Moda Center

Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Capacity: 20,500
Home Teams:

• Portland Trailblazers
• Portland Winterhawks

Formerly known as the Rose Garden, Moda Center is the primary indoor sports arena in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is used for basketball, ice hockey, rodeos, circuses, conventions, ice shows, concerts, and dramatic productions. The arena has a capacity of 19,393 spectators when configured for basketball, and is equipped with state-of-the-art acoustics and other amenities.

The arena is owned by Vulcan Inc., a holding company owned by the estate of Paul Allen. The primary tenant is the Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchise, also owned by Allen’s estate. The other major tenant of the building was the major junior hockey franchise Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League, which used to split its schedule with the Memorial Coliseum next door. In addition to the Blazers and Winterhawks, several other professional sports franchises, and the Portland State University men’s basketball team, either currently play home games in Moda Center, or have done so in the past.

Construction began in 1993, and the arena opened on October 12, 1995. The arena cost US$262 million to build; construction was financed with funds obtained by a variety of sources, including the City of Portland, Allen’s personal fortune, and $155 million in bonds issued by a consortium of mutual funds and insurance companies. These bonds would become the subject of an acrimonious 2004 bankruptcy in which the Oregon Arena Corporation, the holding company which owned the arena at the time, would forfeit title to the arena in lieu of repaying the bonds per the payment terms. Allen would later repurchase the arena from the creditors in 2007.

Moda Center is also a popular venue for concerts and other artistic productions, with Coldplay, Roger Waters and Lady Gaga holding concerts at the arena.