Read the entire article here on the Oregonian website.

A sale that never goes out of season
It's one year later, and the city and the Pacific Coast League still are negotiating the ownership of the Portland Beavers
By JOHN HUNT
The Oregonian
Monday, March 21, 2005

When the Portland City Council voted earlier this month for a one-year extension to lease PGE Park for the Portland Beavers, former Beavers general manager Mark Schuster knew what that meant.

"We will be discussing this one year from today," he said.

"This" is the saga of the Beavers, a Triple A baseball franchise that has been owned collectively by the Pacific Coast League since the PCL rescinded the franchise from Portland Family Entertainment two hours before the team's 2004 home opener.

For the past year, the team has been run by Sacramento River Cats owner Art Savage, who also is trying to broker the sale of the team to a group of unidentified investors assembled under his direction. Savage remains owner of the River Cats and, according to several sources, collects a salary of $450,000 from the league to manage the Beavers.

Minor league baseball prohibits one group from owning two franchises in the same league, but Savage and PCL President Branch Rickey are circumventing that rule with their arrangement, which has raised eyebrows around the PCL and at Portland's City Hall -- especially because Rickey has turned away other prospective owners.

Meanwhile, instead of the Beavers having a long-term lease at PGE Park and Portland enjoying a new lease on its baseball life, the city finds itself in an entanglement that began when the City Council entered into the original agreement with PFE in 1999.

With hardly any marketing, the Beavers continue to draw small crowds to cavernous PGE Park. In the minor leagues' largest market, the Beavers ranked 24th out of 30 Triple A teams in average attendance (4,404) in 2004.

"It's a joke, it's embarrassing," said Lynn Lashbrook, the founder of the Oregon Baseball Campaign, which fought to overcome the PGE Park stigma in its efforts to lure major league baseball to the city. "We're back to dealing with a mysterious ownership group. Here we are back to secrecy with the Beavers."

City Commissioner Sam Adams delayed a vote on the lease extension on Feb. 23, saying he wanted to make sure Rickey and the PCL weren't "attempting to deal with their friends" and that the contract had been open to all bidders.

George King, the PCL's director of business operations, when pressed by Adams to agree to listen to other bids, gave the commissioner a "qualified yes." The extension was approved, clearing the way for the Beavers and the Portland Timbers soccer team to play in the stadium in 2005.

Adams, who stressed there is "a lot more work to be done," was asked if he was satisfied that the team isn't locked into a backroom deal.

"I'm satisfied to the degree that I was willing to vote for an extension. I know baseball is a federally approved monopoly, but we need to find out some things," said Adams, referring to baseball's antitrust exemption.

This much is known about Savage's group: It includes Jack Cain, who has sweat equity in the team as the leading figure in Portland's minor league baseball scene.

"If I were 10 years younger, I'd probably pour a whole bunch of my money into it, but I'm not," Cain said.

It also includes several investors put together by Savage and Greg Torborg, a New York lawyer and son of former major league player Jeff Torborg.

The franchise was circulated to investors when Rickey and the PCL took it over from PFE nearly a year ago, and the league president admitted he has not had conversations with other prospective owners.

"The reality is that there has been essentially (no conversations) since we started getting advance monies put into the club to stabilize the operation," Rickey said. "It would have been completely unfair to the investors. That group was willing to put its money where its mouth was. It was only after that investment group started showing signs this could be stabilized that other groups came forward."

At least three potential buyers -- Bobby Brett, brother of Hall of Famer George Brett and owner of a group of sports teams that includes a minor league club in Spokane; Hilary Buzas-Drammis, owner of the PCL's Salt Lake Stingers and daughter of the late former Beavers owner Joe Buzas; and the Goldklang Group -- still are willing to buy the team.

"I told (Rickey) a number of times that if his owner falls through, to give me a call," said Brett, who bought the Class A Northwest League's Tri-City Dust Devils last year in a deal that included payments to PFE and to creditor TIAA-CREF -- much as this deal would entail. Brett has not heard back from Rickey.

Earlier this year, Buzas-Drammis agreed to sell the Stingers to Larry H. Miller, owner of the NBA's Utah Jazz, and publicly stated her desire to buy the Beavers. Rickey and the PCL have yet to approve the Stingers sale.

Mike Veeck of the Goldklang Group, a minor league baseball investment and construction partnership, twice tried to buy the Beavers and was thwarted each time.

Once King, the PCL business operations director, told city commissioners that the sale of the team was indeed open, the city began talking with other prospective owners.

"If we get inquiries, we're responding to inquiries," said city spectator facilities manager David Logsdon. "After the hearing where Commissioner Adams asked the league to allow the city to talk to other parties, we're willing to talk to other parties. To say we're negotiating with other parties, I think, is to mischaracterize it."

Whoever the new owner, the city wants to enter into a six-year lease agreement in which the city would be paid $500,000 in rent each year, plus a portion of the naming rights payment and a 6 percent ticket tax. The city also is owed $133,000 in past rent.

"We feel we're being treated very fairly by the city, but we both want to get into a position of more permanency," Rickey said.

But despite King's qualified assurance, Rickey maintained that the ownership group is set.

"I don't know if the PCL per se is in position to tell the city that it can't negotiate with someone, but the franchise that is under the control of the PCL has been in the hands of one particular party to solve this thing," Rickey said.

If it sounds as though the PCL and the city are not seeing eye to eye, then -- well, it is easy to see why Schuster is skeptical.

"The people who have all the leverage, and don't know it, is the city," Schuster said.

There has yet to be a showdown between Portland and the PCL -- at least not since last year when the city rescinded the operation agreement and former Mayor Vera Katz threatened to lock the gates at PGE Park and not let the team in.

The league, backed by its board of directors and the investors, has made good on all payments to the city since rescinding the franchise. On the field, the Beavers had an excellent season in 2004, going 84-60 and winning the PCL's Northern Division.

The parent club, the San Diego Padres, have extended their player development contract with the club through 2006.

Two players who starred for the Beavers, Pittsburgh outfielder Jason Bay and San Diego shortstop Khalil Greene, finished one-two in National League rookie of the year voting in 2004.

Still, the news last year was made off the field, as the Beavers joined the major leagues' Montreal Expos, who since have moved to Washington, as baseball franchises without an owner.

Asked to characterize the sentiment of the other PCL owners toward the Beavers, Rickey said patience is wearing thin.

"There's a great feeling of being worn out," he said. "There's no appetite for anything but trying to bring this to a conclusion, to put it into the right hands and to have it operated in a very successful manner."

Savage did not return multiple phone calls. According to council testimony from Hal Saltzman, uncle of City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, Savage also would pocket half of the selling price, which is believed to be around $6 million.

But Rickey said the arrangement with Savage has the approval of minor league baseball President Mike Moore.

"We've had dialogue with minor league baseball to see if we could use the expertise of another club in our league to help kick-start a new ownership group in a positive direction," Rickey said.

But why hide the ownership group's identity?

"(They) don't want to be identified in the event that things wouldn't come to fruition and they would then have attached to them that they were part of a group that didn't finalize this thing, as has happened on previous occasions," Rickey said.

But Rickey conceded that to win over Adams, he eventually will have to disclose the identities. "It certainly is our presumption that that needs to happen," he said. "And we're getting closer and closer to that."

For now, the city and the PCL remain on speaking, if not entirely cordial, terms.

"We're not rattling any saber," Rickey said. "It was the city that rescinded the operating agreement. You had a team with no place to play. The PCL could have said, 'I'll take my toys and go home.' We didn't.

"We said, 'OK, we'll rescind the franchise and we'll establish a franchise and we'll work with you.' That's what we've done from then to now."

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

I suggested awhile back in another thread that Portland may end up losing all of its professional franchises within the next 5 years. Maury suggested that the Beavers were as sound as a pound and not at risk of going anywhere. I think this article highlights the fact that what we have with the Beavers is a one year deal and alot of unanswered questions. I wouldn't put my life savings on them being around when that year is up.

quote:

Originally posted by marc636:
Portland may end up losing all of its professional franchises

Portland has a pro franchise?

They have an underachieving basketball team full of thugs and gangsters.

they will be the only pro team left in Portland in five years.