RealGM

In todays podcast concerning hosting the AS game by 2030, there is talk of a major renovation to
the Moda Center with perhaps development of an entertainment center next to Moda.

It'll be interesting what if any emerges out of this, especially with the old Memorial Coliseum
still around

i hope it happens, we should've had a all star game here a long time ago IMHO

One reason why I have heard having an All-Star game has been rough is the lack of hotels in the area, now this is changing quite a few new hotels have popped up near Moda, but for a long time Portland was not sufficient in hotel supply for an event of that magnitude.

monopoman wrote:One reason why I have heard having an All-Star game has been rough is the lack of hotels in the area, now this is changing quite a few new hotels have popped up near Moda, but for a long time Portland was not sufficient in hotel supply for an event of that magnitude.

What is an entertainment center? I'd always heard the lack of hotels was why we never hosted the All Star game for the past 30+ years.

It seems to me, that the whole area surrounding Moda Center has been in desperate need of a makeover for about 30 years now. The big hang-up has always been Memorial Coliseum, and the city's unwillingness to tear it down as if it's dishonoring our Veterans somehow if we did.

If one looks at an aerial view of Moda Center and it's surrounding real estate, the potential can be seen IMO. For instance, if the Coliseum was gone along with the PPS building, Could we slot a Baseball stadium there next to Moda? Seeing Home Runs getting hit into the Willamette river is a dream I often have whenever MLB expansion talk brews up. It will never happen I know, but it should.

monopoman wrote:One reason why I have heard having an All-Star game has been rough is the lack of hotels in the area, now this is changing quite a few new hotels have popped up near Moda, but for a long time Portland was not sufficient in hotel supply for an event of that magnitude.

And yet in a 4 week period in 1992, Portland hosted the NBA Finals, the NBA Draft and Tournament of the Americas which featured The Dream Team of Clyde, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Barkley, etc. So I don't quite buy that excuse.

Shem wrote:

monopoman wrote:One reason why I have heard having an All-Star game has been rough is the lack of hotels in the area, now this is changing quite a few new hotels have popped up near Moda, but for a long time Portland was not sufficient in hotel supply for an event of that magnitude.

And yet in a 4 week period in 1992, Portland hosted the NBA Finals, the NBA Draft and Tournament of the Americas which featured The Dream Team of Clyde, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Barkley, etc. So I don't quite buy that excuse.

Well the Finals is hosted wherever, if your team makes it there you are getting at least some home games. **** if a team was located in a city that had horrendous hotels and they made it to the Finals they would still host games there.

The NBA in general is a bigger deal now that it was in 1992, so having an all-star game these days probably draws a bigger crowd in general. You can tell with team valuations now compared to 1992 back then buying the Blazers probably would have cost at most $200ish million, now we are looking at minimum $2 billion.

Edit: Actually it looks like PA bought the team just 4 years earlier at $70 million so I would guess more like $100ish million at most. Not that PA would sell but if he did in a hypothetical, the team was just coming off a NBA Finals appearance so that might have made more buyers interested.

Btw there was a time when the Blazers were awarded an all star game but it was rescinded because the league at the time wanted all the games in NYC so it was taken away. This was in the late 70's to early 80's iirc

The renovation is long overdue, hopefully they can bring it back to a state of the art venue, not for any all star games or college basketball tournament stuff just because it's time