Sorry guys, I can't post the entire article because of copyright issues. Go buy this week's Portland Business Journal (dated 10/26/07) if you want the full story. Here are a few key tidbits:
quote:
The proposed PGE Park renovation could send its signature tenant into an entirely new facility.
Merritt Paulson, the owner of the Portland Beavers Triple-A baseball team and soccer's Portland Timbers, is mulling changes that could accommodate a Major League Soccer team but force the Beavers to find new digs.
The suggested renovations would convert the stadium into a soccer and football venue exclusively. Paulson said the moves could lead him to explore building a new Beavers stadium in Portland that would hold around 10,000 fans.
Translation: The goal is to make PGE Park into a soccer & football only facility, and move the Beavers out.
quote:
The Portland Baseball Group, which includes many prominent business leaders, believes the move could buoy its own drive to attract a big-league baseball team. Paulson said he'll seek a site that could hold a larger facility down the road.
"It would make the process of attracting Major League Baseball significantly easier," Paulson said.
Translation: A new baseball stadium for the Beavers would/should be upgradeable to accomodate MLB.
quote:
Before determining whether he could expand a smaller facility into a $500 million-plus Major League Baseball-quality stadium, Paulson would need to find at least $80 million to renovate PGE Park, purchase an MLS expansion team and build a new Beavers park.
While he's devised no financing possibilities, Paulson said he'll likely seek help from local government sources.
He could also draw on a 2003 state funding bill to offset some of the stadium's expansion costs. The bill would apply the state tax portions of players' and executives' salaries toward stadium construction bonds.
David Logsdon, the city's spectator facilities manager, said staffers will study both the proposed PGE Park renovation and new baseball stadium ideas by the end of the year.
From my understanding, SB5 funds could not be used for refurbishing PGE Park or for building a new AAA facility. I assume it could be used for expanding a AAA facility to accomodate MLB... but the larger point is that the revenue would come from MLB players and execs, not MLS or AAA.
I'm not sure what other local sources would be available for the $80 million needed for PGE/MLS/new AAA facility. I think hotel/car rental taxes should be considered, and perhaps some development rights could be sold, but I see nothing else that would be politically viable. Plus, I don't think you could remodel PGE and build an MLB-upgradeable AAA stadium for $50 million ($80m minus the $30m expansion fee for MLS).
quote:
The Marlins stadium lease expires in 2011, said Steve Kanter, president of the Portland Baseball Group. The group is also tracking whether the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, one of the majors' least successful teams attendance-wise, will remain in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla., area.
"There will be a team moving, and hopefully at that point, Portland will be able to persuade the world that we're ready," Kanter said.
...
Kanter said the prospects have his team ready to move quickly if, say, the Marlins come calling.
"We're quiet now because no one's moving immediately," he said. "But we remain convinced that someone will move. And I remain in close contact with the Marlins."
I have to be honest and say that it worries me that the president of the
Portland Baseball Group would say something like this. There are clearly
no teams moving, not in the next decade or so. The Marlins are wrapping up a deal at the Orange Bowl, and Huizenga is already on record as saying that he'll let the Marlins stay beyond 2010 if a new deal is in place. And the Rays lease extends out, what, another 20 years?
So to me, Kanter is either not paying attention (and he should be, since he is the president of the
Portland Baseball Group, right?), or he is being intentionally misleading... which, I guess, I understand in a way, since you want to give people hope in order to lay the foundation for MLB. But the reality is that no MLB team will relocate here (or anywhere else) for a generation. We are more likely to get a team via expansion to 32 teams but again the reality is that this looks to be at least 7-10 years away considering the current economics in MLB.
And I don't know who Kanter is in "close contact" with in the Marlins organization but right now its MLB running the stadium show in Miami, not Marlins ownership.
quote:
"It would be great if we could site it as a location that would make sense if we were to ultimately attract a Major League Baseball franchise," said Wally Van Valkenberg, a Stoel Rives LLP managing partner who headed the Oregon Stadium Campaign. "And I'd think Merritt would be interested in that as well because he might be in the franchise's ownership group."
Hear hear.
Timbers Army fans, take note --- in the picture accompanying the article, Paulson was sitting in front of a Timbers Army scarf... at least the guy knows where his bread is buttered.
