A volunteer Portland campaign on the Moda Center public-funding fight. Keep the Blazers, renovate the arena — but publish a fair lease before the public commits more than a billion dollars. Lease enforcer, not deal killer.
Portland — the public — owns the Moda Center. The City is preparing to commit $1 billion+ in public money to renovate it for an owner who just bought the Blazers for $4.25 billion, pays $1 a year in rent, and is being asked to contribute $0. Every comparable NBA city secured rent, revenue, or private capital back; the deal on the table returns the public nothing on every line. City Council votes on the term sheet Aug 12, 2026 — and under SB 1501, no bonds issue until the City signs, so the terms can still be set. The campaign's ask is simple: publish the lease, revenue waterfall, ROI model, and benchmarks, and land inside a market range before the vote.
Edan Krolewicz & Jonathan Pulvers, organizers
Message us on Bluesky: @ripcitynotripoff.bsky.social — happy to go on the record, walk through the documents, or brief your desk.
“We’re Blazers fans. We want the team to stay and the Moda Center renovated — we just want a fair lease in place before the public commits more than a billion dollars. That’s not anti-Blazers; it’s how a serious public-private deal works.”
— Rip City, Not Rip Off“Portland owns this building. The owner pays a dollar a year, just sold the team for $4.25 billion, and is being asked to put in nothing. Every comparable NBA city got rent, revenue, or private capital back. Council holds the leverage — under the law, no public money moves until the City signs. They should use it.”
— Rip City, Not Rip Off“We’re not asking Council to kill the deal. We’re asking them to publish the terms and land inside a market range before the August 12 vote. The December ‘deadline’ isn’t in either statute — there’s time to get this right.”
— Rip City, Not Rip OffHigh-resolution chart exports and the verified 16-deal dataset are available on request via Bluesky.
These questions are tracked in the public-protection matrix.
Rip City, Not Rip Off is a volunteer-run, unfunded campaign by Portland residents and Blazers fans. We take no money from any team, the City, or a competing developer. We read the bills, ran the numbers, and publish our sources — and we correct ourselves on the record when we get something wrong.
In the press: KATU · KGW · Willamette Week · CBS Sports
ripcitynotripoff.com · Press contact: @ripcitynotripoff.bsky.social. Every figure on this site is sourced to an enacted statute, an executed contract, a verified peer deal, or the City’s own study; primary documents are hosted on the site.