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Portland's prospects fading for MLB team
The Minnesota Twins, Oakland A's and Florida Marlins are either looking to stay put or relocate elsewhere
By JOHN HUNT
The Oregonian
Sunday, April 16, 2006

Portland, one of the largest U.S. markets without major league baseball, can only watch as potential relocation candidates move closer to staying put.

The Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics made significant strides last week toward new stadiums and more stable financial footing, and the Florida Marlins insisted that San Antonio is a viable new home.

Meanwhile in Portland, words from Mayor Tom Potter continue to shackle efforts to lure a major league team, and issues of stadium financing and siting are even further from clarity.

The Twins, in the nation's No. 15 media market but with an uncertain future that nearly resulted in contraction four years ago, got good news Tuesday on a proposed stadium in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis. The Twins and Hennepin County tentatively agreed to share the increased costs of the stadium, with the Twins covering roughly one-fourth of the stadium's $522 million project cost.

Minnesota's efforts are basically opposite of those in Portland: Minnesota has a team, Portland wants one. Minnesota has deadline pressure -- the Twins are no longer obligated to play in the Metrodome after this season -- Portland has more pressing issues. Minnesota has urban taxpayers on the hook by way of a Hennepin County sales tax; Portland never made much progress on the local revenue component after getting the rest of the state to pony up an estimated $150 million in income taxes captured from team members.

The Twins had been on Portland's radar as one of the teams that might seek relocation, although their market size and baseball history kept them from being a realistic candidate.

The Athletics, however, were seen as perhaps the most likely team to come to Portland, given their difficult stadium situation in Alameda County and their American League West Division home that would make realignment unnecessary. During the Montreal Expos' relocation, many observers saw that team moving to Washington, leaving Portland and Las Vegas to fight over the A's.

But in Oakland, managing partner Lew Wolff could be acquiring leverage within his own market.

Wolff said the team is nearing an agreement to build his "ballpark village" in Fremont, which is about halfway between Oakland and San Jose. There, Wolff found available land and political will that he could not find in Oakland.

But speculation persists that the A's, like the Marlins, are using one area to put pressure on another -- without going on a Marlins-style relocation tour -- in hopes of landing a deal in Oakland or even San Jose.

"It will be interesting to see if they can pull that off," said Drew Mahalic, CEO of the Oregon Sports Authority, which is leading the effort to attract a team to Portland. "If they can, then Lew Wolff has been very clever."

And speaking of the Marlins, interest in that team seems to be cooling in San Antonio. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, called a meeting with Marlins president David Samson and owner Jeffrey Loria "fun," and said, "I don't know what will come of it."

Loria quickly responded by calling San Antonio a "very viable" market and a "very serious" option.

Major League Baseball is analyzing the viability of San Antonio, the 37th-largest media market in the nation, which is prepared to extend its hotel and car rental tax to help finance a stadium.

San Antonio would be the smallest media market of any major league city. Five major league markets -- Baltimore, San Diego, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Cincinnati -- fall between Portland (No. 23) and San Antonio in market size.

Sacramento (19) and Orlando, Fla. (20) are the only markets larger than Portland without a major league team.

But MLB is insistent that the Marlins find a local solution to their problems. Discussions for a retractable roof stadium are ongoing but apparently not productive in Miami-Dade County (the 17th-largest media market) and Hialeah, Fla.

The Marlins are still talking with Portland officials, but unlike in San Antonio or Las Vegas, elected officials are uninterested. Baseball proponents in Portland, stung by Potter's comments that "publicly financed baseball will not be coming on my watch" and knowing there will be no green light from City Hall, still are hoping for a yellow one.

"There's not a whole lot to report," Mahalic said. "We certainly are monitoring what's going on in other cities, but we're certainly not alarmed in terms of other cities. We still feel that Portland is ultimately the best option for any team like the Marlins that wants to consider moving.

"We do believe that, but we're not ready to put any teeth into that yet. Hopefully, at the right time we will."

With no updated financing proposals and the available list of relocation candidates apparently shrinking, the not-in-my-backyard sentiment in Portland remains strong.

The favored site of baseball proponents is the U.S. Post Office site in the Pearl District, but the father of the Pearl, Al Solheim, said opposition to a stadium in that area would be fierce.

"There would be great upset," said Solheim, who favors a source of more permanent jobs and cultural benefits to replace the Post Office, should it move to the airport.

Patricia Gardner, who drafted a Good Neighbor Agreement that helped allow the renovation of PGE Park, said the heavily residential Pearl District needs higher-paying jobs than those that would be generated by a baseball stadium.

"If a stadium goes there, we're just losing a really huge opportunity for the city," Gardner said.

Lynn Lashbrook, who was part of the grassroots effort to attract major league baseball to Portland in the 1990s and is now a business owner in the Pearl, says the best solution would be a "Diamond District" on the Eastside. Lashbrook and Gardner favor the Memorial Coliseum site.

The stadium, of course, is the cart, and a major league team is the horse. And in Portland last week, the cart slipped backward.

John Hunt: 503-294-7643; johnhunt@news.oregonian.com
To read his Behind the Baseball Beat blog, go to www.oregonlive.com/baseball/weblog/

Jobs, schools, jobs, stadium would hurt, not on my watch for taxes, jobs again, blah, blah, blah.

Ignorance, really. I'm surprised that the Portland citizens haven't been talking much about this.

With the special legislative session for school funding this month that will take one thing off Potters plate with school funding at least temporarily solved and I suspect the Blazers will be sold in the next few months taking two things off his plate, with those issues gone I suspect Mahalic may be able to convince Potter to give that Yellow light he spoke of, again Potter has not said no to ballpark generated revenue financing just general taxes. As I see it we are still in better shape than 2001 when Hannon just sunk our ship in the legislature and we had zero state financing and no plan for city financing. Things are not in great shape right now but I have seen worse and as far as the Twins and A's plans lets wait till they actually happen before we panic, ok. How many plans have failed before for thse two teams?

Panic is underrated. I suggest we panic immediately.

Panic or not panic really is not what it is all about. The idea of bring MLB2PDX is really out of our control, so it seems fitting to state our beliefs and opinions. For me the best way is to read through everything out there and come up with what I believe is a a good business guess. Should we panic, of course not because PDX has never really been a contender for MLB (the NHL, yes). So panic or not, lets just keep good diary's and perhaps 10 years from now when just maybe MLB sees us a viable then we can get out our lessons learned and make a true, bonafied offer.

One thing lurking behind all of our frustrations here is the fact that nobody has quite figured out how this new era of government at city hall works. The election of Potter over Francesconi was supposed to signal the end of the supposed backroom deals that took place over the past several decades in Portland (think PGE Park remodel). But nobody has figured out how to deal with this new "open" (supposedly) government.

Many of the hot button issues were carryover from past administrations, and those that weren't (voted financed elections, conflict of interest with Potter handling the Foxworth investigation, etc.) have been horribly mismanaged.

Who knows, we might see a return of the progressive semicronyism that helped make Portland what is today, and that might not be such a bad thing if it means we get some good things done (like MLB2PDX!).

So far, Mayor Potter has seemed to waffle on decisions more than make them. With the exception of his willingness to even listen about MLB prospects.

I think he suffers from "last pick in dodgeball syndrome".

I've been out of the loop for quite awhile, but I still think about this from time to time.

It looks like Mayor Potter may be coming around on the issue which is good.

The political enviroment hasn't gotten any better in terms of bring MLB to Portland though.

I realize this is a bit off topic, but it would be interesting to hear what some of the other Gubernatorial Candidates think of MLB coming to Portland.