage revenue, and a 6 percent cut of all ticket sales. It also collects income taxes on people like NBA players and major touring artists who play there. The most recently available estimates peg the Trail Blazers’ salaries at a combined $231.6 million. The city collected about $11.23 million in direct revenue from fees collected at the Moda Center and Coliseum in 2022-23, according to the economic impact study commissioned by the city.
While the venue generates money, skeptics point to a growing body of research showing no tangible return on investment when cities pour hundreds of millions into building or renovating sports stadiums. The capital outlay often outweighs the economic benefits.
Rip City ain’t a rich city
While state legislative leaders like Governor Tina Kotek have been quick to acquiesce to Dundon’s requests, Portlanders have different ideas about where their state and city’s limited resources should be spent.
Out of nearly 18,400 respondents whose feedback was captured via an online survey and in-person listening sessions, 42 percent said renovating the Moda Center was “not important.” Conversely, 32 percent consider it “very important.” While city officials warn the results aren’t statistically valid, they provide the first real glimpse into public opinion on the price of civic pride, and how much Portlanders are willing to sacrifice to keep their beloved basketball team.
Some consider the team a “cultural institution that intersects multiple identities.” Others feel the city shouldn’t be meddling in sports or managing arenas, and consider the Blazers a drain on city resources.
The timeline for a decision and major renovation work is drawing near. A legally binding agreement is expected by the end of the year, and Portland’s mayor has called for renovation to be complete before the Moda Center is scheduled to host the NCAA Women’s Final Four tournament in 2030.
–Jeremiah Hayden contributed reporting to this story.
