Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen has signed a letter of intent to buy back the Rose Garden, according to a statement released Friday.

Rose Garden

The deal would bring to a close a financially stormy three years that saw the Microsoft billionaire file a controversial bankruptcy claim for the Rose Garden, then suffer millions in losses for his Trail Blazers due to the revenue lost as part of the bankruptcy, and finally threaten to sell the Blazers.

Read official statement by Trail Blazers

"I am happy for the Portland Trail Blazers and the owners of the Rose Garden Arena... as well as excited about the future of professional basketball in Portland. Anyone who remembers the excitement of our championship years knows what a valuable community asset the Trail Blazers are," said Mayor Tom Potter.

Paul Allen turned over the keys to the Rose Garden two years ago after Oregon Arena Corp., a private corporation owned by Allen declared bankruptcy in February of 2004.

As a result of the bankruptcy declaration, a group of creditors that had financed construction of the Rose Garden took over operations under the name Portland Arena Management.

Oregon Arena's bankruptcy led to financial strain for the Trail Blazers as well. Under the original corporate arrangement, the arena received all income from the sale of club seats, courtside seats and luxury boxes. It also received nearly all the revenue from concessions and from corporate sponsors of the central scoreboard.

After the bankruptcy declaration, the Trail Blazers were left with ticket sales revenue for generally less-expensive seats; media broadcast and advertising revenue and other sponsorships, but not of the luxury seat revenue. The loss of those revenue streams resulted tens of millions of dollars in losses in recent years.

Paul Allen cited the burden of those losses in 2006 when he flirted publicly with selling the Trail Blazers.