Ongoing Portland Stadium Thread

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by soccermaul, Jun 10, 2009.

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  1. soccermaul

    soccermaul Red Card

    May 28, 2009
    On the Bus..
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing
    OPBNEWS

    Great news, with Vancouver and Portland we could see a big spike in attendance numbers come 2011.
     
  2. nick

    nick Member+

    Nov 23, 1998
    Potomac Falls, Va
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland



    I thought the funding shortfall was over $10 Million? Is this part of a larger package or is the shortfall smaller than advertized.
     
  3. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    Math is hard.
     
  4. The Marquis

    The Marquis Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 13, 2007
    Washougal, WA
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    Everything anybody has heard about this deal has changed. Under the new deal the only shortfall is this $5 million which can still be vetoed by the guv. The ********er.
     
  5. uclacarlos

    uclacarlos Member+

    Aug 10, 2003
    east coast
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    Sa-weet!

    first page. [/ducks]
     
  6. scott47a

    scott47a Member+

    Seattle Sounders FC; Arsenal FC
    Feb 6, 2007
    Austin, Texas
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    How does this money figure in with the debate over the baseball stadium? Are they connected at all?

    It seems like there are still a few balls up in the air based on what I have read. But maybe I missed something.
     
  7. bright

    bright Member

    Dec 28, 2000
    Central District
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    Here is what the current plan looks like: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/06/portland_city_politics_may_und.html

    The $5 million from the state is a drop in the bucket. The real issue is the $42 million from the Lents Town Center Urban Renewal Area. Here is how things are shaking out at the moment:

    The current plan calls for building a new baseball stadium at Lents Park and renovating PGE Park with a new eastside grandstand and other improvements. PGE Park currently houses both the Timbers and the Beavers (local AAA baseball team). The financing for both stadiums is intertwined in this plan, so the PGE Park renovations are dependent on the baseball stadium being built.

    The Portland city council is made of 5 commissioners. Of those 5, the mayor Sam Adams and Randy Leonard support the current plan. Two other commissioners, Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish, do not support it. Dan Saltzman is the swing vote. He supports the current plan, but with a bunch of contingencies that the Paulsons will have to address. He also says he will not support the plan if the Lents Urban Renewal Advisory Committee does not support it. Sam Adams has made a similar statement.

    The Lents URAC is made up of 15 members representing various interests in the Lents neighborhood and is not an elected body. As it stands, 6 members are on record opposing the current plan. The Lents URAC vote has been delayed for a couple weeks while the mayor's office and the Paulsons continue to lobby the members to ensure that they have a majority in support. A neighborhood opposition group has also been formed. Right now, it looks like a 50/50 chance that the Lents URAC will approve the plan.

    If the plan is not approved by the Lents URAC, then the city council will go back to the drawing board. No additional sites within Portland are currently under consideration for a new baseball stadium. Randy Leonard, one of the commissioners who has spearheaded the two stadium plans from the beginning, has repeatedly said that he will not support any deal that lets the Beavers leave Portland. Nick Fish and Dan Saltzman both support decoupling the stadium deals and focusing strictly on renovating PGE Park. Nick Fish also supports keeping the Beavers at PGE Park, although Don Garber does not support this idea.

    So, as it stands, the next major step is the Lents URAC vote. This vote will essentially green-light or kill the current plan.
     
  8. DoctorD

    DoctorD Member+

    Sep 29, 2002
    MidAtlantic
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    Grass field, right?
     
  9. radmonkey

    radmonkey Member

    Oct 27, 2007
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    What happened to replacing that old crumbling hockey rink/civic center or whatever it's called? Is that out for good?
     
  10. nick

    nick Member+

    Nov 23, 1998
    Potomac Falls, Va
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    Saying Don Garber does not support the Timbers sharing PGE Park is a major understatement. :eek:

    Garber is adamantly opposed to the idea to the point that the Timbers will lose their bid for MLS if that is the plan adopted.
     
  11. sitruc

    sitruc Member+

    Jul 25, 2006
    Virginia
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    In short, this all still hinges on baseball.
     
  12. Tyneside4life

    Tyneside4life Member

    Jul 18, 2007
    Cleveland, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    ********ing hippies
     
  13. Sounders78

    Sounders78 Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Olympia
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland


    Even if they both average 20,000 a game, it wouldn't create that big of a spike. Off the top of my head, and I can certainly be mistaken, it would increase the average MLS attendance by about 500-600 people (based on an average of 15,000 for the other teams and not taking Philadelphia into consideration - no offense to the Union, I just don't know what to expect there). For the record, I used 15,000 because it's a nice round number that isn't too far off of the current average.
     
  14. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    If MLS had 18 teams playing 15 home games in 2011, and 17 of those teams averaged 15,500 combined....well, PGE Park at 19k isn't going to bump the average that much when it can only host 5.5% of the games in a given year.
     
  15. Nidal Baba Superstar

    Sep 20, 2006
    Far away
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    Okay, this is off topic, but I can no longer even pretend to understand the Portland stadium saga, so what the hell...

    A general question for fellow MLS fans: is the Portland stadium process the most byzantine and incomprehensible in the entire history of MLS stadiums, or am I forgetting an even more complicated stadium process? 'Cause I really think this one takes the cake. What can beat it? I mean, NY/NJ took forever, but it was pretty easy to follow, precisely because it was so damned slow. San Jose involves some sort of weird three-card monte land deal which is still in progress, but I think I have a grasp on it. What else is there?
     
  16. GVPATS77

    GVPATS77 Member+

    Aug 18, 2008
    Fullerton, CA
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    Well the stadium is only going to hold 18,500 so I'd expect about 18,500 per game.

    More than one third of the stadium is already sold out and they haven't even started contacting people who placed deposits. Don't sleep on Philly or the tri-state area in general. To say that the region is a hotbed of soccer would be a massive understatement.
     
  17. GVPATS77

    GVPATS77 Member+

    Aug 18, 2008
    Fullerton, CA
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    The Earthquakes found the Queen about two months ago. Basically when the Quakes and the city agreed in principle on a land sale they agreed on a certain price. Since then, the real estate market tanked harder than a Milli Vanilli reunion tour and the Quakes asked for the price tag to be adjusted to fair market value. The San Jose city council approved the price adjustment unanimously a couple months ago.

    Not that hard to follow really.
     
  18. sitruc

    sitruc Member+

    Jul 25, 2006
    Virginia
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    How about that foe(listed twice) you try to forget, but never really can?:eek:
     
  19. Nidal Baba Superstar

    Sep 20, 2006
    Far away
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    Nope, I've been able to follow every development in the decline and fall of DCU with delighted glee. It's complicated, but in the way the plot of a classic farce or screwball comedy is complicated. The frantic twists and turns (reminiscent of death spasms) add to the prevailing madcap feel, heightening the hilarity.

    Compare that to the lugubrious "Strawberry Fields" quality of the Portland stadium story, and it's no contest. I mean, every single time we think we know what's going on, we turn out to be entirely wrong, and things are totally different...and there's some weird new organization involved that has to perform its own arcane ceremonies and come back with the next clue to the mystery. And then when you think you're onto something...you find that you're only on a whole new quest for another clue, and you have no idea when it will end. Nothing is real. Nothing to get hung about. PDX fields forever.
     
  20. Nidal Baba Superstar

    Sep 20, 2006
    Far away
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    It all seemed simple, back in the days of the "council vote" and the "funding gap". But we were naive. There turn out to be all these crazy machinations with various neighborhoods, possible placements of the baseball stadium, local committees, the ambitions and concerns of individual politicians, and an NBA team pulling strings behind a curtain.
     
  21. triplet1

    triplet1 BigSoccer Supporter

    Jul 25, 2006
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland


    Stadium developments are inherently messy, and Portland involves not one, but two. I don't think any of this is really unusual -- concerns about money and neighborhood development are hardly unique to Portland -- but I'm a bit surprised that the franchise was awarded by MLS before some of this had been resolved.
     
  22. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    No one remembers how many failed votes Columbus went through before Hunt just said "Screw it, I'll build it myself?"

    Or everything RSL went through, more recently?

    I know it's chic to make everything that's happening right now the best or worst ever, but, please, some perspective. This Portland "saga" has dragged on now for not even 90 days. Puh-leeze.
     
  23. SCBozeman

    SCBozeman Member

    Jun 3, 2001
    St. Louis
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    The DCU stadium seems inherently more complicated with multiple players (Fed gov't., MD county govts., Fenty, DC City Council, new owner that's now an old owner, etc.), multiple sites (RFK, Anacostia with two different plans, National's Stadium, various MD sites, even FedEx field), arcane issues relating to environmental remediation, rents, public bidding, baseball duping DC and then football possibly duping DC, etc. Portland is relatively easy to follow, it's just that the stories are more detailed is all.

    I see RSL has been brought up too. Way more crazy than Portland, at least so far.
     
  24. The Marquis

    The Marquis Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 13, 2007
    Washougal, WA
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    I'd say RSL's was more contrived.

    I think the reason people may feel this way about Portland's is because EVERYTHING has been public. Even when it hasn't needed to be, certain commissioners have insisted. Citizens of the city are involved in the decision making process, another pro sports franchise threw a wrench in it, making it even more public.

    Basically it seems crazy because we've seen it ALL. It's just Portland being Portland really.
     
  25. JasonMa

    JasonMa Member+

    Mar 20, 2000
    Arvada, CO
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Lawmakers Give Initial Approval To Soccer Stadium Financing In POrtland

    So do we need to rank the stadiums from easiest built to hardest?

    Off the top of my head:

    1. DSG Park
    2. BMO Field
    3. Columbus Crew Stadium
    4. HDC
    5. Philly
    6. Kansas City
    7. Houston
    8. Toyota Park
    9. PHP
    10. San Jose (From Equakes 1.0 through now)
    11. RBA
    12. Rio Tinto
    13. Vancouver
    14. Portland
    15. DC
     

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