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The Rose Garden is no longer. This summer, Portland’s arena -- one of the few left without a corporate sponsorship -- was folded into the flock. The Portland Trail Blazers now play in the Moda Center. Elsewhere, the Blazers’ business team, just in its second year under President and CEO Chris McGowan, made subtler changes that seem to follow a pattern.
On the concourse at the Moda Center, Blazers fans can now choose from one of several locally owned food options -- Sizzle Pie pizza, Fire on the Mountain wings and Killer Burger have all been installed to lend the arena a more native flavor. The pre-game safety video shown on the Jumbotron now features “Portlandia’s” Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, in costume and character, riffing on arena etiquette and protocol.
It’s clear that the Blazers’ braintrust is moving toward capturing the essence of Portland at a moment when that essence is more easily commodified than ever. The town has developed a certain set of associations in the popular imagination: the left coast Brooklyn; the moustache wax capital of the union; a place where an honest-to-God professional cuddler can pay her rent; “where young people go to retire;” haven of food carts and flannel. As the conception of Portland approaches self-parody, it also approaches profitability, and it would seem that the Blazers would like in on the take.
[+] Enlarge
Jonathan Ferrey/Getty ImagesThe Rose Garden is no more. Welcome, Moda Center.
But if the present Blazers organization is going to forge a real bond with their Portland, the heavy lifting is going to be done on the court. What that might look like is still an open question...
Read the rest here - http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/64012/finding-an-identity-under-the-flannel
On the concourse at the Moda Center, Blazers fans can now choose from one of several locally owned food options -- Sizzle Pie pizza, Fire on the Mountain wings and Killer Burger have all been installed to lend the arena a more native flavor. The pre-game safety video shown on the Jumbotron now features “Portlandia’s” Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, in costume and character, riffing on arena etiquette and protocol.
It’s clear that the Blazers’ braintrust is moving toward capturing the essence of Portland at a moment when that essence is more easily commodified than ever. The town has developed a certain set of associations in the popular imagination: the left coast Brooklyn; the moustache wax capital of the union; a place where an honest-to-God professional cuddler can pay her rent; “where young people go to retire;” haven of food carts and flannel. As the conception of Portland approaches self-parody, it also approaches profitability, and it would seem that the Blazers would like in on the take.
[+] Enlarge
Jonathan Ferrey/Getty ImagesThe Rose Garden is no more. Welcome, Moda Center.But if the present Blazers organization is going to forge a real bond with their Portland, the heavy lifting is going to be done on the court. What that might look like is still an open question...
Read the rest here - http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/64012/finding-an-identity-under-the-flannel
