Portland officials said they delivered a draft term sheet for a potential Moda Center renovation deal to the Trail Blazers on Thursday, after the city failed to hit a self-imposed deadline to do so more than two weeks ago.
The proposal, expected to be finalized next month, provides an overview of provisions that Portland and the Blazers will negotiate as they seek to finalize a deal that would pave the way for an estimated $600 million arena makeover and keep the team in town for at least the next 20 years.
Mayor Keith Wilson has has previously pledged that the city would pour up to $120 million into a rehab of the now publicly owned Moda Center. Oregon state leaders and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, meanwhile, have committed that their governments would pick up remaining costs for a remodel of what is often called the oldest, non-renovated arena in the NBA.
According to a city news release, some of the draft terms include a requirement that the Blazers play all home games at the arena for the next 20 years, a “labor harmony agreement” that could lead to unionized or family wage jobs at the arena, and caps on public funding that also limit eligible expenses for the project.
Additionally, the city wants the Blazers, whose sibling organization Rip City Management would continue to operate the arena, to pay $3 million annually in lieu of property taxes that the city, Multnomah County and Portland Public Schools would split. And the team would need to partner with community-based organizations in the surrounding Albina neighborhood to create a wide range of public benefits.
“The city has produced a term sheet that is reasonable, fair, and focused on keeping the Trail Blazers in Portland, ensuring the long‑term viability of the city‑owned arena and delivering meaningful community benefits," the news release said.
“This marks an important step toward securing a long‑term agreement that keeps the team in Portland and delivers a renovated, state-of-the-art Moda Center for the entire community."
Earlier on Thursday, Wilson, City Administrator Raymond Lee and other top bureaucrats met with members of the Portland City Council for more than three hours in executive session to discuss the draft term sheet. The City Council must ultimately approve any financial commitment as well as the terms of a new lease with the team.
“Lacking meaningful engagement from the Blazers up to this point, the city has developed a draft term sheet based on our professional staff’s advice, community feedback, and direction from Council,” Council President Jamie Dunphy told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “We look forward to moving forward expeditiously on a fair deal for the people of Portland.”
Blazers spokesperson Charles Boyle confirmed that the team had received the preliminary term sheet.
“We’re reviewing it now,” Boyle said.
The move comes amid mounting tensions between some local political leaders and Blazers officials, which prompted NBA Commissioner Adam Silver this week to say that negotiations had “gone off track in various ways.”
That kicked off a round of finger-pointing between the two parties, with Wilson claiming the lack of progress was due to the Blazers withholding key information that city officials had been requesting for months. The team quickly fired back, alleging that the mayor’s assertions were unfounded and false.
Into this messy mix marched a coalition of local businesses and community organizations that launched a campaign Thursday to persuade City Council to commit public dollars to the project.
City officials had originally planned to deliver a draft term sheet to the team on June 29 but didn’t do so in part, they said, because they didn’t have sufficient details on the project’s overall scope and design.
The current $600 million renovation price tag is based on what the Blazers say are studies commissioned over the past several years, though the team has yet to publicly disclose those findings, nor has the city seen them.
The Portland City Council is scheduled to vote Aug. 12 on a revised term sheet that would mark the beginning of new lease negotiations between the city and the Blazers and also lock the city’s financial contribution toward a final deal by the end of the year.
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