PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — On the court, the Blazers took a huge step this season—getting into the playoffs and giving Rip City plenty to cheer about. Off the court, all eyes are on Portland City Council as the 12-member body debates whether to invest in a $600 million renovation of the Moda Center.

“We can’t be a city on the rise with a 30-year-old stadium that’s the oldest, unrenovated stadium in the NBA,” Mayor Keith Wilson told KATU.

The mayor is pushing a more than $400 million investment into the renovation and ongoing maintenance of the arena. The proposal includes $120 million upfront for renovations and then $285 million over 20 years for maintenance—an uptick from what the city currently spends on ongoing maintenance.

The city opened a survey for Portlanders to weigh in on the proposal.

The rest of the renovation would be covered by $365 million in bonds from the state and $88 million from Multnomah County. The total cost for taxpayers could top $1 billion once the debt and interest are paid off.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | What should Portland do with the Moda Center? City opens survey, councilors host pop-ups

The state’s portion, approved in the 2026 short session, is paid back through income taxes generated at and around Moda Center, including player salaries. That money currently goes to the state’s general fund, but supporters argue the state would lose the money anyways if the Blazers moved.

The biggest variable is whether the Blazers move without a deal. The team has implicitly suggested it would explore that option without public investment. Some councilors believe that’s a bluff, pointing to the NBA’s decision to explore expansion in Seattle and Las Vegas and the high cost associated with moving a team.

Others worry moving is on the table, pointing to the Sonics leaving Seattle in 2008.

Mayor Wilson told KATU the ownership group is committed to Portland but insisted the team needs an updated arena.

“In the end, not renovating the stadium would be the worst possible scenario because we lose state funding, we lose Multnomah County funding, and Portland owns that facility. The last thing I want is another old and aging arena that’s not activated in Portland. So, this is our chance to really kind of show the nation and the world that Portland’s back,” Wilson said.

As it stands, there is no private investment in the renovation project.

The mayor has floated a range of options to fund the city’s portion of the project. The largest, the Portland Clean Energy Fund, has drawn both support and concern from city councilors.

“Let’s make it as green, let’s make it as Leed-platinum as possible, let’s make sure that when people come there that the waste is minimized in terms of garbage, trash, energy use, water reclamation. I think there’s a lot of pluses there, and that’s what we’re talking about, so the connective tissue to the Clean Energy Fund is huge,” Councilor Eric Zimmerman said.

“For sure, I think we need to show that we are ready to partner. We’re ready to make some kind of change. I just hope that when we’re looking at the funding sources, we’re being really careful about what we’re pulling from, and there’s always going to be trade-offs, and we need to talk about those trade-offs with the public,” Councilor Candace Avalos said.

Councilor Avalos, along with Councilor Mitch Green, expressed concern over using PCEF for the project.

“I think it’s really reckless that the mayor has sort of promised multiple times to the state legislature, to the team, the public, that the city is prepared to use the Portland Clean Energy Fund to invest in this deal. The Portland Clean Energy Fund is for lowering utility bills for Portlanders. It’s for keeping folks safe in a heat wave,” Councilor Mitch Green said.

He continued, “But the biggest thing is that the decisions on how to spend that money have already been made for the next five years, and so if there’s $75 million that the mayor wants to commit to this, then he’s saying, I think there’s $75 million worth of projects that we should defund in order to do this instead.”

KATU asked Mayor Wilson about the controversy over using climate-related money in this project.

“It has a nexus. It’s for climate infrastructure. It’s for resilience. It’s for economic development. It’s for helping communities that have been compromised in the past. With the Moda, it’s right in the middle of the Albina district, which is an area we’re trying to really build up after years of compromised economic approach in that area,” Wilson said.

“So, it all fits the PCEF. In the end, we’re going to contemplate a whole host of different choices, and the councilors are going to have to help me with that choice, but we’ve got opportunities and we’ve got options.”

WHAT’S A GOOD DEAL?

It’s clear in our conversations, no one is outright opposed to a deal. However, the definition of “good deal” varies depending on who you’re talking to.

“I think it’s perfectly valid to ask about private financing being a part of this. It’s perfectly valid to talk about what portion the public is willing to pay for, and that’s from the city, the county and the state,” Councilor Sameer Kanal said. “We shouldn’t get ripped off, and I think there’s a lot of ways you can define that. There’s going to be a lot of specific things on the table in that conversation.”

“For me, [a good deal] means things like defined lease payments to the city of Portland that are benchmarked at what other teams, what other cities have been able to get. It means community benefit agreements. It means project labor agreements for workers when they build the renovation, but then and ongoing labor peace agreement. It means things like street level pricing where you go inside the stadium to enjoy a game and you pay a few bucks for a hot dog like you would at Costco, right? To me, that’s a good deal,” Green said.

“I care about the Blazers. I care about the Moda Center. I care about what it means for the city and for the state. I just want to make sure that I’m representing especially East Portlanders,” Avalos said.

“What I’d like to do is I’d like to secure the Blazers future here for decades to come. If we do this deal, they’ll be here as long as those loans and those bonds are out there and are being paid off, so let’s sign a deal that keeps the Blazers here for 20 years,” Zimmerman said.

WHAT DOES THE BLAZERS’ OWNER SAY?

Blazers’ owner Tom Dundon has said very little publicly about the negotiations. However, he outlined his expectations in his introductory news conference in Portland shortly after taking over the team.

Dundon said he has spent “no time” on relocation and said he’s solely focused on negotiating this deal. He navigated the same process in North Carolina when he negotiated a long-term deal for the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes to stay in Raleigh.

“We’re going to negotiate and do a market deal, and they should do a deal–the people that represent the city and the county and your tax dollars–are going to do a deal that’s great for them I hope, and then I’m going to try and do the same for the Trailblazers. I think we’ve got a good framework and we’re moving forward on it, but we’re just going to get a market deal, and we’re going to be fully committed to it, but how the form and structure of that there’s a lot of work to do to figure out what that is,” Dundon said.

WHAT’S A MARKET DEAL?

His reference to “market deal” makes recent deals in the NBA relevant. Public-private partnerships in San Antonio and Sacramento provide a blueprint.

Local governments in San Antonio approved a roughly $800 million investment in a new arena for the Spurs. The team committed to investing $500 million into the project. The team will also pay rent at the arena – partially offsetting a $489 million investment from the city of San Antonio. The team also committed to paying cost overruns on the project.

In Sacramento, the Kings agreed to pay rent which would total nearly $400 million over the life of the lease. The Kings also covered cost overruns and capital repairs. The city invested $223 million into the project.

“Those are two things that could be on the table, is rent, naming rights, that’s definitely the first things I would want to start with, but I also think there’s a conversation around being able to use the arena for things that benefit the city. Imagine Black just had a basketball tournament, wasn’t there, could be at either the Veterans Memorial Coliseum or the Moda Center in the future. These are the sorts of activities that should be open to the public and open to use of that arena for the public benefit,” Kanal said.

Edan Krolewicz, a Blazers fan and vocal critic of the deal as it’s constructed, compiled information on recent NBA arena deals. He published it on his site, Rip City, Not Rip Off.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Portland Metro Chamber is hosting a forum with Tom Dundon on June 24. State and local leaders will also participate in a roundtable discussion about the public investment in the project.

The City Council is hosting a work session on the same day, at the same time, at city hall. There is no public testimony at the meeting.