Moda Center Information
About Moda Center
Known previously as The Rose Garden, the Moda Center is part of the Rose Quarter – a well-known entertainment and sports district in Portland. The venue is an indoor sports arena, but it has hosted a range of events over the years. Sports games have been hosted at Moda Center since 1995, including hockey, basketball and lacrosse. You’ll see concerts and ice shows here, plus the circus, dinosaurs and rodeos.
The entire Moda Center is built on a vast scale that can seat almost 20,000 sports fans or concert-goers. Its clever design and internal structures mean that it can be divided up into separate sections, each still accommodating thousands of people. It offers multiple event configurations, including using the whole area for conventions, football or monster truck rallies.
Moda Center is a huge modern stadium located in Portland, Oregon. It’s in the Rose Quarter of the city, and was previously known as the Rose Garden. Moda Center is Portland’s main covered entertainment arena, where you can attend all sorts of indoor events. From ice hockey and basketball to rodeos and circuses, you’ll also come here for concerts, monster trucks and much more.
Moda Center opened in the fall of 1995 as a multi-purpose arena, designed to offer various different modes of viewing. The $267 million construction is laid out in typical stadium style, with a seating capacity of 19,441 sports fans and concert-goers. With all that space, you can be sure you won’t miss out on tickets to your favorite event.
Moda Center was purpose-built with all the amenities you need at a major event, including WiFi hotspots. It has three major concourses showcasing historical memorabilia. Here’s where you’ll find lots of concession stands, with ice cream, beer, hot dogs, burgers and more. They also provide access to the outdoor terraces, a barbecue grill, a sports bar, and executive banqueting. An additional concourse leads to the restricted VIP area up top, called the Skyboxes.
In its sporting capacity, Moda Center is home base for the NBA Portland Trail Blazers, the Portland Thunder football team and part-season host to the WHL Winterhawks. The early rounds of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament are sometimes held at Moda Center, as well as other major sporting events.
Moda Center’s first ever concert in October 1995 starred David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails. Subsequent years saw a wide variety of musical genres represented, with artists including Garth Brooks, Celine Dion, AC/DC, Tina Turner, K.D. Lang and John Denver. In 2019, before the pandemic, 54 concerts at Moda Center included gigs by The Eagles, Billie Eilish, Cher and Ariana Grande. Wherever you are in the north west states, Moda Center in Portland is a big draw for outstanding events. Upcoming in 2023 are shows starring Sting, Janet Jackson, the Arctic Monkeys, Grammy Award winner Billy Strings, Aerosmith, Hozier and 6lack.
A new home for the Trail Blazers
Planning for the Moda Center began way back in the 1980s when the NBA was becoming more popular. The Portland Trail Blazers were housed in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the time, but it became clear that it was no longer substantial enough to be an NBA facility.
In 1991, the City of Portland made an agreement with the Portland Trail Blazers to begin construction on a multi-purpose arena. This arena was to be built on the parking lot of the Memorial Coliseum, with the project costing around $267 million.
Construction began in 1993, and the arena officially opened on October 12th, 1995. The construction of the venue had been significant. It was the largest demolition recycling and construction program in the United States at that time. The efforts made to recycle the dirt and construction waste later went on to win an environmental award given by the city.
Moda Center Location
Moda Center at Rose Quarter is in an attractive area near the Willamette River and the Old Town, but also incorporates easy access to roads and transit stations. It’s accessible from I-5 and I-84, between N. Interstate Ave and N.E. Wheeler Ave. The Rose Quarter is served by yellow, red, blue and green MAX Light Rail lines and several buses also run by this district.
Various events and multiple sports!
The first event held at the venue was a performance by David Bowie, with Nine Inch Nails as the opening act. This occurred two weeks after the venue opened, on October 25th, 1995. The venue would go on to host various A-list performers over the years, such as Eric Clapton, Linda Ronstadt, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Snoop Dogg, and Avril Lavigne.
Along with the NBA Portland Trail Blazers, the Portland Winterhawks also took up residence in the venue. The Winterhawks are a junior ice hockey team that is part of the Western Hockey League franchise.
The venue was named The Rose Garden until 2013. This changed when the Portland Trail Blazers announced that they would be partnering with the Portland-based private health insurance company Moda Health.
Their ten-year community partnership led to the name change via the sponsorship from Moda Health. However, the public was not happy with the change, with many petitioning to name the venue back to The Rose Garden.
Moda Center History
Close by Moda Center is the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Originally known as just The Memorial Coliseum, this 12,000-seat City of Portland venue opened in 1960. It was the original home of the Portland Winterhawks and Trail Blazers and played host to the world’s greatest artistes. Elvis, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin all appeared here, as well as charismatic figures like Billy Graham, Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama.
It’s too small for many modern events, though, and needs renovating. The city’s solution was to build a new arena, as an alternative home for the games and larger concerts. $267 million was invested in the Moda Center project to produce a multi-purpose arena just across the way.
The Rose Garden, as it was then called, opened in the fall of 1995. The launch concert starred David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails, and they’ve been followed by hundreds of household names. Past performers at Moda Center include Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Eric Clapton and James Taylor, not to mention Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Snoop Dogg and Lady GaGa.
The Trail Blazers relocated to the larger Moda Center stadium, along with the Winterhawks, and the arena is a community icon in Portland. In 2005, the U.S. Figure Skating Championships took place in the Rose Quarter. In 2009 & 2015, Moda Center hosted the early rounds of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.
In 2013, the Trail Blazers unveiled a 10-year community partnership with Moda Health, giving the venue a new sponsored name. This energized Portland’s sports and entertainment hub, tying together the venue and the community.
What Makes Moda Center Special
Everything about Moda Center is special, from its great location to its friendly staff.
Moda Center is ADA equipped, and you can make specific requests for audio or visual aids when booking your tickets. Seating is infinitely variable, depending on what type of event is being staged, but there’s always plenty of room. It’s designed with plentiful restroom facilities and several concourses where you’ll find food and beverage concessions.
Moda Center Sound System
Moda Center has a JBL sound system, and also boasts a unique acoustical cloud feature designed to recreate the roar of sporting NBA crowds. It’s formed with 160 rotating, 10-foot square acoustic panels that hang from the ceiling. One side of each panel absorbs sound and the other reflects it, so the noise of a game is absorbed from the upper levels and bounced back down to the court. These panels are fully flexible, so the arena acoustics can be adjusted according to what each event requires.
Who owns Moda Center?
Moda Center is owned by Vulcan Sports and Entertainment, a holding company that was originally owned by entrepreneur Paul Allen.