Finally it looks like the Blazers and Paul Allen are taking some initiative in getting the ball rolling. Granted its the smallest of baby steps and with the housing market in its present condition I would be surprised if the project started within the next five years, but its still progress.
The Portland Trail Blazers pick AEG to manage the Rose Quarter
The choice suggests a move toward corporate naming and a push for development
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
BRENT HUNSBERGER
The Portland Trail Blazers have chosen entertainment giant AEG as the new manager of the Rose Quarter, a signal the team is serious about redeveloping the area and growing revenue streams for the ballclub.
Los Angeles-based AEG Facilities has signed a five-year deal with the Blazers' Portland Arena Management to replace the current facilities manager, Global Spectrum, starting July 1, Mike Golub, the team's vice president and chief operations officer, said Monday.
Team officials hope the change goes unnoticed by patrons of the quarter's 20,000-seat Rose Garden and 12,000-seat Memorial Coliseum, and even by the 70 full-time and more than 700 part-time employees.
"Our intent is to keep all the staff, part time and full time, and to make this seamless to the visitor," Golub said. He declined to reveal financial terms of the deal.
The move suggests team management is pressing harder to find a corporate naming partner for the Rose Quarter and to redevelop the area to include housing, offices and other entertainment.
Among its many business ventures, AEG sells naming rights for venues. It also owns the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles, where it is developing L.A. Live, a $2.5 billion district of residences, offices, hotel rooms and event venues. Trail Blazers executives have cited L.A. Live as a model for redeveloping the 32-acre Rose Quarter.
AEG, a unit of Denver-based Anschutz Corp., beat out Comcast Corp.'s Global Spectrum, which has managed the Rose Quarter since 2005, when Paul Allen, the team's owner, relinquished the arena in bankruptcy. Allen's Portland Arena Management repurchased the arena in 2007 and extended Global's contract by a year.
Global Spectrum has performed well, industry observers say, boosting the number of events staged at both venues. It electrified aging Memorial Coliseum late last year by landing the Davis Cup international tennis tournament finals.
Global Spectrum also lured next year's men's NCAA basketball tournament and added the Portland LumberJax lacrosse franchise. The Rose Quarter was ranked as one of the busiest complexes for its size by Venues Today, a trade publication, said Mike Scanlon, Global Spectrum's general manager.
"I think it was a very successful 31/2 years," he said.
The Blazers operate the city-owned coliseum and have lost money on it for years. But in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007, the 48-year-old arena turned a small profit, city and team officials say.
Davis Cup ticket sales should help the aging arena make more money this year, said David Logsdon, the city spectator facilities manager.
Golub said the team picked AEG not because of its financial offer but because of its track record booking concerts, and managing and developing arenas.
AEG ranks as the nation's second-largest concert promoter behind Live Nation. Besides L.A. Live, AEG also is developing O2 World, a 50-acre entertainment complex in Berlin, and The O2 in London, a 28-acre arena-centered development. It owns or manages 12 other venues, including WaMu Theater in Seattle.
AEG also sells venue naming rights, which the Blazers are marketing. Golub said the Blazers will continue to shop the Rose Quarter's naming rights in-house but could use AEG's expertise in the future.
Golub said the team is "midstream" in its efforts to land a naming rights partner. "We're still in discussions with some prospective companies but still a long way to go," he said.
AEG also owns the company that stages Coachella, an outdoor music festival in Indio, Calif., similar to Sasquatch at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash., and Bumbershoot in Seattle. Though neither AEG nor the Blazers have seriously discussed starting a festival in Portland, Golub said, "we think there's a potential to do something like that with AEG."
But Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, a concert trade publication, doubted that prospect, noting Portland's smaller population and competition from existing festivals nearby.
The Trail Blazers-AEG deal links two of the richest men in sports: Allen and AEG owner Philip Anschutz, Nos. 41 and 125, respectively, on Forbes magazine's list of world billionaires.
It also links Vulcan Sports & Entertainment Chief Executive Tod Leiweke with his brother, Timothy, AEG's chief executive and president. Golub said Tod Leiweke was not involved in the decision.
Brent Hunsberger: 503-221-8359; brenthunsberger@ news.oregonian.com
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©2008 The Oregonian
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