No.

I’m taking some heat from a few long-time friends that I’m not in the middle of the fight to keep PGE Park as a combination baseball/football/soccer venue. But really, it’s not worth fighting for.

It’s never been a ballpark. It’s been a stadium. And I’m just not going to settle for a stadium any longer. If we have to lose baseball yet another time, in order to get a real ballpark built, I’m all for it.

The University of Oregon, for $21 million, has built PK Park, a gem of a ballpark — a facility that may be the best ballpark anywhere between Seattle and San Francisco. And Portland, in like 100 years, can’t build a new ballpark? Ridiculous.

And I sit back and watch politicians criticize Randy Leonard and Sam Adams for what they’re doing with PGE Park, well — at least it’s SOMETHING. I mean, if you’re against the current plan for PGE Park, what exactly is your plan for professional sports in Portland? That’s what I thought — you really don’t care. You have no plan.

Am I big soccer fan? Obviously not. But for me, it is serving a purpose. It’s forcing this city to face up to its sports future. Will we ever build that ballpark, that gem, here? Maybe not. Probably not. At least not in my lifetime.

But at least we’re no longer fooling ourselves into thinking PGE Park is a real ballpark. It’s a stadium. And if you don’t know the difference, well, that’s maybe why we’re in the fix we’re in.

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Tags: PGE Park, PK Park, Portland Beavers, University of Oregon

I got a note from a Portlander named Sean-Michael Riley a while back. There is an advisory committee taking suggestions about possible ideas for the development of the Rose Quarter and his notion is getting some traction.

Riley has proposed a roller coaster for the area — and I think it’s a pretty good idea. Yeah, I’d still like a ballpark and believe it to be the best possible use of the land, but when I got his note I remembered that Marshall Glickman and I once had a discussion about the same thing.

Marshall, who ramrodded the planning and construction of the Rose Garden for the Trail Blazers, thought a roller coaster was a fun idea to bounce around. Since I’m a coaster-rider from way back (seriously, I’ve been on some of the best in this country) I was excited.

But not just any roller coaster, please. Build the biggest, fastest, highest or longest. Or, since it tends to drizzle here a little, how about the world’s biggest covered one? Or biggest enclosed one?

Riley’s website for his vision is here and I encourage you to take a look. I mean, why not? We don’t have a serious roller coaster anywhere in the Pacific Northwest and I believe it would be a big draw. You could still have an entertainment district but the big coaster could hover above — making it an iconic image for Portland and a destination for tourists.

But maybe such out-of-the-box thinking is way too much for the folks around here?

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I sent you to the website the other day – imaginejumptown.com — but I didn’t have time to comment much. It appears that Larry Miller has gotten his old pals at Nike to buy into the thing with some sort of Nike museum. That sounds great for the area in the Rose Quarter.

But what still bothers me is the stubbornness of sticking to this “bright future for Memorial Coliseum” garbage. I realize the Trail Blazers have sold themselves on the concept that the indoor venue, the coliseum, cut down to seat 5,000 or 6,000  people, is a more viable venue than a Triple-A baseball park for bringing people into the new neighborhood.

I think they’re wrong. Yes, much of the winter the ballpark would be vacant. But that’s the time of year when the Rose Garden will be hopping. You don’t need the ballpark in the winter — you need it in the summer and spring when the Rose Garden (and Memorial Coliseum) is dark all the time.

Does Portland need a 5,000-seat arena? I don’t think so. We already have one at University of Portland’s Chiles Center. I think that size is a little too small for the Winter Hawks, who should be playing in the Rose Garden. And I think by the time you get done updating 50-year-old plumbing, wiring and structure of the old MC, you’re spending so much money you’d have been better off leveling the thing and starting all over.

It’s going to be a money pit. A big, big money pit. And when you’re done, what kind of arena will it be? Probably not much of one. Honestly, if they’re so committed to keeping the outside structure, the box, they ought to gut the inside and install the world’s biggest and fastest indoor roller coaster there. It would have a better chance of being a big attraction than that old junky arena. Seriously.

A wise baseball guy, Bill Cutler, a one-time owner of the Portland Beavers, once sighed as he watched the city of Portland first installing artificial turf on ancient then-Civic Stadium. He turned to me and smiled.

“It’s like putting silk stockings on a hog,” he said. And he was so right. But this is Portland — we just can’t bring ourselves to throw anything away here. We’re constantly recycling.

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Tags: Bill Cutler, Civic Stadium, Dwight Jaynes, JumpTown, Memorial Coliseum, Portland Trail Blazers

KGW.com is teasing a story for the news at noon that he’s “suspending” efforts to relocate the Beavers in Beaverton. It wouldn’t be surprising. There’s simply no time to wait for them to have an election.

Beaverton residents can now go back and rest comfortably, knowing they will now continue to be totally irrelevant. Take that five bucks a month it would have cost and buy a happy meal.

UPDATE: The story is here. Paulson informed the mayor with a letter that read:

“It is with sadness that I am writing to inform you of my decision to suspend planning and negotiations with the city on a new stadium. I’ve made this decision for practical, not political reasons. … The practical consideration is that after more than three months of effort, there is no stadium location under city control and the City’s timeframe for making a firm financial commitment is months off. This makes it impossible to meet the timelines required to start groundbreaking in time to play the 2011 season at a new stadium.”

Your turn Gresham. Or Oregon City. Or West Linn. Or Lake Oswego. Or Vancouver. Or Linnton.

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Tags: Beaverton, Dwight Jaynes, Merritt Paulson, Portland Beavers

Merritt Paulson is trying to get a ballpark. He’s trying to see if some community in this area is willing to build a real baseball stadium in a public-private partnership. You realize, perhaps, that the ONLY stadium or arena of any size that this area’s ever built with public funds is Memorial Coliseum — which was done about a half century ago.

The Rose Garden, PGE Park (Multnomah Stadium when it was built), Vaughn Street Ballpark — all were done privately. My point is, we’re kind of due, aren’t we, to do some sort of arena or ballpark?

Anyway, Paulson, who had no connections here, moved into the area when he bought the Portland Beavers and Timbers and is in love with owning pro sports franchises. He’s been villified, made fun of and derided because he’s asked the public to help fund a ballpark that IT will own.

He’s willing to pour millions of his own money into this operation. Millions. And for anyone who thinks he’s got a great chance of even earning all that money back, well, you’re nuts. I just don’t think it pencils out. The fact is, he’s a wealthy guy who loves owning and operating a sports franchise.

Just like Paul Allen.

But Paul’s taken a lot of hits over the years, too. Yet the contributions the Trail Blazers have made to this community are too many to count. Seriously, with all of our job and economic problems here, the constant rain and the idiocy of some of our politicians, it’s the only thing a lot of people find themselves feeling good about when they pick up the morning paper.

And you know what? Paul has lost tens hundreds of millions on the Trail Blazers. Can you imagine? It’s never been a profitable operation. The people of Portland owe him a standing ovation every time he walks to his seat in that arena. Has he made mistakes? Of course, and we’ve always called him out on them. But on balance, Paul Allen has been GREAT for the city of Portland.

Traditionally, we’ve not had wealthy people who live in our area step up to own franchises. The closest I can come is Harry Glickman, but he wasn’t rich enough to own the team — he just was farsighted and creative enough to put a group together that had enough financial clout to buy a team in the NBA.

I think Merritt Paulson is trying very hard to be great for the Portland area, too. Certainly, to anyone who believes he’s here to make his fortune is sadly mistaken. If they think that ballpark in Beaverton is going to benefit only Paulson, they’re seriously deluded.

That ballpark will be a gathering place and a focal point for Beaverton that the city has never had. An identity and a soul. Just wait. What really bothers me is the whole political side to this. Some people don’t like Paulson’s father, Hank, the former secretary of the treasury, so they don’t like his kid. I mean, man, the guy was a REPUBLICAN — which is pretty much always a crime around these parts. And man, he’s from the EAST COAST! How terrible.

All I’m saying is that we ought to be thankful that people like Paul Allen and Merritt Paulson have chosen Portland as the home for their teams. Nobody around here is wealthy enough or willing enough to do it.

And we’re better off for what they’ve done.

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Tags: arenas, ballparks, Beaverton, Dwight Jaynes, Merritt Paulson, Paul Allen, Portland

Oregon State athletic director Bob De Carolis called out his team’s own fans in The Oregonian this morning:

“I’ve never seen a state like this, where it’s one or the other, you’re a Duck or you’re a Beaver,” De Carolis said. “Well, if (OSU alumni) are so proud of that, why is it so hard to keep this thing going? We have a hell of a football product — a hell of a football product — and we can’t sell out the stadium?”

“Where are all the Beaver fans?

I’ve been around this stuff all my life and I can tell you, you cannot expect people to attend your games — and pay the big bucks it takes to go — out of a sense of obligation. It just doesn’t work that way. If they’re not coming, they either don’t have the money (lower the ticket prices) or they aren’t get what they want out of the games (do you have a promotion man?).

They won’t plunk down the money just because you think they should. Look, this is the entertainment business. And most of the time if people don’t show up for whatever attraction you’re selling, they either don’t know about it or they are afraid they won’t get their money’s worth.

Oregon State put that new addition on the East grandstand of Reser Stadium and added a bunch of club-level seats. In almost every stadium or arena in the country, those tickets are difficult to sell. They’re almost always overpriced, not great seats and just don’t offer enough to command the extra money being charged for them. The Trail Blazers, as hot as they are, have trouble selling their club-level seats.

It was a huge mistake adding that type of seating and that’s not on the fans, it’s on the athletic department. And so, Bob, is your inability to sell tickets. Don’t blame the fans. Look in the mirror. You’ve got a great program there — why can’t you sell tickets?

Perhaps the game-day experience could somehow be enriched. What sort of added value are your fans getting? What kind of atmosphere is being created? Are your fans being treated right? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions but you had better know.

My goodness, the story even mentioned the city of Roseburg, where 800 alumni live but only 19 are donors. As if those people are somehow not doing what they’re supposed to do. Honestly, does anyone around the athletic department know what bad shape that town is in? My goodness, it’s an old lumber town.

This whole thing reminds me of someone who puts out a bad movie and then blames the public for not coming to see it. That’s not a bad movie playing in Corvallis, though — it’s a winning football team. And it seems to me that if people aren’t buying tickets, that’s YOUR responsibility.

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Tags: Bob De Carolis, Dwight Jaynes, Oregon State Beavers

The city of Beaverton is near a “non-binding agreement” (which, when you think about it, is no agreement at all) to build the Beavers a ballpark. And bottom line, it’s going to cost taxpayers in that community an average of $64 a year.

At the risk of sounding insensitive, that’s not much. Seriously, if your property tax bill went up $64, would you even notice? I seriously doubt it. It’s about what you’d spend to take your family to a movie and grab a pizza afterward.

All I can say, though, is they better build a good one. A beauty. A real destination. If they do that, it’s a lock it will be successful.

The benefits from a ballpark in Beaverton will be many — economic, quality of life and just plain fun. That and the fact that a whole lot of Portlanders who really have no reason to go there these days will now be making the trek. And Beaverton will become known for something besides Nike. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

It will go down like it always does — with people complaining and moaning about the cost but then as soon as it’s open and they see the benefit, they’ll shut up, just as they have everywhere else where quality ballparks have been built.

Meanwhile, once that ballpark is open and prospering, the city of Portland can sit here amazed at how good it all looks. It’s probably what it’s going to take to get Portlanders to understand the value of these things.

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My lifelong friend, Mike Clopton, and I stood on a street corner across the street from the left-field entrance to Safeco Field Thursday afternoon, getting ready to duck into a quiet little place called “Jimmy’s” where we’d watch Ian Furness do his talk show live on KJR.

The Mariners were playing a rare 3:40 game and I hesitated before ducking into the joint. On one side of me was Safeco Field, a glimmering baseball oasis on a perfect sunny afternoon. On the other side was a meeting hall and theater, attached to Qwest Field, where the Seahawks play — another most impressive structure.

The streets were alive with happy people. Families, business people ducking out on work, singles, senior citizens — people who seemed giddy about what their afternoon promised them. Even the scalpers had smiles on their faces.

What a town, man. Yes, Seattle lost its NBA team. Cry no tears — with the NFL and major-league baseball, it’s barely noticed.

When I was a kid, Seattle and Portland were heated rivals in just about every way. They had the Rainiers in the Pacific Coast League fighting our Beavers and the Totems in the Western Hockey League always losing to our Buckaroos. Those were the days.

But then the Kingdome went up and Seattle became a big-league city. While we were focusing on keeping it weird, they were concentrating on pennant races and dreaming of Super Bowls. They haven’t won a World Series or Super Bowl yet, but they are allowed to think about it every year. They paid the price of admission — in erecting beautiful public facilities that, yes, probably cost too much money.

But I hear no complaints as I stand on that corner. You never hear any around here. I see excited people headed to the ballpark to watch what turned into a honey of a game. As Mike and I alternated between great seats behind home plate, an inning in the press box and about four innings in the owner’s suite (Thanks to an all-time great guy, Randy Adamack), I couldn’t help but reflect.

Right there within a block of each other, twice as many sports facilities as the city of Portland has built since that coin toss when the little settlement on the Willamette became “Portland” rather than “Boston.”

It’s a shame we quit being Seattle’s rival. It’s a shame we didn’t dare to dream big. What fun we could have had in this town.

But I will say one thing for us. We’ve got Memorial Coliseum on the National Register of Historic Places. Those idiots up there in Seattle, who probably could have done the same thing with the Kingdome had they been smart enough, decided instead to implode it to make way for a gorgeous, state-of-the-art football stadium.

Fools. Don’t they know you’re supposed to keep old, disgusting, worn-out dumps like the Kingdome around and sink even more dough into them? I mean, that could have been an athletic club or a velodrome, right?

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Mike Clopton, Portland, Qwest Field, Randy Adamack, Safeco Field, Seattle

Our politicians have always been well behind on this issue. The people of Portland would love to have a casino centrally located where they can go a couple of times a month to watch big-time entertainment and dump a whole lot of money onto some table, never to be seen again.

I’ve always been for it. Been for legalized gambling of all sorts, actually. Doesn’t offend me in any way and has always appealed to me as a way to let others pay my taxes for me. Legalize it, tax it and I’m cool with it.

But the big thing — let’s allow that casino but leverage it. Get something big in return. Talk about some life for the Rose Quarter, a plush casino on the waterfront on the old hotel property Paul Allen owns, with a boat dock so you could also get there by water. And for the right to put it there, whoever is the owner of that casino must do the rest of the Rose Quarter up real nice. Level Memorial Coliseum, build that ballpark, put in a few other nice restaurants and clubs.

Oh, never mind. Makes too much sense for Portland to ever even think about.

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Tags: ballpark, Casino, Dwight Jaynes, gambling, Portland, Rose Quarter

First off, it started about 20 minutes late, which isn’t nice on a day when everyone is seated in an unshaded area of metal grandstands. But anyway, I digress.

Point one — I was told just prior to the news conference that there’s a real chance Beaverton mayor Denny Doyle doesn’t quite have enough clout with his city council to pull this whole thing off. At least that’s what opponents were saying after a Monday night council meeting. That’s a little bit ridiculous, if you ask me — since the group hasn’t even heard a proposal yet from Beaver owner Merritt Paulson.

To me, if I was on that council, I’d at least wait to hear what Paulson’s asking the city for. Obviously, because he’s in a rush and doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of other options, he’s probably willing to make a pretty sweet deal. And trust me, that city could probably use the Beavers more than just about any other in the state — for a multitude of reasons that are partially economic and partially just community identity.

Second, I didn’t realize how important it seems to people out that way that this be described as a “multi-purpose” stadium. I lost track of how many times the mayor mentioned it in his brief speech. Well, I guess… I mean, if that’s what you need to say.

Folks, it’s a ballpark. It’s not something that can be used all year round, unless you want to put a dome on it — which you really can’t afford. Relax with that.

Yes, when the Beavers are out of town, when the weather cooperates and assuming the joint has (sigh) artificial turf, you can hold community events, use it for youth baseball, stage college baseball tournaments — whatever you want. But get the idea out of your head that you need to use it every day of the year. NOBODY in any town owns that stadium, unless it’s domed, OK?

Look, build a nice ballpark and build it big enough to seat 8,000 with an outfield berm that can accomodate another four or five thousand and the place will pay you back many times over. Beaverton would have a community gathering place built by a public/private partnership that it couldn’t get any other way. And some needed identity for the city, too.

That’s plenty beneficial enough to at least listen to a proposal, isn’t it? Man, politicians around here can just about drive you batty.

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Tags: Beaverton, Denny Doyle, Dwight Jaynes, Merritt Paulson, Portland Beavers