Before the Aug 12 term-sheet vote

Take action

Council counts constituents. Four things move votes: an email they have to answer, testimony on the record, a hard question they can’t dodge, and a briefing in their hands. Each one is on this page.

Email all 12 councilors — 2 minutes

The City's own 2023 study shows the Rose Quarter returns about $11.3 million a year in Blazers-related taxes — against a public commitment approaching $1 billion. That is a subsidy, not an investment. SB 1501 is now law, passed without requiring rent, private capital, or revenue sharing, and Portland City Council is the last stop. The Council must negotiate the lease terms before handing over the money. Portland owns the Moda Center — that ownership is leverage, but only if the Council uses it. If they sign before the public can compare the lease to low, average, and high market benchmarks, the leverage is gone forever. Email all 12 Portland City Councilors now.

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Dear Councilor,

The Moda Center vote is a 20-year public finance decision, with public costs potentially exceeding $1 billion over the life of the deal. The owner set the standard himself - "a market deal" - and the market now has numbers attached.

The City's negotiating team has put a first draft term sheet on paper (July 17), and it deserves real credit: cost overruns assigned to the operator, a non-relocation agreement with specific performance and clawback, an unconditional parent guaranty that binds any successor, and audit rights in principle. Please hold every one of those protections, unchanged, through the MOU and the definitive documents.

But the economics column is still nearly empty - and the benchmarks are now public. The state's own comparables summary (July 9) documents peer arenas built with 18-52% private capital, paying rent, and sharing revenue. None of that is yet in the draft, whose one revenue line is a $3M/yr tax offset.

Before any City commitment becomes binding, please require:

1. A market test of the arena operating contract - the one move that prices everything else. Issue a benchmark solicitation now for the post-bridge operating contract, and commit by resolution to a competitive process if final terms don't meet the peer market. To be explicit: the Blazers remain the tenant in every scenario, and the incumbent operator is free to bid and to win. Competition is the only instrument that reveals the contract's market price - Minneapolis and Orlando (in the state's own study) and this building's own 2004-07 history all show the team-as-tenant model working.
2. A private/operator capital line with a number on it. Peer ownership paid 18-62% of renovation capital; the draft's base contribution is $0.
3. Rent, separate from the tax offset. $4.5M/yr escalating is the schedule this same ownership signed in Raleigh.
4. A PILOT set by formula, not negotiation: the greatest of the certified pre-exemption tax bill (a documented $1.2-1.5M/yr floor), the county's own construction formula applied to the renovation ($5.1-9.4M/yr after completion), or full tax equivalency by independent appraisal - no offsets, paid to the taxing jurisdictions. The draft's $3M/yr starts above the floor but falls below the county's own formula once the renovation is built.
5. Revenue sharing from premium spaces, naming rights, and parking - never credited against required private investment.
6. One sentence protecting the City's accrued "first-class" repair claim (~$164M): the amended lease must state it is not a novation and that claims under Sections 5.4 and 10.2 are preserved.
7. The deal-terms review SB 1501 Sec. 6(2)(a) describes, published before the vote. The July 9 summary covers funding splits and governance - not rent, relocation, or revenue-share terms.
8. Audit rights finished: copies, not look-only, with public annual reporting.

This is not an anti-Blazers position. It is a pro-Portland position - and it is support for your own negotiators, who drafted the protections while the counterparty's listed contribution stayed at zero. Portland can keep the team, renovate the arena, and still insist that public money produce public value.

At the August 12 term-sheet vote, please do not approve a framework that pays first and negotiates the return later. If public money builds it, the public must share in it.

Respectfully,

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Before the vote

Testify — get the hearing alert

The term-sheet (Aug 12) and final-lease (Dec 17) votes both take public testimony. Leave your email and we’ll tell you the moment each hearing is scheduled.

How testimony works — and a script

Both votes take public comment — you can speak in person or send written testimony through the City’s process, and speakers usually get a couple of minutes. Leave your email above and we’ll send the exact date, time, and sign-up link the moment the hearing is posted, so you can plan and prepare.

A script you can adapt: “Hi, I’m [name], a [neighborhood] resident. The Moda Center is publicly owned. Please don’t commit public money until the lease terms, revenue waterfall, and ROI model are published and land inside a market range. Will you commit to publishing the terms before the August 12 vote?”

Do this now — before the Aug 12 term-sheet vote

14 questions your councilor should answer on the record

Councilors count constituents and check claims. Whatever channel you use — the 2-minute email, testimony, or any public meeting — put a specific, hard-to-dodge question to your councilor and ask for an answer on the record. Pick the one you’d most want answered:

Seattle's city-owned Climate Pledge Arena was rebuilt for about $1.15B in private financing, per the city's own materials. Why is Portland being asked to do the opposite?
Why is Tom Dundon's ownership group listed at $0 when most comparable public arena renovations required private money, rent, or revenue sharing?
If state, city, and county taxpayers are committing over $1B all-in, what comes back to Portland's General Fund?
Why call this a $573M or $600M renovation when the 20-year public commitment is $1.02B–$1.11B?
Who is negotiating for Portland, and what market-rate terms will make you vote no if they are missing?
Will Council require private funding or repayment for suites, clubs, bars, retail, and other revenue upgrades the operator keeps?
Will the lease, revenue waterfall, cost basis, and ROI model be public before the August 12 term-sheet vote?
Why should PCEF, Prosper Portland, or city tax money go into the arena before the owner puts in a dollar?
The 2024 bridge lease capped the City's share and put capital duties on the operator. Why is the permanent deal worse for the public?
Will any rent or revenue sharing reach the General Fund, or will it just recycle inside the Arena Fund?
If relocation is not a threat, will the team sign a real non-relocation covenant covering the full public investment?
Will every councilor disclose and decline team hospitality, suite invitations, and private meetings during the negotiation?
Which line items are genuine repair, which are revenue upgrades, and who pays for each bucket?
If the City cannot answer these questions in public, why is it ready to vote?

Email all 12 councilors — 2 min → Testify — get the hearing alert ↓

For councilors, staff & the people who brief them

Print-ready documents, each sourced to signed contracts and public records. Carry one into a meeting.

The five-minute briefThe deal in plain questions and answers — built to read before a work session.
The fair-deal term sheet, one pageEvery number, its anchor, both walk-aways. Print PDF →
The City’s draft vs. comparable dealsStream by stream against named peers. Print PDF →
Why relocation is not a unilateral threatFour reasons, each from a signed clause or the NBA’s own rules. Print PDF →
The bond calendar (PDF)Why December is a scheduling preference, not a legal cliff.

Take action

Email all 12 councilors — 2 minutes

14 questions your councilor should answer on the record

For councilors, staff & the people who brief them

Spread the word