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Portland without pro sports: Welcome to Madison, Wis.

By Susan Nielsen
The Oregonian
Sunday, April 23, 2006

Two types of people live in Portland: those who wish the city were a little more like Boston or Seattle, and those who wish the city were a little more like Madison, Wis.

The Madison people are winning. This is a scary prospect for those of us who love big-league sports, as well as for everyone who'd prefer Portland not to fall off the national grid and land in the heap of lovely but forgettable towns.

Oregon sports fans should fight for their NBA franchise, no matter how dormant their love for the Trail Blazers may be. And Portlanders should fight for their city. This can't be the year Portland loses the Blazers, squanders its chances for a major league baseball team and generally announces to the world that it's not a player.

Can it?

Portland, at its best, is one part sports market and one part farmers market. It boasts some of the amenities of bigger cities such as Boston or Seattle, but with fewer headaches. It enjoys the charm and humanity of smaller cities such as Madison, but with more energy.

The Blazers and Nike define Portland at one extreme. Community food co-ops and adult kickball leagues define it at the other. These two extremes balance the city and help make it great.

But this year, Portland is falling off balance. The Blazers finished the season last week with the worst record in the NBA. Owner Paul Allen, the hapless Northwest billionaire who ran the team into the ground, wants to sell.

Portland's only big-time professional sports team is in danger of leaving town, going bankrupt or both.

Meanwhile, the city's prospects for major league baseball may be fading, as The Oregonian's John Hunt has reported. Mayor Tom Potter is a recumbent-bicycle guy, not a pro-sports enthusiast. Potter's friendly disengagement pairs with the City Council's general vibe that Portland has nobler pursuits than anything involving business people (yuck) or capitalism (euww).

Leaders in other cities fight for big-time sports franchises. They see hosting pro sports as part of creating a desirable place with an attractive economic profile. Many of Portland's leaders, and plenty of its citizens, don't.

So the Madison flag flies high. The Boston-Seattle crowd looks at the clock and wonders how far they need to move to get some action.

The Blazers' season is finished and the farmers markets are beginning to open. Portland has plenty to do in the summer without pro baseball games. It has gardening, for example. Neighborhood associations. Public libraries. Drumming circles on Mount Tabor.

But really.

Imagine Portland without a single, big-time pro team. Imagine living in a city without any hope of playoffs. Working stiffs couldn't lobby for free tickets from the boss. Bosses couldn't woo clients in the luxury boxes. Parents couldn't take their wide-eyed kids to games for special birthdays.

We'd still have hockey, lacrosse and minor-league baseball. But we wouldn't have a home team -- not even an awful one -- as part of our civic identity on the national stage.

Instead, we'd read about various pro teams from San Francisco, Seattle and Detroit (not to mention Green Bay, Raleigh and Jacksonville). Then maybe we'd pedal our bicycles to Portland State University and play Ultimate Frisbee.

Whoo-hoo.

"This city is destined to fall back in love with the Blazers," says charter-school advocate Rob Kremer, part of the prospective ownership group led by former Blazer Terry Porter. "It just needs a reason."

Here are three reasons:

Let's keep pro sports alive in Oregon.

Let's make sure the tram is never Portland's best attraction.

Let's embrace our inner Madison, in all of its quirky liberal glory, without wallowing in it.

Associate Editor Susan Nielsen: 503-221-8153; susannielsen@news.oregonian.com

preach it sister.