Civic Lesson
Major-league baseball in the Rose Quarter? Opening Day along the Willamette is not as far-fetched as it might seem.

Two independent sources, one of them a prominent public employee, tell WW that the city and Blazers owner Paul Allen are taking a hard look at whether a 42,000-seat outdoor stadium and concert venue would fit on the current footprint of the city-owned Memorial Coliseum.

Mayor Vera Katz says neither she nor her staff is currently speaking to Allen about replacing the coliseum with a new major-league ballpark. But she indicated that such talks could soon take place. "After we finish with Civic Stadium and the Convention Center, the next serious subject is the Rose Quarter," Katz says. "My hope is to have a discussion about the coliseum in the near future."

J. Issac, a top Allen aide, says Allen's representatives have discussed various uses for the coliseum with the city over the years, but he is not aware of any current talks about baseball, nor has the organization commissioned a stadium feasibility study. (The Blazers, however, also had long denied that they were angling for an NHL team. The Columbian sports writer Ken Vance reported Sunday that Allen's organization was in fact working to bring the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team to Portland.)

After a recent buying spree, Allen now owns the fourth-largest cable franchise in the country--as well as Portland's KXL radio. Other cable barons, notably Ted Turner, who built his TV empire around the Atlanta Braves, and Rupert Murdoch, who bought the Los Angeles Dodgers last year, have used baseball's 162-game schedule to fill their airwaves.

Last year, Allen failed in an expensive and bitterly contested effort to develop a local outdoor concert venue.

As for the city, bringing baseball to the Rose Quarter would solve a number of problems. First, the eastside location would eliminate the biggest barrier to bringing big-league baseball to Civic Stadium--opposition from westside neighbors. It would also enliven a moribund part of the city, boost the Convention Center, help justify south-north light rail, aid the coming glut of downtown hotels and, perhaps most importantly, provide a legacy for Katz, who has repeatedly announced her enthusiasm for major-league ball.

The sudden interest in the coliseum may account for the delay in making public the city's plans for Civic Stadium, as well as the city's decision three weeks ago to foot nearly the entire bill for that renovation. Katz says public disclosure of Civic's future is forthcoming.

Renovation of the stadium would probably proceed even if the big league came to the other side of town. A refurbished Civic Stadium would provide a first-class home for Portland State University football and satisfy the requirement of major-league soccer, which doesn't want to share stadiums with baseball teams.

--Nigel Jaquiss and Bob Young


This is an oldie...from June of 1999!