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Marlins to test Portland waters
Team President David Samson and two others exploring relocation options will be in town on Monday
By JOHN HUNT
The Oregonian
Saturday, January 07, 2006

Next stop: Portland.

The Florida Marlins, exploring relocation while trying to secure a stadium in South Florida, will visit Portland on Monday on their "tour" of cities interested in a major league baseball franchise.

At the invitation of the Oregon Sports Authority, team President David Samson and two other members of the Marlins' front office will meet with Mayor Tom Potter, baseball proponents, other city officials and perhaps Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Though the one-day visit will be very preliminary and the Marlins' goal still is to get a stadium deal in or near Miami, it is a sign of baseball progress for Portland after failing in its bid to land the Montreal Expos two years ago.

Samson, the son-in-law of team owner Jeffrey Loria, will be joined by the Marlins' vice chairman, Joel Mael, and their senior vice president of stadium development, Claude Delorme.

"It's clear that the Marlins are going to be well-represented by the delegation they are sending here," said Drew Mahalic, chief executive officer of the Oregon Sports Authority.

It's the same group that visited San Antonio a month ago, the team's first relocation visit since receiving permission from Major League Baseball on Nov. 22 to explore options in other cities. Other visits are expected, but team officials would not comment on where or when. The contingent will not swing by Las Vegas on the way back to Miami.

Repeated failures to secure public financing in Miami prompted a fire sale by the Marlins this offseason. In payroll-slashing moves, the team has traded pitchers Josh Beckett and Guillermo Mota, infielders Carlos Delgado, Mike Lowell and Luis Castillo and catcher Paul Lo Duca. The only holdovers from the 2003 World Series championship team are its two young stars, pitcher Dontrelle Willis and third baseman Miguel Cabrera.

Upon hearing of Florida's relocation interest a month ago, baseball proponents in Portland sent the team a copy of the presentation they made to Major League Baseball during the Expos' relocation process.

Outlined in those materials is a finance plan that has a much greater gap than the Marlins face in Florida but one that proponents hope will serve as a starting point for serious negotiations down the road, with the Marlins, the Oakland Athletics or some other franchise.

The Marlins, once reported to be $30 million from securing the necessary financing for a stadium, now have a gap near $100 million, according to Miami city manager Joe Arriola. The current lease expires in 2007.

Meanwhile, stadium efforts in Oakland, Calif., are just as dire, only less public. Owner Lewis Wolff scrapped plans last month for a "baseball village" in an area next to McAfee Coliseum. Even in Washington, where the former Expos franchise had a successful first season, stadium efforts have hit so many snags that MLB President Bob DuPuy this week filed for arbitration over a standoff with D.C. officials.

Portland, in competition for a major league franchise with Las Vegas, San Antonio and others, has in its favor a state financing mechanism and a usable interim ballpark.

In 2003, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill that would secure as much as $150 million in income taxes from baseball teams to go to stadium construction. PGE Park, home of the Triple A Portland Beavers, has 38 suites and a seating capacity of 19,566 that could be increased to around 25,000.

Although six sites for a permanent stadium technically are under consideration, two are clear front-runners: the Central Post Office in the Pearl District and the Blanchard Property near the Rose Quarter.

Samson, Mael and Delorme are expected at least to drive by those sites on their visit before their 4 p.m. meeting at City Hall.

Portland Baseball Group President Steve Kanter also will greet the contingent. Kulongoski, in Portland for the Economic Summit at the Oregon Convention Center, also is expected to meet informally with the Marlins officials.

"It's certainly significant, but I wouldn't want to overbill it," Kanter said. "Hopefully, it will form the basis for work down the road."

Potter's stance remains the same: no public financing for stadiums.

"I look forward to meeting with Marlins officials and listening to their ideas about the future of major league baseball in Oregon," Potter said. "I certainly welcome having a team relocate to Portland, but I believe that is best accomplished by the private sector and not by taxpayers."

John Hunt: 503-294-7643; johnhunt@news.oregonian.com

quote:

Outlined in those materials is a finance plan that has a much greater gap than the Marlins face in Florida

WHAT!?!?!

Miami has a stadium funding gap well in excess of $200 million, of which the team was willing to cover most, but not all of it.

The plan that Portland sent to the Marlins contains a funding gap of approximately $50 million (or $100 million if you remove the stadium district taxes, but that's still less than what the Marlins pledged towards a new stadium in Miami).

The paper here never takes into acount the financing agreement the city, business leaders and David Kahn etc. came up with in conjunction with the state money, sometimes I think some individual writers are not even aware of it. Side note Sampson is Loria's long time step son since he was a boy not his son in-law, not very detail oriented

That statement about our financial plan has a wider gap than the current South Florida plan jumped out at me also as a major error to this persons article. No one at that paper seems to back check the data that they use unless its a large investigative report. This is common in American newspapers for the last twenty five years though. (News departments have been cut, cut, cut, since then).

The point about Mr. David Samsons' relationship to the owner of the Marlins should show the Marlins that our largest newspaper needs to be informed on their situation.

Every one in the groups supporting MLB to Portland have alot of background data generation to do for local radio station, newspapers, and TV Stations. We are behind on this.

Next week, there will be nothing but dis-information and mistaken assumptions being repeated over and over (thing Big Lie process). Getting in front of this is what we have been worried about on the site for the last two plus years.

News departments will be repeating the same lines since they cannot or will not investigate the issue themselves. This is the American news process since the 1980s. We are about to be shouted down, because we haven't gotten the story out there. This article and its mistakes and dis-information are prime examples.

Letter to the editors are required now!!!

One thing about this visit: no team executives that I'm aware of have visited our city on official business. This is historic in a way. This point needs to be stated and re-stated. During the Expo Derby, it was lower level MLB executives who visited Portland maybe once.

This is much more serious, even though its only one visit and is very early. It could lead to nothing happening with the Marlins. But, for Portland and for Oregon, it shows that we are growing up in our own special way (the creative class, sustainability, mavericks, and speciality items like beers, coffees, and foods).

Its time to go to work folks!!!



BB

quote:

Potter's stance remains the same: no public financing for stadiums.

This may be a series of dumb questions, but here goes.

A) Does Tom Potter consider the completed financing plan to contain public financing? (Meaning specifically the player's income tax dollars.) Or is he talking more about something like no sales taxes to fund a stadium.

B) Does it matter? If the Marlins said tomorrow: We're in, we like the funding plan, we'll move to Portland in 2 years. Could Potter single handedly stop the plan from going through?

My opinion is this:

The income tax bill (formerly SB5?) passed by the State can't be part of Mayor Potters' "no taxpayer funds" statement. The State of Oregon is responsible for those funds and their uses.

Yes, Mayor Potter could stop our city becoming a "two team city" just by not allowing the city to spend any money for planning for the site chosen. He has regulatory and planning authority I believe. When Mayor Potter became mayor he took on all department responsibilities (unheard of), and I'm not sure if the departments have been given to the other commissioners yet. One sign that Portland is interested in MLB will be designation of one commissioner to bringing MLB to Portland. This person could be the Mayor himself. That conversation between the city council members is the one I would love to be in on.

BB

Cake,

Also, strictly speaking, its Property Taxes that the Mayor really is talking about. Property taxes are Oregons funding mechanism for schools, police, and fire (plus other public duties like libraries).

Regional property taxes used for paying off the bonds for a new stadium will be deal killer, in my opinion. This is not the way OSC and others are couching the local approach for funding.

If Joe and Jane Public understand that the stadium will be self supported by the local businesses within a entertainment district and the patrons of the stadium, then maybe we have a chance. And if the Marlins (other team owner) can work into redevelopment opportunities within ear shot of the stadium then local debt can be reduced more and overruns (costs above stadium cost estimate) can be the responsibility of the team since the risk is offset by the redevelopment opportunities.

Some people think in terms of zero sum gain and I win and you lose. But in some cases, you can create I win and you wind arrangements.

We might have the latter here because Portland is primed for a true sports/entertainment district with land available for the stadia and purchases of nearby land a good possibility.

BB