Report: Trail Blazers Moda Center Lease Runs Through 2025

The Portland Trail Blazers have a secure lease at the Moda Center through 2025 and have an option to negotiate a new lease upon its expiration. That was one of the main thrusts of an interview between Portland media veteran Kerry Eggers and Dewayne Hankins, the Trail Blazers President of Business Operations, published today.

Though the Blazers and the City of Portland reached a 30-year agreement in 1993, per Hankins, it did not come into effect until 1995, leaving the expiration date as October 25th, 2025.

Hankins told Eggers that the lease remains in force and that both the team and the city are in the process of planning for the future.

“We’re in conversation about it with the city now,” he [Hankins] says. “We’re not going to negotiate that in the media. (City officials) have been great partners, and I’ll leave it at that. The deadline is at the top of our minds and the top of the city’s minds. We’ve had productive conversations.”

Hankins also indicated that moving the team is “not even a conversation topic”.

Eggers also covered the Trail Blazers’ desire to host an NBA All-Star game, an honor they’ve never received. That would require renovating the arena and perhaps developing the surrounding Rose Quarter further.

Hankins offered this on the arena upgrade:

“We are just starting to put that together,” Hankins says. “All the things you would think, including a scoreboard, an atrium, improvements to the club level, stuff like that.”

Eggers’ article has far more on the All-Star discussion. It’s worth a read to catch up on the business and building aspects of the organization.