FILE - The Moda Center on Oct. 22, 2025 in Portland, Ore.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
The City of Portland has released a draft proposal for a term sheet intended to keep the Trail Blazers in Portland for at least 20 more years.
Portland City Council faces a deadline next month to take action on the Moda Center, the home to the Trail Blazers, Portland Fire and numerous concerts every year.
The city released its proposal just as a new coalition of businesses calling itself “We Are Rip City” formed to put additional pressure on city leaders to approve a term sheet by mid-August.
Portland officials announced late Thursday they had taken a step toward approving a term sheet in the coming weeks by releasing a “first draft” after a three-hour executive session.
The terms include a “binding 20-year agreement requiring the Trail Blazers to play all homes at Moda Center.” It also includes labor and financial protections, a community benefits agreement and $3 million annual payments from the Blazers to support the City of Portland, Multnomah County and Portland Public Schools.
But this is only a “first draft” and is subject to “continued negotiations” with Blazers’ ownership.
A statement summarizing the draft on the city’s website calls the draft “an important step.” But it is not the end — it’s more of a new beginning to negotiations with the Trail Blazers’ ownership group.
Related: NBA commissioner says Moda Center renovation deal has gone ‘off track’
Leader of the ownership group, billionaire Tom Dundon has indicated it’s up to public entities, like the city, to pay for renovations the Moda Center needs. But city leaders have been skeptical. At a time of budget cutting, they want to know where the money would come from and what it would pay for.
The release of the draft term sheet and the letter from the “We Are Rip City” coalition comes two days after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expressed concern about negotiations, saying they had gone “off track.” While Silver said that his office is “working with both sides to ensure that the Trail Blazers can have a long-term future in Portland,” he acknowledged there are “open issues” remaining.
Following Silver’s comments, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and a spokesperson for the Trail Blazers issued dueling statements. Mayor Wilson said an “absence of essential details” from the team is “slowing progress”; the Blazers responded that Wilson’s comments were “not accurate.”
The new coalition’s message steered clear of what they wanted to see in a term sheet and instead focused more generally on getting leaders in Portland and Multnomah County to commit to “modernize the Moda Center and secure the Trail Blazers’ future in Oregon.” The push follows a successful campaign in Salem to secure $365 million in state bonds. But the coalition says the authorization for the state funding expires at the end of the year “putting both the renovation and the team’s future in jeopardy.”
The city’s statement accompanying the draft term sheet affirms the goal of a council vote “in August.” The city council vote is scheduled for Aug. 12.
Related: Portland City Council won’t have all answers before voting on Moda Center funding package
Among the signatories of the letter are Raj Sports, which owns the other pro basketball team that plays at the Moda Center, the Portland Fire. Raj Sports put together a competing ownership group to buy the Blazers, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. Raj Sports didn’t immediately respond to OPB’s request for comment on its participation in the coalition.
The coalition’s press release includes statements from the four people identified as coalition leaders: Jim Etzel, CEO of Sport Oregon; Karis Stoudamire-Phillips, an executive at Moda Health; co-founder of Feast Portland, Mike Thelin; and Victoria Lara, CEO of Lara Media Services.
The coalition’s letter says the need to upgrade the Moda Center goes beyond the future of the Trail Blazers. It’s also about bands and shows that want to perform in Portland. In an emailed response from the coalition’s communications team, Mike Thelin said that major touring acts “can’t perform at the Moda Center because of our outdated lighting and staging rigs.”
Coalition co-chair Karis Stoudamire-Phillips said the Moda Center renovations are also central to efforts to improve the nearby area in North and Northeast Portland.
“[T]his is not just about preventing a loss,” Stoudamire-Phillips said in the coalition’s press release. “This is also about building a thriving Central City and partnering in the restorative development of the Albina neighborhood.”
The We Are Rip City coalition has the appearance of a grassroots effort led by an independent group of local businesses. But the coalition has ties to the Trail Blazers. The firm that sent out the coalition’s press release, March Strategies, which was under contract with the Blazers until a few months ago.
