If this is old news, I appologize. But I spoke to Ryan Deckert today as we both frequent the Raleigh Hills Swimming Center. Per our illustrious and industrious Senator, folks in Salem are discussing revisiting the baseball bill to rewrite or amend the bill for PGE Park, and with the same funding mechanism. Per Deckert, 15--20 million for renovation, bonds issued by state, to be paid off by taxes from the employees and players on the MLS team.

Since I have no left brain skills, I'm still not sure exactly how this would work. Would the old bill be amended, rewritten, or would an entire new bill need to be proposed and voted on?

Not sure, but I thought it was interesting to hear him talk about it.

Sounds good to me--just hope they approve it fast, since time is of the essence in nabbing a MLS team...

They won't even be in session by October 15... or am I missing something?

Not that MLS hasn't gone on promises before (hello, Houston), but there will be two more substantial proposals than that one by the due date. The word is that St. Louis has the investor they've been missing, and Montreal's new stadium just needs a little expansion.

Of course, I'd love to be wrong on this one.

Wow. Potential issues:

1. Timing (as James points out)
2. Revenue projections (almost nil for AAA baseball; some, but not anything approaching MLB levels, for MLS)
3. At some point this becomes patently unfair to the Blazers;
4. The lobbying infrastructure needed to pull it off is not in place.

Oh, and a couple of other thoughts -

1. To the extent the city has already kicked in, what would be the incentive to do anything at the state level?

2. Has the state kicked in for any of the other minor league baseball stadiums across the state? If not then, again, why should they do it for PDX?

Interesting thought but I have serious doubts at this point.

1) I don't know.
2) I don't know.
3) I don't think Paul is worried.
4) At least Len Hannon is retired.
5) I believe Deckert was referring to the renovation of PGE for MLS, not for funding a minor league team in Lents or anywhere else.

Again, it was casual conversation. Didn't feel it was appropriate to push the issue (or issues). I thought it was polite of him to chat though. Seems like an authentically decent guy and honorable politician.

MLS salaries are tiny compared to MLB (I heard someone say $80k-$100k), so once you factor in tax writeoffs, I can't see this generating more than a few million over 10-15 years.

I do think The Blazers would be concerned. They built their own stadium with virtually zero public contribution, and then they recently poured millions more into refurbishing the stadium, again completely out of pocket. It seems unfair that other sports get to allocate payroll taxes into stadium construction/renovations, and the Blazers don't. I think it's an equity issue.

What would be great is if they could tap into Oregon Lottery dollars, but given their presumed timetable, that ain't happening.

True enough. And regarding the lottery, when that was sold to the public in the mid 1980's, we were told it was for economic development in Oregon. But some of what the money has gone to is ridiculous. (alpaca farms in Easter Oregon?)

If the government can subsidize alpaca farms, they can subsidize the renovation of a sports facility, which after all, the city only had to pay one dollar for in 1966. (or so goes the rumor)

quote:

Originally posted by The Cactus Leaguer:
2. Has the state kicked in for any of the other minor league baseball stadiums across the state? If not then, again, why should they do it for PDX?

They are not doing this for a minor league stadium. They are doing it for a major league (Soccer) stadium.

Well yes, directly, it would have to be for the MLS stadium (especially considering the minor league salaries). I misspoke, my bad. But there would still be concern across the state about pumping in $$$ for Portland stadiums and nothing else.

Personally I think it's a moot point anyway, considering the tight deadline and the low revenue potential.

I think the funding will be local only. No one has seen MP in Salem, right?

As CL said, timing is to tight. It would take a year to get SB5 re-voted on.

The public did help with the Rose Quarter (the parking structure was about $50 million). Vulcan didn't put any money into the Rose Garden in the years that Paul Allen didn't own the Arena. I think it was Global Spectrum(?) that paid for the improvements.


BB

quote:

Originally posted by Big Boomer:
The public did help with the Rose Quarter (the parking structure was about $50 million). Vulcan didn't put any money into the Rose Garden in the years that Paul Allen didn't own the Arena. I think it was Global Spectrum(?) that paid for the improvements.

BB

That # sounds a bit high for the parking structure, but regardless, the city also keeps the $$$ from parking there, whereas with the Lents plan, everyone keeps saying that Paulson would keep the $$$. Nobody can tell me how they plan to build a AAA ballpark and a 1,500 space parking structure for $35m in Lents, and oh yeah Paulson gets the parking revenue.

re: Global Spectrum, yes but Paul Allen (through Vulcan) paid Global Spectrum to manage the building. Uncle Paul paid for the building, and what little the city kicked in upfront, they are getting parking $$$ to offset (correct me if I'm wrong on this). It was a sweet deal for the city, one that will likely never happen again unless all public funding models for stadia collapse.