Willamette Week

June 30, 1999

by Nigel Jaquiss and Bob Young

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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.

Read this article on the Willamette Week website.


[This message was edited by Dodger Matt on January 04, 2001 at 04:36 PM.]