Billionaire Tom Dundon, head of an investment group that now owns the Portland Trail Blazers, wants taxpayers to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of renovations to the Moda Center arena. Portland City Council members, organized labor, and the public are split on the idea.
A June 18-20 poll commissioned by the conservative free-market group Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation found just 20% of Oregon voters think the public should provide all the funding. Portlanders are more open to the investment: According to a poll commissioned by City Council members Steve Novick and Sameer Kanal, 49% oppose the city paying to renovate the stadium, while 42% favor it.
Rip City nip and tuck
The City of Portland owns the arena, having bought the building and the land it sits on from then-owner Paul Allen’s estate for $7.13 million in 2024. Under the terms of the city’s lease agreement with Blazers’ sister company Rip City Management that runs through 2030, the Moda Center must remain a “first-class” arena consistent with a typical league-wide “operating standard.” A 2024 study commissioned by the city found that although the arena is in good shape for its age, renovations need to be made in order to maintain the 31-year-old facility at that level.
The city’s 2024 study called for $253 million in renovations over the next 20 years to maintain Moda’s current level of quality. That includes roof renovations, fire system maintenance, elevator and escalator replacements, and two renovations of the arena’s luxury suites. Adjusting for inflation, that figure climbs to $505 million.
Leaving aside the question of who pays for it, the proposed renovations could amount to years of work for local union members in the building trades.
Not long after Dundon’s investor group agreed to buy a majority stake in the Blazers for $4.25 billion last September, the new owners began lobbying the state, county, and city for $600 million in public funding for stadium renovations, and implied that the Blazers would leave Portland if elected leaders refuse.
Dundon, who made his fortune in subprime auto loans, is also owner of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team; his net worth is estimated at $2.3 billion. Besides Dundon, the Rip City Rising investor group that now owns the Blazers includes billionaire Panda Restaurant founder Andrew Cherng, billionaire Blue Owl Capital co-president Marc Zahr, billionaire mental health care entrepreneur Richard Chaifetz, billionaire fintech founder Taavet Hinrikus, half-billionaire mortgage service CEO Stanley Middleman, and centi-millionaires Sheel Tyle, Marc Grandisson, and Nayel Nassar. Dundon has said the new Blazers owners will not be contributing anything to the stadium remodel they’re proposing.
“It feels like we’re making a pretty big investment by staying here,” Dundon said on June 24 at a Chamber of Commerce event before a crowd of roughly 800 people.
State records show the owner group spent $100,000 on eight lobbyists to push public funding for the remodel.
On Feb. 9, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, Senate President Rob Wagner, House Majority Leader Ben Bowman, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, and Portland City Council President Jamie Dunphy, all Democrats, issued a joint statement in support of city, state, and county funding of Moda Center renovations.
Four weeks later, Senate Bill 1501 passed 24 to 6 in the Senate and 42 to 14 in the House and was signed into law by the governor. It allows the state to jointly own and operate the arena, authorizes the state to issue $365 million in bonds to pay for renovations, and repays those bonds by diverting an estimated $38 million a year in future income taxes that will be paid by players, performers, and Rose Quarter workers. The state investment is conditional on the Blazers signing a new 20-year lease and the City of Portland and Multnomah County also contributing funds to the project.
Funding debate erupts at city and county
Now the ball is in the city’s and county’s court.
Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson has proposed that the county kick in $88 million from bonds that would be repaid using future proceeds from the county’s vehicle rental tax and its business income tax. With interest on the bonds, that figure could top $100 million. The county council hasn’t yet voted on the chair’s proposal, and at a June 23 discussion about it, commissioners Julia Brim-Edwards, Meghan Moyer, and Shannon Singleton voiced concerns given that the county faces its own multi-year $80 million deficit and is laying off employees.
Jackie Tate, president of the county workers union AFSCME Local 88, told the Labor Press she objects to using county dollars to renovate the city’s arena.
“We are very concerned with the chair’s proposal to give the Moda center more than $100 million while the County is in a multi-year structural budget deficit and laying off workers who provide the critical, safety net services the County is tasked with providing our community,” Tate said via email.
Meanwhile, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson has pledged that the city would contribute $120 million using funds from the Portland Clean Energy Fund — a voter-approved tax on big box stores that funds climate action. But some members of Portland City Council are balking.
“My constituents absolutely want to understand why there would be hundreds of millions going to renovations at the Moda Center when they’re seeing everyday services cut, their public-school teachers laid off, and when they’re seeing life-saving services being cut,” Portland City Councilor Koyama Lane told the Labor Press. “There’s been extortion at every jurisdiction level and fear mongering, with electeds being told that we’re going to lose our seats if the Blazers leave.”
Randall Friesen, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council, says the union trades council has secured a commitment from Dundon’s ownership group to negotiate a Project Labor Agreement for the renovations. In other words, the work would be done entirely union.
It’s not clear what position Rip City Rising would play in the renovation planning given that the city (and state) would be the owners. The city has already committed to signing project labor agreements on all public works projects. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek tried to commit via executive order to a similar mandate for the state but was blocked in court.
A mini-recession in construction has many local building trades union members out of work at the moment. For several local construction unions, frustration over opposition to Moda Center funding has boiled over into recriminations against one city council member. On July 6, IBEW Local 48, Ironworkers Local 29, and UA Local 290 announced that they won’t be endorsing City Council member Mitch Green after he spoke at a June 24 rally against Moda Center funding. Green is running for re-election in November; Local 48 didn’t endorse Green’s successful 2022 run, but Local 29 and Local 290 did.
If the city does commit funding, it might come with other pro-worker strings attached, like mandating employer union neutrality for concessions, ushers, security and janitorial workers at the stadium. Portland District 2 councilor Dan Ryan said a labor neutrality mandate is very popular among his council colleagues.
“I think that it’s probably one of the only things that’s universal,” Ryan told the Labor Press.
Portland City Council is expected to hold a July 22 public work session to discuss the Moda Center, and could vote on a term sheet Aug. 12.
CORRECTION: As originally published, this article misstated City Council member Ryan’s district.
