07 — City budget
How this impacts the city's budget
In short: the city needs to find funding for its $120M construction share. Options include potential revenue from the sale of the team and the Portland Clean Energy Fund, though none of it is confirmed yet.
The $395M is a 20-year number. The more immediate question is how the city covers its $120M construction share between now and 2030. That's the part it needs to fund in the near term.
This reflects a specific split proposed in March 2026, not a confirmed current breakdown. See below.
In March, city leaders estimated the sale of the Blazers would generate about $50M in one-time business-license tax revenue and proposed putting $40M toward the arena renovation, with the remaining $10M going toward ongoing operating and capital expenses for the arena. Under that proposal, $40M would have gone toward the city's $120M construction commitment, leaving an $80M gap. (Portland City Council memo, Mar 25, 2026)
That specific split hasn't held up, though. A more recent city page puts the same one-time revenue estimate at closer to $45M and describes it as "not currently allocated to any future expenses." And as of the term sheet approved by City Council on August 12, 2026, the city's full $120M construction share is described as coming from "sources yet to be confirmed." In other words: as things stand now, none of the $120M has a locked-in funding source, this tax revenue included. (Portland.gov, Resolution 37750)
Two ideas that have come up for closing that gap are the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) and funding through Prosper Portland. Neither is simply a pool of money the city can draw from; funding would need to go through the appropriate approval process and be used for eligible purposes. PCEF gets its own page, because there's more to it than a one-line mention deserves.