Feature News


03/29/2002 10:16 pm ET
Portland has Major League dreams
By Jim Street / MLB.com






PORTLAND, Ore. - A dream that started here five years ago is gradually gaining momentum in the Rose City as Major League Baseball wrestles with a number of issues, including contraction and relocation. If Major League Baseball decides to relocate any existing franchises, Portland is ready to roll out a welcome mat.
A big step may have been taken Friday afternoon when the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres played an exhibition game at jam-packed PGE Park -- home of the Portland Beavers, San Diego's Triple-A affiliate. Phil Nevin's two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning off Mariners' minor league right-hander Clint Nageotte stood up in the Padres' 3-1 victory.

The minor league stadium with high concrete walls, and an even higher building directly behind the right field fence, has a 19,000-seat capacity. Tickets for the game sold out in about 15 minutes and the 19,778 who attended the game Friday set a single-game record for the refurbished facility.




On this day, Portland was Major League.

But becoming big league every day is still a dream.

"We have nine months to find local investors and put together a financing plan for a new stadium," said Lynn Lashbrook, president of the Portland Baseball Group. "We are light years ahead of where we were even a year ago, and believe we can help Major League Baseball."

He said PGE Park could be enlarged to about 25,000, providing a workable stadium until a new open-air facility becomes ready, which would take roughly three years if Portland were to ever land a franchise.

With 2.2 million people in a five-county area, Portland is the largest city in the United States with only one major sports team - the NBA Trail Blazers. It also is the 22nd-largest television market in the country, and according to Lashbrook, has a higher TV rating for MLB games than eight existing franchises.

"We think Portland could be an incredible baseball town," said Lashbrook, who is hopeful that the owners will decide to relocate, rather than contract, current franchises. Only then will Portland have much of a chance of joining MLB.

As recently as the owners' meeting in Phoenix in January, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said relocation was in the forecast, and named Washington D.C. as the prime relocation target. Exactly where Portland rates is uncertain.

Corey Busch, hired by MLB two years ago to evaluate potential relocation sites, wouldn't comment Friday on the plusses or negatives of Portland, where he visited in September, 2000.

But Selig was asked during a Spring Training stop in Peoria, Ariz., about Portland's status as a potential relocation site. "To be very candid, I have enough other problems to solve before that," he said. "So we'll put that aside for a little while, OK?"

Even without an endorsement from the Commissioner, Lashbrook and Portland are moving forward in trying to put the city on the map of the Major Leagues. "This exhibition game is a new launch," Lashbrook said..

Portland's day in the MLB sun couldn't have gone much better. The weather was pleasant and dry. Fans sat in seats and stood on a stairwell near the Fred Meyer Family Deck in left field. There was one row of bench seats extending from the left field foul line to an area behind the center field wall completely filled. Behind those with seats were people standing behind a fence, getting a good view of the playing field.

But there is some question as to whether Friday's scene would be repeated on a regular basis.

Although the NBA Trail Blazers have been a financial success for decades, the jury is still out on whether Portland would support another professional franchise. The Pacific Coast League Portland Beavers have struggled at the gate -- averaging about 6,000 a game -- despite nearly $38 million in recent stadium renovations.

Another issue is the impact a MLB team in Portland would have on the Mariners, who have radio affiliates here and Vancouver, Wash., located across the Columbia River. It was recently announced that Fox Sports Net will televise 140 Mariners games into the greater Portland market this season.

"We've always positioned ourselves as the Northwest team, and obviously that includes that (Portland) marketplace," Randy Adamack, Mariners vice president of communications, told the Tacoma News-Tribune. "We think we've grown to the point now where we have all the fundamentals to be a healthy franchise in major league baseball. A question that always comes up is Portland the kind of market that could be a healthy Major League marketplace? We just don't know the answer to that question."

Many in Portland want to find out.