What can be done with Moda Center and the Rose Quarter? A casino is the answer

It's the best way to make that ghost town of a neighborhood vibrant

Photo by Michael on Unsplash

So let’s say that Tom Dundon jumps through all the hoops necessary to become the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers. Obviously, it’s going to take most of this basketball season to get the sale closed, be vetted by the NBA and pass muster with the league’s Board of Governors.

The big question is, what will happen next?

Dundon will be faced with some big decisions. The Moda Center needs attention, as does the entire neighborhood where it lives. There will be choices to be made:

• Do you renovate the arena?

• Do you build a new arena?

• If you build a new arena, will it be in the Rose Quarter or the suburbs?

• What can you do to freshen up the area where the Moda Center sits?

And that’s just a few of the things — and it doesn’t even include an appraisal of the basketball side of the operation, from front office to coaches to players to game ops to PR to the overall payroll.

He is going to be a busy man.

But I wanted to make a suggestion that was met with excitement when I floated it out on social media yesterday.

Drop a big-time, big-name casino right there in the middle of the Rose Quarter. All of a sudden there is not only a magnet for more business and more people to come to that neighborhood, but it would be a massive revenue source for the city, the state, the team, a tribal nation — whichever way it is eventually split.