Rose Quarter

The Rose Garden/​Moda Center has made some great improvements over the last few years! They have added some local restaurants to their food offerings and they offer alternatives to folks with allergens.

Never been here for a NBA Trail Blazers game, but have been here when they had the Portland WInterhawks vs the SEATTLE THUNDERBIRDS games, nice Arena, I love how they have a parking garage next to it, and a walkway from the garage to the stadium, so if its raining outside you dont have to get wet if you dont want to .
The seating here is good, and there is stuff to do before and after the game, and of course you can pretty much get around anywhere on their light rail system.

As long as it is still the Rose Quarter 5 Stars, will not ever call it by the name that should never be mentioned. I will say I loved the addition to the Killer Burger, and more but they switched their regular standard booths and they sucked. More often than not the staff has no clue what they are doing, they are friendly but poorly trained. If you are on the second level your food choices are nill, would love to see this improved.

«Moda» sounds so dirty, I’m sticking with the Rose Garden.

I’m so mixed about this place. The outward appearance is kinda nice. Has two large arenas, but is missing so much. There is not nearly enough parking here. They don’t have enough parking for half of the capacity of the Moda Center alone, let alone when there are two events going on at the same time.
Then there is the lack of nearby food options. Ya, they just opened Dr. Jacks, but that place has the worse service in the world, the prices are still to high, and there isn’t nearly enough seating in there (not to mention they don’t utilize the already covered outdoor seating area at all… even for standing room).

What can you say about the Rose Quarter that hasn’t already been said?
I’ve been here honestly a dozen times. Mostly sit in the 100 levels so the view is nice. But honsetly, the cheap 300 level seats work perfectly fine too. Saw Ellie and Bruno last night and they were amazing. I saw Gaga the first time in the 100 level which was great. And the second time i just opted for cheap 300 level seats which were surprisingly good.
Place is clean, and exiting the Rose Quarter afterwards is fairly easy.
And take the max, its the easiest way to travel downtown Portland.

There really is not a bad seat in the house. Been going here for years for basketball games and more recently, a great concert.
Even when sold out, parking isnt nearly as bad as other venues, and if you know where to look, you can find a spot for $ 5-​$ 10. The MAX is an even better way to go if you are local (not hard to figure out even if you arent). Beers cost too much but that is the norm, and I appreciate the variety of local ales… even if they were $ 9.50. The staff is friendly and my experiences here are always memorable

I have been to the Rose Quarter several times a year over the past 40 years but this is the first time I have been prompted to write a review.
I attended the Leonard Cohen concert a couple of days ago with my «mother-​in-​law» and boyfriend. The MIL is elderly and has a difficult time walking so I arranged to get a wheel chair and handicap seating.
Kudos to the staff that handle this a the RQ! we got a wheel chair and were wheeled to seats that were slightly better than the seats I had purchased. We were told that someone would come by after the concert and wheel us into the parking garage. As soon as the lights came on there was an attendant who quickly whisked us out before the crowds started to mob the exit.
Great staff and efficiently handled! Can’t give 5 stars to a venue that charges $ 8 for a beer. Bend me over!

Pretty much anywhere in the Rose Garden is better than sitting at home, no matter how nice your set-​up is… however be prepared to pay an arm and a leg for less than stellar overpriced concessions.
Beer is $ 9 a pint (for micros) Really? We live in Beervana, right! The hotdogs are some of the worst I’ve ever had and at $ 6 they’re making a killing.
The Blazer games are still very fun and exciting though. I’ve seen a few concerts here too, though overpriced, they’re great as well!
Paul Allen needs to stunt his exponential growth on the prices of both tickets and concessions though.
Parking is widely available around, and in the Rose Quarter, and the Rose Garden is easily the loudest arena I’ve ever been in, when watching an NBA game.

Growing up I loved the Blazer’s. I loved Rasheed Wallace and was instantly a Blazer’s fan til he parted ways with them. Although I am no longer a die hard Blazer’s fan anymore, I still have a soft sport in my heart for them. With this in mind, I wanted to watch a Blazer’s game while I lived in Portland.
The games are held at the Rose Garden, which was really convenient to where I used to live in SW Portland, near PSU. What makes the location great is that all 4 max lines run through it so it shouldn’t be hard for people to get to and from the Rose Garden. The arena is nice, big, and clean. I have watched several Blazer’s game here as well as the Nike Hoop Summit and I have no complaints about this place. Some of my fave memories of living in Portland has to be the max rides to and from the Rose Garden. We were squished like sardines but we were happy as hell in our Blazer’s gear.

Went to the Strikeforce MMA event at the Rose Garden Arena today. Very nice venue. Although my awesome seats were cage-​side, I noticed that even the nose-​bleeds look pretty good. Getting to the arena was incredibly easy by bus (me) and MAX (my companions). Transit drop off is right in front of the place and is absolutely the only way I would go. So easy and convenient and no worries about driving home impaired.
The arena itself is clean and bright. I had no problem picking up my tickets at the will call window and walking right on inside. There are plenty of different concessions from which to choose. We stopped for a beer at the Pyramid Taproom. Ahhh, delicious local beer on tap. Sure, it came in a plastic cup, but it was a premium IPA.
I look forward to attending other events at Rose Quarter.

Sometimes, when everything seems just «alright» you don’t realize how good you really have it.
The Rose Garden Arena may seem like your basic venue that is primarily for a basketball team, but I can tell you it’s one of the better venues of its ilk on the West Coast.
The 4 main things it has going for it are: accessibility, pricing, viewing options, and the variety of events that take place there. Being able to take the MAX is a huge plus. Have you ever had to wait over 20 minutes to pull out of a parking lot when thousands of people are all leaving at once? If not, try going to LA or OC sometime, and worse yet they charge $ 20 for onsite parking. Another added bonus is that taking the MAX enables you to drink before, or during, your event.
The pricing for Blazers games and concerts is excellent. I could get good seats for the playoffs here, for what the worst seats would cost at a Lakers games at the Staples Center during the regular season. If you wanna buy the cheapest seats, you can go to like 4 games for what it would cost to go to 1 in LA. And there really isn’t a bad seat in the house, I’ve had front row on the floor, club level, and nosebleeds, and it’s all been good. Wanna see a major headlining musical act? True, they don’t always come to Portland, but when they do it’s much much cheaper, and it usually doesn’t sell out as quick either.
There hasn’t been an event at the Rose Quarter where I didn’t feel like I was having the time of my life. And to cap it off, rather than waiting to hop on the MAX when everyone else is leaving, I often decided to walk over the bridge and take in the scenery on my way back to Downtown. You can’t beat that.

We had a great time watching the Blazers put the hurt to the A-​town Hawks last Saturday. My wife had a co-​worker give her some tickets since he couldn’t make it up from Eugene.
We both wanted to drink before and after the game so instead of being un-​elite and Drinking and Driving, we decided to catch the max. AWESOME. We walked from our appartment to the max and got off right in front of the arena, how convenient!
When we entered we asked an older fellow where we would be able to find our seats. After he checked out or tickets, he said, «You actually follow these stairs up to the next level. Everything is free except alcohol.» What did you just say? Huh? I’m confused… did he just say everything was free? For the next 15 seconds while walking up the stairs I was wondering what I was going to see. WOW! Meat trays, Cheese trays, fruit, fried rice, egg rolls, short ribs, pizza, hot dogs, pop corn, all candy, ice cream, soda, water… FREE! I was shocked and surprised! Apparently we were in the preferred seating area and it was part of the seats. We pigged out and enjoyed a great Blazer performance.
The arena is open, no obstructed views, seats are packed tight, and if you are sitting in the middle of a row, every person will have to stand up to let you out. Which sucks to say, «Excuse me, Sorry, Excuse me, Thanks, Appreciate it,»
Sure the time may have been a bit enhanced by being able to pig out for $ 0.00, but the price of the drinks knocked us back to reality. $ 9 for a cocktail, $ 8 for an IPA. DAAAMN! Good thing I had a flask of whisky on me. Shhhh! I didn’t just say that.
We had a great time, people around us were nice and conversational, L.A. was hitting his turn around jumpers, Batum was all over the court, Camby was building a brick house from the charity stripe…
4 stars for this PDX venue!

Theater of the Clouds. Per the website:
«The Rose Garden was specially constructed to include curtains and a one-​of-​a-​kind acoustic cloud, in order to transform the large arena into a theatrical setting, suitable for intimate shows of 3,000 to 6,500 guests.»
Um, hell no. Big disappointment. What the hell was people thinking? It is not a theater, nor something that can remotely resemble a cloud. Dont try to make up special words for it and try to turn it into something it is not. It is not an «acoustic cloud.» I recently saw a concert here and the sound was so bad, I could hardly make out lyrics from songs.
Don’t call it something it’s not. Do not overtype it. It is just the Rose Arena, with a big, cheap ass curtain draped over the middle. Nothing special.
Next time, I would think twice about seeing an artist perform here.

Hidden somewhere under the bleachers, in a place known only to all indoor sporting venue professionals, there lies a super secret handbook that tells you how to seamlessly convert a floor from:
— an ice hockey rink to
— a basketball court to
— a concert venue to
— a circus with live animals to
— a monster truck course to
— a wrestling ring
…all within days of each other, and all the while avoiding the scheduling awkwardness of an elephant slipping on an icy floor, or a pink tutu-​ed ice skating fan twirling headlong into a crowd full of juggalo (juggaleese? juggalander?)
The venue is big enough for the city’s largest shows, but not so big that you can’t spot a friend down on the floor when you’re up in the nosebleeds.
What it takes for them to pull it all together well enough for us spectators to be able to complain, predictably, about large event parking, ticket amounts and outrageous food prices, is a mystery, stored (I can only imagine) in that secret book. What I wouldn’t give to get a peek.

How do you rate a venue like the Rose Quarter? It’s actually kind of hard. Because what do you really compare it to?
These giant entertainment complexes are not that common — they exist in major cities but how often does a guy really get to go to enough to determine how his hometown version stacks up? Sure I’ve been to some major league baseball stadiums, the Kingdome (RIP), the Seattle Coliseum (cum Key Arena — RIP Sonics), the Tacoma Dome, and some college sports arenas. But not too many that include an entire entertainment district. So I can’t really say how the Rose Quarter stands up to the other ones.
The Rose Garden Arena is where the Blazers play. It’s decently modern, has some nice new attributes, and some usual food service circumstances. Similar to an airport, the food service is all contracted out by a large company that hires people who have no connection to the food or beverage they are serving. This is fairly counter to what happens in the rest of Portland, where people take pride in the subject matter of their service. The upside is that there is a lot of local food going on in the Arena, so you can get Laurelwood, Widmer, and similar brews alongside food from outfits like Po Shines and local BBQ. The food isn’t all that bad if you do it right (and are willing to pay the jacked up prices), but don’t expect the folks serving it to know much about it in particular.
The Memorial Coliseum is old and dated but still has that classic arena charm. There’s not really a bad seat in the house, and that house used to, and can still rock. The food is abysmal.
The rest of this complex consists of some parking structures, a sports medicine facility, and some storefronts that used to house restaurants and bars. The location is awkward and the restaurants were only busy during events, which in a town that until 2011 only had one major league sports team — and basketball at that — didn’t happen often. So the restaurants that used to exist there don’t any more. Now they’re mostly vacant — occupied by temporary food and booze service for pre– and during-​game times. The rest of the time they’re vacant. Making this area, aside from the sports rehab and management offices, a dead zone in off times.
Sure it would be nice to have a vibrant entertainment district surrounding this arena as might exist in other markets, but I’m not sure that in a place like Portland it’s feasible. The type of places that would cater to the crowds that show up to games would probably not be able to draw from the remainder of the Portland market in off nights. Unless maybe you transported the barmuda triangle across the river.
So with a fairly modern NBA/​concert arena, an aging NBA bowl now used for rasslin’, monster trucks and Dew Tour, and some mostly-​vacant should-​be-​restaurants… the Rose Quarter serves a specific and limited purpose. And they do an okay job at it. Unless you park in the East/​West lots during a blazer game (it’ll take you hours to get out… srsly).
I guess 3 stars is what it’s worth. It could be better, but I’m not wise enough to say how that would actually work.

**huffing and puffing** Really, there can’t be more than one entrance door to this freaking place? The entrance is oooooooover there and my seats are ooooooooooooover there?
Drinks and food are insanely, insanely overpriced. These people know exactly what a captive audience is and are giggling madly with glee, making it rain twenties behind the curtain. If I’m going to pay $ 5 for a pretzel then it better be 1) effing edible and 2) the standard soft pretzel with salt chunks on it, not a STALE KNOT OF UTTER BULLSHIT. The BF took the first bite and said «I hope you don’t have any dental issues; you may after this.»
But everyone is right — there is not a bad seat in the house. All arena staff seem friendly and helpful, that’s a plus. And, huge bonus that MAX stops right next to the arena — for 2 of us coming from Beaverton, it’s $ 9.00 and change round trip to not worry about traffic and parking, which is well worth it in my suburban sensibilities.
So, 2 ½ stars rounded up, but get a new pretzel vendor, would you?

I have seen many a hockey game here and sat all over the arena from top to bottom — there REALLY is not a bad seat in the house!
I am happy I do not drink beer since I hear it is steep but I will say though the food is overpriced (as with ANY stadium), it is not nearly as bad as some. For some items it seemed downright cheap!
I have also been to catered events upstairs and to a catered box here — not a bad way to watch an event at all — they do a solid job. This arena really is a credit to Portland.

With mud caked to my formerly pristinely white low top Converse All Stars, the evening wasn’t starting off quite as planned. First there was the lot attendant’s hostile demand of $ 15 for a muck infested spot only a block away from cleaner $ 5 opportunities. Then the subsequent rude dismissal and scorn portrayed by said attendant regarding my choice to relocate my car as I trudged back through his parking lot quagmire, all while muttering derogatory comments of the un-​pc kind.
Yes, normally this would have pissed me the hell off. But that wasn’t to be the case tonight. You see tonight was playoff basketball. Tonight I was living large in Rip City.
I joined the throng of red and black dressed fans heading towards the garden, my coveted 100 level ticket held in a vice grip like it was the golden ticket into Willy Wonka’s LSD inspired candy factory, a free pass into a call girl training conference, or admission for an «all you can handle» buffet of baby slits, Bolivian Marching Powder, mushies, yellow sunshine and mighty mezz.
Like an oracle for future success, there was Bill Schonley, basking in the attention of the bright lights and cameras, as he was preparing to go on air for an interview with a local news station. Always immaculately dressed, hair white as good Columbia blow, he was greeting revelers with a smile, a wink and a handshake to the past. «You’ve got to make your free throws» sounding in my head all the while.
It was still an hour before tip off, but already the crowd was growing, anxious with anticipation, ready for their team of young upstarts to take the court. A band played in the concourse, fans shopped through the team store, groups gathered to discuss the upcoming game, while children, hotties and cougars lined up to get their faces painted with Blazer logos. Nothing beats the atmosphere of a playoff game. Especially here in Portland.
My prefunk found me getting down and dirty with a pair of shapely 9% double IPA’s, but any seasoned fan knows that a cold beverage in hand is always a requirement when attending any game. Thus, I begrudgingly parted with $ 8 each time my glass of macro ale disguised as a micro began to run dry; throw in a pretzel and heart burn inducing dog to soak up some of the brew, and I was comfortably satiated and inebriated throughout most of the game.
I found my seat, settled in next to a pair of lifelong season ticket holders and watched the diminutive Blazer dancers walk past in their skin tight lycra outfits, and wondered why in a city with an overabundance of strippers, this was the best we could do. Dear God, there was lots of butter to spread in them black spandex outfits.
As the crowd began to settle in, and the pregame introductions commenced, the Garden took on a feeling of electricity. Shouts of «Let’s go Blazers» from the rowdy 300 section turned into arena rocking chants as the entire building rose in unison and cheered on their beloved team. The noise levels were deafening as the team took the court and the opening tip commenced. Chants of «Defense» from the first opponent possession displayed the vigor and enthusiasm of the Portland faithful as well as their knowledge for the game.
I’ve been to many sporting events, in some great venues for some high stakes, but I have never seen a fan base so in tune and so dedicated to cheering on their team to victory. Camaraderie that was built instantly continued through the final horn and the crowd filed out of the arena, high fives amongst strangers, impromptu chants while crossing the street and horns honking in celebration kept the feelings of victory and solidarity fresh on everyone’s mind.
For Rip City is back, baby and the Rose Garden is fertile ground for future scenes of Blazermania.

The last time I saw a Blazer game, Pippen, Sheed and DD were still on the team.
It’s an arena, y’know? What do you go by reviewing an arena? It’s not like there’s a whole lot of competition in town.
Getting in is quick.
Getting out is quick.
The prices aren’t as ridiculous as I was afraid of. A little more than a movie theater, not as bad as Disneyland.
The seats are a bit on the tiny side. I fit with some room to spare, but if you’re at all wide for one reason or another, you may be in trouble.