PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Oregon Arena Corp. bankruptcy case is nearly finished almost three years after billionaire Paul Allen set off a chain of events that nearly led him to sell the Portland Trail Blazers.
     
The trustee for the now-defunct company that ran the Rose Garden arena has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland to approve final housekeeping matters and close the case after Dec. 21, if no one objects.
     
The request came after the Trail Blazers paid $14.1 million on behalf of the franchise and Allen to settle claims brought by trustee Susan Freeman.
     
Freeman had investigated allegations that included whether Allen, the Blazers or other affiliates fraudulently or improperly pocketed millions of dollars from Oregon Arena in the years leading up to the bankruptcy.
     
Although Freeman never publicly disclosed her findings, she had circulated a draft lawsuit to the potential defendants earlier this year, triggering the May 1 agreement. The NBA franchise made the payment on Aug. 1, according to bankruptcy court records, resolving the single-largest remaining issue in the case.
     
The closure, which Freeman requested in a formal filing last week, would largely be ceremonial. Allen handed over keys to the Rose Garden two years ago to his biggest creditors - the group of lenders that financed its construction and has organized itself into a new entity called Portland Arena Management.
     
Most of the money from the $14.1 million settlement will go to Portland Arena Management to help cover its remaining $105 million claim. But the estate will also be paying some smaller companies.
     
Christenson Electric Inc., for example, provides telephone, technological and electrical services for the Rose Garden and was owed $5,639.73. The Portland company is due to receive a check for $702.07 - or about 12.5 cents on the dollar - like most of the remaining creditors, according to the bankruptcy filing.
     
Mark Walter, president of Christenson Electric, said the company has had a strong relationship with the Rose Garden that continues."We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship on both sides," he said.
     
Allen paid many other smaller creditors in full in October 2005, as a measure of goodwill to Portland companies.
     
Oregon Arena's bankruptcy also complicated matters for its sister company, the Trail Blazers. 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.
     
The Trail Blazers were left with ticket sales revenue for generally less-expensive seats; media broadcast and advertising revenue and other sponsorships - not enough to cover expenses and leading to losses tens of millions of dollars in recent years.

 (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
 
     
      (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)