OPENING NIGHT AT THE ROSE GARDEN

I watched the Rose Garden, home to your Portland Trail Blazers, rise up on the Northeast bank of the mighty Willamette River.

From opening night until now it’s been . . . thirty-one years?

As long as the Memorial Coliseum stands, the Rose Garden will always be the new kid on the block.

And now it’s old and tired?

I remember being thirty-one years old; I don’t remember being old and tired.

In fact, I remember being pretty peppy, which was important. I got married at thirty-one.

Why bring up a wife and wedding from 1986 with the Rose Garden of 1995?

If you start a new phase of life, start it with enthusiasm and excitement, start it with a breath of fresh air, start it by putting your pants on one leg at a time.

In other words, put a winning team on the court so the rest of the nation can see Oregon and everyone in Portland will grab a hammer and shovel and go to work.

Or they’ll at least buy tickets for more than the games against their real favorite teams.

When the NBA works in Portland it takes over the whole state.

Word of mouth goes from, ‘We’ve got to see this game, it’s the biggest game of the year,’ to ‘If we don’t see this game we’ll never see him play again in person.’

 

Eddie And I And Michael Jordon

Eddie was a museum janitor working through his retirement because that’s what he was, a worker.

He didn’t have to work is what I’m saying, but he didn’t want to stay home. Not a homebody.

He was in his early 70’s like I am now, and the best sports guy I’ve ever known.

He grew up in Louisville and remembered some skinny kid name Cassius Clay.

He’d seen the Dodgers play in Brooklyn during a stop in his travels as a Merchant Marine.

What endeared him to me most? He’d been in Coos Bay back in his day.

He knew where North Bend was and had good things to say about the town.

One of our big adventures together was going up to the King Dome to see the Dodgers v Mariners.

He was a Dodger fan.

We had seats way up there and when the game seemed in hand we left early.

I made a wrong turn and drove across the lake with the game on the radio when we heard the call: game winning homer in the bottom of the ninth by the Dodger third baseman.

 

Our greatest adventure came with his birthday present from the museum staff one year: tickets to the Bulls game and Michael Jordan’s last time in Portland.

We had a big night with dinner at a rib house that ran a shuttle from it’s parking lot to the arena.

We were sitting way up there and when the game seemed in hand we left early.

The radio back at bus gave the call: Jordan got a last second steal and the shot that won the game.

We had great sports moments near and far.

 

The Fate Of The Rose Garden

From portland.gov:

 

Why renovate and modernize now?

• The building is 30 years old, and the one of the oldest unrenovated NBA arenas

• Portland wants to remain competitive with other NBA and concert venues

• Opportunity to reduce long-term maintenance costs

• Going beyond Moda’s Platinum LEED status with more opportunities to align with the City’s climate goals to reduce carbon emissions

 

By modernizing our existing arena rather than building new, and by upgrading systems with state-of-the-art green technology, we are able to maximize our carbon reduction impact.  

As we contemplate the design of the renovated arena and our practices while renovating, we are considering how upgrades and practices can reduce operational emissions, lower peak energy grid demand, and improve grid reliability.

This could potentially look like:

• High‑efficiency HVAC and LED lighting

• Updated building automation and control systems

• Building‑envelope upgrades

• Water‑saving fixtures

• On‑site renewable energy

• Battery storage and demand‑response systems

• Support sustainable materials, including Oregon mass timber 

• Achieve 100% landfill diversion during construction 

The Shonz Interview

Me: Mr. Shonley, what’s the most important part of a basketball arena?

Shonz: Call me Shonz. The most important part you ask? It’s the team, a winning team.

Me: Is that how Boston got a new arena instead of the old Boston Garden? How the Bulls moved out of the Chicago Stadium?

Shonz: The Celtics played in the old Garden for nearly 50 years. The Bulls in Chicago Stadium for nearly forty. These were building from the late 1920’s. Winning makes a big statement, a huge impression on the people who want a new arena.

Me: What about the modern amenities?

Shonz: Winning is the first amenity. And Portland loves a winner.

 

PS:

I attended an event at the Multnomah Athletic Club, one for the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. Eddie would have loved it. He and I went to a few of the yearly induction ceremonies in local hotel ballrooms.

 

PSS: 

The Memorial Coliseum has a lower area outside the building holding columns with names of those lost in war.

I’ve walked around it and felt the same vibe as the huge stone slabs in Battery Park at the bottom of Manhattan with all the names.

Moda Center has a plaque naming the builders, which is nice.

If the city feels engaged in the future of the Portland Trail Blazers, it’s all good.

If not? Hello Oklahoma City. No wait. That was Seattle.

 

From blazersedge.com:

Fans note True Shooting Efficiency but they don’t actually root for it.

They go to games for the thrill, the community, the sense of belonging, occasionally even the feeling of success when their team wins. There is no “product” except your feeling of connection and enjoyment.

If you feel like your franchise is incompetent—either on the floor, in the front office, or by trampling workers, ignoring you, or trying to grift a quick buck at your expense—you’re going to divorce yourself from that emotional investment pretty quickly.