Tenants and Events
The arena's current primary tenant is the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA. Both the Trail Blazers and the Rose Garden are ultimately owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who also owns the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. The Trail Blazers have a lease agreement with the Rose Garden which runs through 2025, and an exclusive site agreement with the City of Portland requires the team to play all home games in Portland (not necessarily in the Rose Garden) through 2023.
It is also home to the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League, a Canadian junior hockey league. Both the Trail Blazers and Winterhawks previously played in the Memorial Coliseum and moved to the Rose Garden when it was completed in 1995. However, the Rose Garden and the Memorial Coliseum split Winterhawks home games during the season. The Rose Garden and Winterhawks hold the Western Hockey League's record for single game attendance with a crowd of 19,103 on March 15, 1997 in which Portland tied the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds, 6–6. The arena was also built to accommodate a NHL franchise and there has been speculation over the years about Portland landing an NHL team; however this has not occurred. A former third tenant was the Portland Lumberjax of the National Lacrosse League, who played four seasons in the Rose Garden prior to disbanding.
The arena has hosted numerous other minor-league sports teams as well. In 1997, an AFL team landed in Portland from Memphis as the Portland Forest Dragons. Two seasons later, they relocated to Oklahoma City. From 2000 through 2002, the Rose Garden hosted the now-defunct Portland Fire of the WNBA. In the past, the Portland State Vikings men's basketball team has played home games in the Rose Garden; currently, the team plays its home games in the Peter Stott Center on the PSU campus.
The Rose Garden has also hosted PBR Built Ford Tough Series bull riding events.
The arena has also hosted the February 4, 2004, February 5, 2007, May 23, 2011, and February 27, 2012 edition of Monday Night Raw, as well as hosted the June 2, 2006, February 20 & 27, 2009, and October 15, 2010 edition of Friday Night Smackdown.
Also hosted Unforgiven (2004) & No Mercy (2008)
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“Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)