The Rose Garden Arena was opened on October 12, 1995 with a ceremony honoring the Blazers fans and the workers who built the facility. Its original capacity was 20,340 seats for NBA games, but it has since been reduced to 19,980 seats. The first regular-season game at the Rose Garden was the Portland Trail Blazers against the Vancouver Grizzlies on November 3, 1995.

The building was designed by the architectural firm Ellerbe Becket of Kansas City. The construction cost was estimated at $262 million dollars, with $46 million paid by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, and $34.5 million by the city of Portland. The building’s architecture is inspired by the petals of a rose, hence its name. Its designers (Ellerbe Becket) mostly focused on the acoustic performance, with a huge resonance chamber. There are also more than 650 screens, monitors and televisions.

The attendance record for a Western Hockey League game took place in the Rose Garden Arena during a Portland Winter Hawks game on March 15, 1997, with 19,103 spectators. The Winter Hawks tied against the Seattle Thunderbirds (6-6).

Since 1995, its tenants have been the Portland Trail Blazers, an NBA basketball team and sometimes the Portland Winter Hawks, an ice hockey team playing in the Western Hockey League. In 2006, the Portland LumberJax of the National Lacrosse League also played there. Former tenants include the Portland Forest Dragons (AFL) from 1997 to 1999 and the Portland Fire (WNBA) from 2000 to 2002. The capacity is 19,980 seats for basketball (can accommodate 20,580 spectators in total with standing room), 17,544 for ice hockey and lacrosse, 20,000 for concerts, 19,500 for boxing and 16,800 for rodeos. It has several amenities with 70 luxury suites and 2,397 club seats. The arena has 2,200 parking spaces.

In 2013, following a ten-year contract with Moda Health, the Rose Garden Arena changed its name to the Moda Center.