Rose Garden Arena is a multipurpose venue that primarily serves as the home of the city's professional basketball team. While the Portland Trailblazers haven't won the NBA title, they have a strong local fan base. Should the team be doing especially well during your Portland visit, it is usually harder to get tickets, so you might keep that in mind. When the Trailblazers aren't taking on other NBA teams at the Rose Garden Arena, other events are often held there. Past events include concerts, wrestling matches, and extreme sports competitions, to name a few. If you are looking for something to add to your itinerary, check the center's schedule when trying to find things to do in the Rose City.

The Rose Garden Arena is the main attraction in Portland Oregon's Rose Quarter. This district can be found north of the downtown core on the banks of the Willamette River and is easy to access off of Interstate 5. Surrounding the arena are bars and restaurants, and they lend to the district's overall sports and entertainment appeal. Not far from the Rose Garden Arena is the Memorial Coliseum. This venue was the former home of the Portland Trailblazers, but instead of tearing it down once the new arena opened in 1995, the city decided to keep it standing. Among other things, the Memorial Coliseum hosts the crowning of the Queen for the annual Portland Rose Festival and some of the Winterhawks hockey games. The Winterhawks are a junior hockey team that are tied to Canada's Western Hockey League. They split home games between the Rose Garden and the Memorial Coliseum.

The Rose Garden Arena is one of the most impressive venues of its kind in the country. It is especially known for its excellent acoustics. Special panels are in place to help reflect noise back down to the spectators and to the court, and these panels can be raised or lowered according to the specific event size. In addition to special panels, the Rose Garden Arena also features a state-of-the-art sound system that increases the acoustical integrity. Things can get pretty loud during Portland Trailblazers games during the October to April NBA season.

Portland Map

Other Rose Garden amenities include one of the largest high-definition video scoreboards in the NBA, a series of auxiliary scoreboards that provide statistical info on the match at hand, a concourse with beverage and food options, outdoor smoking terraces, and a collection of Wi-Fi hot spots. The Rose Garden Arena has seating for almost 20,000 people when basketball games are going on, with the prime seats being the exclusive suite level seats and skybox seats. Those who secure one of these seats will have access to added perks, such as food and beverage service, multiple TV monitors, and private bathrooms. On the outside, parking spots are in good supply, though since it isn't cheap to use them, visitors might turn to the MAX lightrail system for transportation. Fareless Square is the name of the lightrail station that provides access to the Rose Quarter.

A number of hotels near Rose Garden Arena provide good lodging options for those who are in town for a game or another event. These hotels include the Red Lion Hotel Portland Convention Center, which offers well-equipped rooms at a reasonable price. One of the other hotels near Rose Garden Arena that caters to those who are interested in added amenities is the Crowne Plaza Hotel Portland-Downtown Convention Center.

If you are looking for a cheap hotel, both the 44-room Shilo Inn and the La Quinta Inn Portland Convention Center are good options. There's also the relatively clean and convenient Econo Lodge Convention Center. While these cheap hotels leave something to be desired in terms of decor and overall amenities, they offer more than enough perks for travelers who don't require an overabundance of frills. These perks include air conditioning, free Internet access, and cable TV.