clarinews@clarinet.com (BILL STEWART) (01/15/90)
PORTLAND, Ore. (UPI) -- The Portland Trail Blazers' days in Memorial Coliseum seem to be numbered. When Metro director Rena Cusma said last week she intends to find the money necessary to build a new sports complex, Blazers president Harry Glickmas was already preparing to start looking at model arenas around the country. Glickman got a close-up look at the Palace Auburn Hills Saturday night before the Blazers' game with the Detroit Pistons. Most executives around the league seem to feel that the Palace is at the top of the list among the NBA's elite arenas. But there are a number of hurdles to clear before the Palace of Portland will ever be built. For starters, the price tag for an arena like the Palace will run close to $80 million. Very few city officials feel confident that the area's voters would approve a bond issue that large. Cusma would like to see a joint venture between public and private sectors, and Blazers owner Paul Allen says the idea has a lot of merit. Ironically, Allen could afford to build the arena on his own, but he's hardly willing to go that far. Allen, who was one of the co-founders of Microsoft, is reportedly worth several hundred million dollars. People joked when he purchased the Blazers two years ago that the check for the team was written from petty cash. But Allen isn't likely to pay the whole tab, especially now that city officials feel it's time to move into a bigger facility. ``We do have one of the smallest facilities in the league,'' Allen said. ``It would certainly be beneficial to have more seats.'' In fact, Portland has the second smallest arena in the NBA, ahead of only Utah. Memorial Coliseum, which is also the league's fourth oldest facility, seats only 12,884. Salt Lake City and Phoenix are ready to break ground on new projects that feature cooperative agreements between the local team and government. To build an arena in Portland, ``it just has to be a combination of public and private funding,'' Glickman said. ``At this point, though, I wouldn't have a clue what that combination might be.'' ``That's really our preference,'' Allen said of the joint approach. ``Finances dictate that the community should make substantial support in terms of land and funding. ``I'd like us to have something like the Palace of Auburn Hills,'' Allen said. ``There have been some locations that have brought up but it's too early to talk about where it will be.'' Originally, Glickman talked about a building that seats 16,000 to 17,000. It appears, though, that a bigger building might be built. ``We haven't made up our minds about the size,'' Glickman said. ``But it will probably be bigger than we originally thought.'' Even if public funding is obtained, the Blazers want a new building to be their own and they want complete authority over it.