Funding Discussion (Part II)

[Sport Billy]

Continued from here - http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=988647

[bright]

Two more letters to The Oregonian, both opposed to the Lents Park site: http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2009/06/letters_to_the_editor_lents_st_1.html

[bright]

http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2009/06/08/more-attendance-numbers-for-major-league-soccer-fans-in-portland-to-chew-on/

[bright]

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2009/06/08/leonard-to-eat-with-novick-urac-boss-in-lents


City Commissioner Randy Leonard is scheduled to sit down for dinner at El Pato Feliz restaurant in Lents later this week with with hotly anticipated gubernatorial candidate Steve Novick and Lents Urban Renewal Advisory Committee chair Cora Potter.

Novick was an outspoken critic of Leonard's plans for baseball in Lents at a protest organized by Lents neighbors last week. Potter, meanwhile, has said she is tentatively supportive of the idea.

[antnee7898]

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2009/06/08/leonard-to-eat-with-novick-urac-boss-in-lents
So....it won't be this week.

[bright]

http://www.katu.com/news/business/47308172.html


Developers are starting to map out a new AAA baseball stadium in Lents park.

Their initial plans are now giving residents an idea of what it might look like.



However, those opposed to the stadium are meeting Tuesday night at the park around 6 p.m. to discuss ways to keep the stadium from being built.

[The Marquis]

http://media.katu.com/images/090609_lents_plan.jpg

That's not much now is it? Especially considering the baseball stadium is right over the top of the old near-condemned Walker Stadium.

[Yoshou]

http://media.katu.com/images/090609_lents_plan.jpg

That's not much now is it? Especially considering the baseball stadium is right over the top of the old near-condemned Walker Stadium.

Except, of course, when you consider that Walker Stadium is open to the public for free, while the new stadium would be closed to the public unless they paid for it.

[bright]

http://media.katu.com/images/090609_lents_plan.jpg

That's not much now is it? Especially considering the baseball stadium is right over the top of the old near-condemned Walker Stadium.

Wasn't the Lents URA tapped for some money to move the Little League fields to Lents Park like last year? I am pretty sure Walker Stadium got some upgrades in the process. BTW, the "stadium" portion of Walker Stadium is teeny tiny. It is not much larger than what we had at my high school. Maybe seats like 200 people max, and it's just a few rows of aluminum bleachers behind each dugout.

Also, the backstop of Walker Stadium is in the center field of the picture above. They had to re-position the new stadium because of PCL rules. Here is a view from Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=lents+park,+portland,+or&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=59.119059,98.701172&ie=UTF8&ll=45.486937,-122.568079&spn=0.006491,0.012048&t=h&z=17

[Yoshou]

Wasn't the Lents URA tapped for some money to move the Little League fields to Lents Park like last year? I am pretty sure Walker Stadium got some upgrades in the process. BTW, the "stadium" portion of Walker Stadium is teeny tiny. It is not much larger than what we had at my high school. Maybe seats like 200 people max, and it's just a few rows of aluminum bleachers behind each dugout.

Its not much, but it is more than just a few rows of aluminum bleachers behind each dugout:

http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?action=ViewPark&PropertyID=1135

[The Marquis]

Except, of course, when you consider that Walker Stadium is open to the public for free, while the new stadium would be closed to the public unless they paid for it.

Uh. What? Dude come on. Don't just go and insert information as fact without knowing for sure what you are talking about...

Walker Stadium is not open to the public. It is open to leagues that want to use it by filing a use permit or some such and a large portion of the stands are condemned and cannot be used. A kid and his dad CANNOT go use Walker Stadium to play catch. It is locked up when not in use by local leagues. It is a dump.

Also, Walker Stadiums FENCE was moved, I believe that is all that was done to it. I was there... YESTERDAY, and it's a complete dump. rotting wooden bench stands, the field was terrible though, but whoopee if people can't use it.

[bright]

rotting wooden bench stands, the field was terrible though, but whoopee if people can't use it.

The rotting wood benches are only behind the plate. You can see in that link that Yoshou posted. The rest of the stands are new aluminum benches. I am not sure about this, but I believe they were part of the Little League upgrades last year.

[The Marquis]

bright, I was there yesterday. It is a dump. period.

[bright]

bright, I was there yesterday. It is a dump. period.

I never said it wasn't a dump. I said the stadium portion is teeny tiny, and it is mostly aluminum bleachers. You said they were rotting wood, but that is only a small portion. Do you know if the money spent to move Little League to Lents Park last year went toward the aluminum bleachers? I know the Little League thing was a big deal for Lents at the time.

Ah, I found a link from the PDC site: http://www.pdc.us/ura/lents_town_center/lents-ballpark.asp


New bleachers, accessible restrooms and an accessible ramp and upgrades to the field lighting, concession area and press box at Walker Stadium;

[bright]

http://www.katu.com/news/local/47065817.html


Those against building a ballpark for the Portland Beavers in Lents Park may be disappointed to find out that the park's deed will not help them derail the idea.



While the city attorney studies the legality of all this, Fish questions the value.

"This is a community resource open to everybody and if we put a stadium there, we're essentially walling off a use," said Fish. "We're privatizing a part of the park."

Fish is still behind the idea of sharing what the city already has - PGE Park.

"Why not try to accommodate both soccer and baseball for the next two years and see if it can work? We have the smartest architects and engineers in the country working in our community. I think they could figure out a way to accommodate both," he said.



Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman said he's on board with putting a stadium in Lents Park for the Portland Beavers but he has a long list of conditions - new fields for kids, tree preservation and more than a dozen other demands to make up for community impact. He also wants support from the Urban Renewal Advisory Committee in Lents, which could meet next week.

[j66j66]

Do you know if the money spent to move Little League to Lents Park last year went toward the aluminum bleachers? I know the Little League thing was a big deal for Lents at the time.

some of it may have, but i'm under the impression that it mostly improved some of the other fields in the park, as they're pointing out in some analyses of the plan that the improved little league fields remain untouched.

[bright]

I realize some of the Portland guys hate Jack Bogdanski. So please turn away as I post a link to a blog post he made today: http://bojack.org/2009/06/before_henry_merritt_and_charl.html

The reason I am linking to this post is because it touches on what Commissioner Nick Fish mentioned in the previous article from KATU I posted, namely the proposition of continuing to share PGE Park for both soccer and baseball. Peter Apanel has been the guy writing articles in The Oregonian about this idea, and he thinks all the PGE Park upgrades plus portable stands in the outfield would be the most cost-effective way to make everybody happy.

I'm not saying that this is going to happen. However, consider the following. Saltzman supports de-coupling the stadium deals. Leonard will vote against any plan that sends the Beavers out of town. Adams says that the Rose Quarter is off the table. If the Lents URAC votes against the Lents Park baseball stadium plan, then what options are left? I think Nick Fish has a point.

Sharing buys time, and if they end up doing it permanently then it would save money and keep the Beavers downtown where they are more viable. Would MLS bail at that point, or would they be open to new ideas? Does the worthiness of the Portland MLS bid really come down to a permanent eastside grandstand versus a portable eastside grandstand? Paulson owns both teams. PGE Park already has a 19,000-seat capacity which is a good size for an MLS stadium. The currently proposed PGE Park upgrades are primarily geared toward enlarging the existing concourse and adding more bathrooms.

[The Marquis]

The reason I am linking to this post is because it touches on what Commissioner Nick Fish mentioned in the previous article from KATU I posted, namely the proposition of continuing to share PGE Park for both soccer and baseball. Peter Apanel has been the guy writing articles in The Oregonian about this idea, and he thinks all the PGE Park upgrades plus portable stands in the outfield would be the most cost-effective way to make everybody happy.

I'm not saying that this is going to happen. However, consider the following. Saltzman supports de-coupling the stadium deals. Leonard will vote against any plan that sends the Beavers out of town. Adams says that the Rose Quarter is off the table. If the Lents URAC votes against the Lents Park baseball stadium plan, then what options are left? I think Nick Fish has a point.

Sharing buys time, and if they end up doing it permanently then it would save money and keep the Beavers downtown where they are more viable. Would MLS bail at that point, or would they be open to new ideas? Does the worthiness of the Portland MLS bid really come down to a permanent eastside grandstand versus a portable eastside grandstand? Paulson owns both teams. PGE Park already has a 19,000-seat capacity which is a good size for an MLS stadium. The currently proposed PGE Park upgrades are primarily geared toward enlarging the existing concourse and adding more bathrooms.

1. Don't link to that dipshit in this forum

2. MLS sent and SIGNED A LETTER saying that MLS and the Beavers could not share PGE Park at all. End of story. I've seen the letter. Why would this even be up for discussion?

[bright]

MLS sent and SIGNED A LETTER saying that MLS and the Beavers could not share PGE Park at all. End of story. I've seen the letter. Why would this even be up for discussion?

The letter: http://media.katu.com/documents/mls_letter.pdf

If the Lents URAC approves the Lents Park baseball stadium deal, then all is fine. If they reject it, then the sharing scenario could end up on the table. Personally, I don't think MLS would just outright reject Portland because they would share with the baseball team. If they can get PGE Park upgraded and looking good on TV for soccer, then what's the big deal? Paulson owns both teams, and I think that a viable Beavers is better for his bottom line, which is ultimately better for MLS, as well. The Beavers are going to be more viable downtown than in the suburbs. That's why the Rose Quarter site was so desirable. And maybe synergy with MLS will give them a little boost.

[The Marquis]

what? what? Seriously, read the letter... There simply is no sharing. period.

As I said during the March expansion announcement, the selection of Portland is contingent on the renovation of PGE Park and the relocation of the Beavers to another venue as outlined in the deal between the city of Portland and the Paulson family. Without the fulfillment of this plan, MLS can not expand to Portland