Sports Business Journal

November 16-22, 1998

by John Rofe, Staff writer

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Portland officials are expected to choose this week between competing proposals to renovate Civic Stadium, a decision that could determine whether professional baseball or soccer is in its immediate future.

The CS Group, which is committed to landing a Major League Baseball team as an anchor tenant, and Portland Family Entertainment, whose leaders consider Major League Soccer more viable, were to make their pitch to the Metropolitan Exposition-Recreation Commission at a meeting today.

The 72-year-old city-run stadium is in need of renovation to comply with earthquake standards. It is home to the Portland State University football team and the Class A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

City officials said they believe soccer and baseball can co-exist. "We’re not going to agree to anything that precludes Major League Baseball coming to Portland," said Sam Adams, chief of staff for Mayor Vera Katz.

While PFE does not oppose wooing a major league team sometime in the future, the group said in a written proposal filed with the city that it would prefer to see how Class AAA ball works in Portland first and only if it is unable to lure a troubled MLS franchise to the Northwest.<

By contrast, the CS Group, which includes members of the Portland Baseball Group, wants to make an immediate pitch to the handful of major league teams – the Oakland A’s, Montreal Expos, and the Minnesota Twins – that could be seeking to relocate.

To that end, the group is championing architect John Vosmek’s proposed two-stage renovation that would convert the aging stadium in a cross between Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards and Jacobs Field in Cleveland by the 2000
season.

CS Group said it would pay $1.1 million for pre-development planning and then work with the city to raise about $45 million for the first phase of the project, which would add 60 luxury suites and seat 30,000 for baseball. The second phase would increase capacity to almost 42,000.

In its formal proposal, PFE said acquisition of a major league team "in the most optimistic scenarios … is a process that will take several years." Instead, PFE would pursue a minor league team compatible with a soccer tenant.

[This message was edited by Dodger Matt on January 08, 2001 at 05:15 PM.]

[This message was edited by Dodger Matt on January 08, 2001 at 05:15 PM.]