MLB and Portland (Where Next for Les Expos):
With time running out, major-league baseball supporters upped the pressure Thursday on the Legislature and Gov. John Kitzhaber to authorize state funding for a new stadium in Portland. That and this report from The Oregonian.
Corey Busch, a representative from the national office of Major League Baseball, visited Portland, where he was whisked to meetings with business and community leaders.

Busch was scheduled to watch a Portland Beavers' game Thursday night, accompanied by lawmakers, baseball advocates and members of Kitzhaber's staff.

"We have a long-term strategy to bring major league baseball to Portland, and we're right on course," said Steve Kanter, president of the Oregon Baseball Coalition, who helped arrange Busch's visit. "This is just one step."

Kanter and other supporters think that Portland is ripe for a major league team. They also think that a window of opportunity has opened as some smaller market teams, such as the Montreal Expos, are suffering financial losses and may be looking to relocate.

One of the items on Busch's agenda is to check out the refurbished PGE Park to see whether it might accommodate a major league team temporarily while a new stadium is built.

"Certainly, he's going to take a good, hard look at PGE Park as a possible interim park," Kanter said in The Oregonian report. "And I want to emphasize: interim."

PGE Park holds about 22,000 spectators, half the size of most big league ballparks.

The next few days could prove critical to the prospects of bringing a team to Oregon. Hope lies in a proposal before the Legislature that would authorize state funding for $150 million of an estimated $336 million baseball stadium. The remainder would be paid by the city of Portland and by the owners of whatever team opted to move to the city.

The plan -- House Bill 2941 -- made it through the House on a close vote last month, but it has stalled in the Senate. In fact, it was declared dead during a dramatic floor speech by Ways and Means co-chairman Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland.

But supporters haven't given up. They have designed a new financing structure that would use income taxes generated by players' salaries, instead of lottery revenues as originally proposed. And they plan to hold the team's owner responsible for any funding gaps that might arise.

In addition to Thursday's gathering, baseball supporters are scheduled to meet Monday with Kitzhaber and Senate President Gene Derfler, R-Salem. The expectation is that the meeting could decide whether the baseball bill moves ahead in the Senate or dies in committee.

"If I had to vote on it today, I'd vote no," a skeptical Derfler said Thursday. "If it's such a good deal, why can't they just go to the bank for the money?"

The governor had no plans to meet with Busch before Busch leaves Oregon on Friday, said Bob Applegate, Kitzhaber's spokesman. But he is interested in hearing the details of the new financing plan.

Kitzhaber opposed using lottery revenue to pay off stadium construction bonds because he wants those funds spent on sewer and water projects in rural Oregon.

Applegate was among those from Kitzhaber's staff scheduled to attend Thursday night's gathering at the ballpark. Also scheduled to attend were Bill Wyatt, Kitzhaber's chief of staff, and Steve Marks, the governor's main policy adviser.

"Clearly, if the governor were to say this plan will work and does not reduce funding for other programs, that gives us a better shot," said Michael Dewey, a lobbyist working on the baseball proposal in The Oregonian report.

But Dewey acknowledged the steep odds. "There's not a lot of momentum for baseball in the Legislature," he said. "People have other priorities." (source The Oregonian)