Seems Portland is in the running to get the Expos. MLB ArticleWould getting the Expos, make it eaiser for Portland to get a MLS team? I think it would. First the Portland Beavers would have to leave because you don't need a minor league baseball team when there is a MLB team in town. Also, the article makes it clear that a new stadium would have to be built for the city to get the Expos. That leaves PGE Park, a 19,566 seat stadium, to the Portland Timbers and soccer. It's a wonderful stadium already with a roof, but add stands to the other goal end and a stadium club, then on the third base side where there are no stands you could add luxury boxes and a new press box. It would look like a smaller version of Baca Juniors' La Bombonera. It would be the best looking Soccer Stadium in the US. Here are some pictures of PGE Park Fraiser's Picturesortland Timbers vs. El Paso Patriots Of Course, this is assuming that the Baseball team dosen't renovate the stadium and add stands on the thrid base side and in outfield. It would be cheaper for them to do that, but the article makes it seem that MLB wants them to build a new place for the Expos.
Across the street from PGE Park is Lincoln High School featuring a small stadium with running track. Could possibly made into a Lauderdale type stadium if PGE converted to baseball only, but I doubt if MLB is coming to Portland anyway. The game is fiscally crazy and very few owners can make a dime nowadays. Prospective ownership doesn't look likely right now.
The proponents of baseball in Portland have not identified potential ownership. They hint that there are people in the background, they've got someone leading "prospective" ownership, but all the available evidence suggests that they are counting on funding assurance for a stadium to actually attract ownership money. Oregon rejected Measure 28 on Tuesday, which was going to be an emergency tax increase to cover a current funding crisis. The bill for stadium funding at the state is structured not to raise taxes for the population, but to isolate income taxes that would be paid by ballplayers and administrative personnel (who otherwise wouldn't exist in Oregon) to pay off an initial bond offering. MLB wants full presentations of financing plans in 6-8 weeks. That deadline might be reachable, but with the crisis in place, it's not politically feasible to reach. I'd say there's a problem. Let's also try out a farther-fetched scenario. The Pacific Coast League is threatening to yank the AAA Beavers franchise if the current situation with the abandoned Portland Family Entertainment is not resolved. The city wants to have possession of the Beavers if the Expos come to Portland, because the Expos would have to buy out the territory from the Beavers. If the city doesn't think they're in the running, it's no good to have the Beavers for an unknown period of time. What if the Beavers are yanked? Does someone else run it (and the Timbers) in Portland? Does PGE Park go silent? Do the Timbers, not being yanked, become the sole source of entertainment this summer? Does MLS salivate at that possibility? A dream, it is, but who knows?
If, and this is a BIG if, Portland lands a MLB team then the plan is for the Expos to play in PGE Park in 2004 while a new baseball only stadium is built. There is no talk of changing PGE Park into a major league facility because it couldn't be done. The city already spent $30 million to renovate it for the minor league Beavers and the Timbers. In the process it signed a terrible agreement with the current owners PFE which in the process is being forced to sell both teams because it owes its creditors more than $500,000. Confusing isn't it? The fact is that there is NO talk of bringing MLS to Portland at this time other than from a few die hard Timbers fans. To complicate matters, Portland State University plays its pointyball games at PGE Park so converting it to a soccer only facility would be tough. I agree that it could easily be made into one of the best facilities in the country but at the moment that seems highly unlikely given the political mess and dire economic situation in Oregon.
Other longshot scenarios Maybe a large prep football stadium could be expanded to meet MLS's rapidly declining standards. Or you might look across the state line for help. Vancouver is planning a $62M hotel and convention center under a state law that allows refunds of the sales tax (and other taxes?) to finance construction of regional facilities. Money being applied from the taxes (including a 2% hotel-motel tax) totals about $1.8 million annually. However, until last summer the project was to include a 6,500-seat hockey arena. If they're that fickle, maybe the Vancouver people could be persuaded to instead build a soccer stadium? Or perhaps better yet, build a minor-league ballpark to get the Beavers out of PGE Park, assuming the Expos don't come? Construction would have to start by the end of the year to get the refunds, so the process would have to be completed in a hurry. And the Vancouver PFD doesn't appear too competent. Incidentally, to whom is the PGE Park agreement "terrible"? The investors are getting whacked, but isn't the city protected from the financial carnage?
The investors are paying more rent for PGE Park (more dates, granted) than many MLS teams are paying for the big stadia. I personally think that the MLS to Portland impetus begins if Seattle gets annointed. The bigger crowds the Timbers get when Seattle appears is too obvious to miss. PSU pointyball... they're killing the AD budget at PSU. They are not able to get unstuck from about 7K fanbase, 5K core at best. I won't say this is a near-term issue, but 5-10 years from now, there will be serious consideration of taking down that program. There's just no return on the money that's not there to be invested, and the costs are just overwhelming enough. Well, Geoduck, I do dream of the 20K stadium with the floating field- which becomes the amphitheater location some bigwigs in town are looking for. Again, it's good to dream.
It seems Portland pops up daily as a possible MLS city. This always puzzles me. Does the MLS folks know something that we don't? I don't see that happening any time soon and why such rumors are so common. Seattle has always struck me as a better possibility than Portland; more billionaires, stadium possibilities, etc. I'd be shocked to see MLS come to Portland. It just doesn't have the potential as yet IMO.
Portland's been in the discussion ever since the day the WCQ tickets went on sale in '97... and sold out in 5 hours. It's hard to pass up those kinds of opportunities. Portland does fall short on the investor side, and the city and state have a history of chasing money away. That'll be the problem. Phil Knight doesn't do much to invest in teams, Paul Allen's baby is the Trailblazers (ask the WNBA Fire fans about that), and that leaves a smattering of outdoor clothiers and car salesmen and minor media moguls who are also focused elsewhere. Baseball is even a tough sell for these folks, though the car salesman I have in mind has been looking at the NFL.
So is the working assumption that because the investors are paying so much to operate the stadium, they'll charge a fortune for others to rent it? I have doubts about that. If the investors are as desperate as it sounds, they'll probably do anything for a buck now. Isn't the stadium already good enough for MLS at this time (barring maybe a turf replacement)? I think PGE Park is a better candidate than any of the Seattle stadiums. Also, Seattle has fewer billionaires than it did a few years ago, and for that matter, hardly anyone else around the country is stepping up. There was local interest from undisclosed buyers in 2000, but they dropped out. Who was the potential MLS investor in Portland? Incidentally, I got an e-mail from the engineer behind the dome concept in Spokane. He's been in contact with European soccer people, but it didn't sound like he'd talked to anyone in MLS. He also proposed a 50 million dollar basketball facility in Memphis two years ago, but they said they had to show their love for the Grizzlies by spending 200 million dollars. Simply appalling. I didn't ask about the retractable field, though. (BTW, I read that an 18,000-seat amphitheater is under construction at the Clark County Fairgrounds. So why would anyone in Portland still be dreaming about another one?)