In dysfunctional arena news... (Jack Bog's Blog)

The Rose Garden Arena here in Portland will soon be under new ownership and management. The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of billionaire Paul Allen's Oregon Arena Corp. has approved a plan that will transfer ownership to the financiers (mostly the TIAA-CREF teachers' pension fund) that hold the $193 million mortgage on the building.

According to the bankruptcy proceeding, the facility is now worth $61.3 million. Which means that Allen must have blown tens of millions of his own money and tens of millions of the mortgage holders' money in the way he ran the place. The new owners have hired a Philadelphia-based outfit called Global Spectacor (Global Spectator?) to run the facility, which is home to Allen's Portland Trail Blazers basketball team and other big-venue events.

It will be interesting indeed to see how the place changes with someone other than the Blazers owning it. At least at first blush, it might help the arena's image with Portlanders who are disgusted with Allen's irresponsible antics. When I drive by there now, around a dozen times a week, I look at it and think "Huh -- why would I want to go here and put more money in Paul Allen's pocket?" Now I'll think, "I should go to an event here. It helps my pension fund."

Meanwhile, the city has failed in its quixotic bid to get money from the estate of McDonald's heiress Joan Kroc to fix up the Memorial Coliseum (next door to he Rose Garden) as a giant toney recreation center. Commissioner Erik "Grampy's Favorite" Sten admits that the Kroc foundation's rejection of Portland's proposal (Salem is still in the running) means there won't be a recreation center at the Coliseum any time soon.

I agree with the Kroc folks that Portland isn't its kind of place, and a facility like the Coliseum isn't its kind of building. It's back to drawing board for the city. Talk of a big box retail store or a convention hotel continues to resurface.

I don't think the retail idea is going to work. Any shopper going to that store would always have to worry about the Rose Garden traffic. As for a hotel, which our faithful reader Hilsy has advocated, that's a different story. Give it a big underground garage; that along with all the Tri-Met and Max in the area should make it feasible.

UPDATE, 10:11 p.m.: Apparently the new hired manager is something called Global Spectrum, and it's part of an outfit known as Comcast-Spectacor. That's as in, the same folks who provide my home internet service, I think.

Comments (7)

I am finished with Paul Allen. He spent the last year telling Portland he was going to get rid of the bad attitudes and egos on the Blazers.

And then he went and re-signed Zach Randolph for 86 million.

Paul Allen is running this franchise into the ground and its killing me.

Posted by Justin | November 10, 2004 1:08 PM

i'm all for retail for that space. it's huge. plus, good retail could revitalize the area more. i know you don't like that re-development crap, but think about it- do you go to cucina cucina's when there isn't a game? i would rather have a home depot/lowes in the coliseum instead of over off burnside. let E. burnside stay hip and trendy and support portland small businesses. the rose quarter is a lost cause, so let it be a super target or Ikea or Costco. traffic be damned.
brett
nopo

ps: go randy go!

Posted by brett | November 10, 2004 1:22 PM

Randy Leonard suggested low-income housing. What about moving dignity village in there to keep them out of them weather?

Posted by Jimmy_Z | November 10, 2004 1:28 PM

PDC is hell bent on putting a big box operation close in. The coliseum area is the logical place for it, not the east end of the Burnside bridge. The road access is there, the parking is there and the impact on the small businesses in the central eastside would be minimized. Makes way more sense than a publicly funded "sportz palatz".
Sure, Rose Garden events will pose a traffic problem, but nothing in comparison to the 6000 daily trips to a Home Depot at 3rd and Burnside.

Posted by Dave Lister | November 10, 2004 4:20 PM

It's just ridiculous that one of the very richest men in the world somehow doesn't have the money to repay the amount he borrowed in good faith from actual working people. In fact it's an abuse of corporations law, that he can use the Arena Corp. to insulate himself from personal responsibility to live up to his promises.

You want to talk about getting rid of the irresponsible Blazers with lousy attitudes ... you're not making a dent until the "man" at the top, Allen, is completely gone. He is worse than the rest put together.

Even if you invent a composite worst case Blazer who speeds down the freeway, puts down fans as "uneducated" and smokes pot, all while conducting dog fights in the back of his Escalade ... Allen is worse and more despicable.

Posted by Curt Kipp | November 10, 2004 4:45 PM

I'll take the bait.

A big Box retailer at the coliseum does not make sense, especially when compared to the need we have for a convention-sized hotel space.

The I-5 northbound exit to the rose quarter/coliseum is the second worst exit/on-ramp in the PDX metro area, second only to the on-ramp to I-405 in Sw Portland that doubles as an off-ramp to both 12th ave and highway 26.

I'm not sure if inner-Burnside results in any better traffic patterns. In fact, it might be the same or worse than the coliseum option. But how's this for some give-and-take: if the big box retailer is located near inner-East Burnside, build the southbound I-5 access that the inner SE industrial area has been asking for over the last few decades.

Posted by hilsy | November 10, 2004 8:16 PM

Oh, and BTW, I'm trying to start up my blog again (my url on this comment should work). this time, however, I'm going with the new fad of a picture blog. I figure I'll have less chance of getting myself into difficulties regarding my chosen career path as a patent attorney. (Yeah, right.)

Posted by hilsy | November 10, 2004 8:18 PM

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Wednesday, November 10, 2004

In dysfunctional arena news...

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