Merritt Paulson bailing on Beaverton
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.
Baseball, Politics, Sports Business, Stadiums, small-town Portland | Dwight Jaynes | October 30, 2009
What about PGE park?
Way to go Beaverton. WAY TO LET US DOWN!
Russ Draper is probably claiming victory for this defeat.
Yeah! West Linn Beavers! Oh wait, we don’t really have much land left, and it sure as hell isn’t flat. Floating stadium on Oswego Lake? That’d be pretty cool.
Dwight:
Beaverton is every bit as relevant as Kirkland Washington, Walnut Creek California, Aurora Colorado, Shakopee Minnesota, or even Addison Illinois!
DWIGHT…IT IS A SUBURB. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE IRRELEVENT.
It is not like Beaverton just lost its only chance to shine in the sun. Even with a triple AAA ballpark, it is still a community filled with “little boxes made with ticky-tacky”. It is Agrestic.
Let’s not kid ourselves here.
AAA is irrelevant, uninteresting and beneath us.
AAA may be irrelevant…but if AAA goes anywhere you can kiss any pipe dream of MLB goodbye. There aren’t the corporate sponsorships here now and after everything that went on with the stadiums you’re kidding yourself if you think MLB wasn’t paying attention to that.
Garrett: Why?
Miami had single A, lost it, and got the
Marlins. Denver had notoriously low attendance
for the Zephyr’s, and got the Rockies.
Phoenix had notoriously low attendance for
the FIrebirds and got the D-Backs..
MLB could give a rat what has happened in the
past. If they did we would still have the
St Louis Browns.
MLB cares about money. IF PDX can build more
business, continues to grow demographically,
and has the political will…MLB will come.
Don’t kid yourself to think Bud Selig is
watching with a discerning eye because
a 7000 seat ballpark is not going up in
Beaverton. He has no idea, and does not care.
I’m sure MLB is paying attention. I guarantee you the Padres are. What will happen is the next round of expansion will roll around and MLB will look at expansion sites and research what happens in that area. Actually I don’t even know why I’m explaining this. The only person in the Portland Metro area that could afford a team would be Phil Knight. He’s not going to do that and the metro area will never build a stadium. You need to have that in place before they’ll award you a team.
The Miami market is not Portland. It’s the #5 TV market. Even though nobody attends the actual games. It also has plenty of large businesses. Did I mention the $600 million dollar stadium they’re building the Marlins? Same goes for Denver and Phoenix. Bigger TV markets, actual businesses to sponsor the team, and the political will to drop several hundred million dollars of taxpayer money on a stadium for a private business. This will *never* happen in Portland.
Garrett:
Sorry, but your argument is now strike two.
“I guarantee you the Padres are.”
Ya, and so? How does the Triple AAA affiliate angle coordinate with Bud Selig crying in his cheerios? MLB cares about…hmmmm…not at all where the farm team is.
” What will happen is the next round of expansion will roll around”
Excuse me, but I just laughed so hard that I fell on the floor…did you mention MLB and “expansion” in the same sentence?
“Actually I don’t even know why I’m explaining this. The only person in the Portland Metro area that could afford a team would be Phil Knight.”
Oh, I am sorry. I did not realize that a potential owner had to live in that metro area. Gosh, where does Paul Allen live again? Oh, and George Steinbrenner? Is Tampa the 6th Burrough of NYC? Surely Malcolm Glazer is having a jolly old time watching his Manchester United team compete in the Premier League (UK) from…Florida.
“the metro area will never build a stadium. You need to have that in place before they’ll award you a team.”
Really? OKC had an arena prior to an NBA team. Tampa had a ballpark arena prior to an MLB team. St Louis had a dome ready and waiting before the Rams got there. Heck, LA is preparing to break ground on an NFL stadium, and they don’t have a team.
“The Miami market is not Portland. It’s the #5 TV market. ”
True. It is also sports saturated with Dolphins, Marlins, Heat, Panthers, and Hurricanes.
“This will *never* happen in Portland.”
Yes, you have clearly illustrated that with your ahem…facts…
@Matty
I’m just going to do this for fun. Mostly because I’m bored, waiting to find sleep, and want to.
MLB is not expanding. I know this…you probably know this. Even if they were MLB would not expand to Portland. We don’t have an argument here. Alls I was saying was speculation. *IF* there was expansion.
“Gosh, where does Paul Allen live again?”
You’re going to bring up Paul Allen? Really? The only reason the Blazers aren’t the Seattle Trailblazers right now is because the city was able to get a rock solid agreement with Allen when they built the Rose Garden to guarantee they’ll be here for a few more years. Name me a billionaire that want’s to deal with Oregon politics. I’ll let you off the hook if you can name one. Give me just one…Allen isn’t into it. He’s getting older and he’s an old single guy. He has what…10 or 15 more years of playing with his toy franchises? What happens when the lease for the RG comes up and Seattle doesn’t have a team?
“Heck, LA is preparing to break ground on an NFL stadium, and they don’t have a team. ”
It’s true. They’re building something on the hope some owner or the NFL wants to go there. Good luck to them. Would you like to build a $600 million MLB stadium just to hope some MLB team comes here one day?
“True. It is also sports saturated with Dolphins, Marlins, Heat, Panthers, and Hurricanes. ”
Nobody goes to Marlins games even when they’re winning, check the Heat’s attendance post Shaq. There were empty seats there the last time they were in the Pennant. You’ll find that if they’re the best in the league some people show up. If they aren’t its a ghost land. The Panthers? Really? And a college…Really? Not the same world at all. Autzen is full every week. It’s a college dude…different worlds.
“Yes, you have clearly illustrated that with your ahem…facts…”
Please provide me a list of 30-40 businesses that would purchase a luxury box for 81 games a year. Until you do…thanks…we can play later. Nike, Adidas…and then….
MLB ain’t coming. They only played us against DC to get a better stadium deal with DC. You’d have to be an idiot not to realize that.
Can Salem take this team? They already have the park!
NIMBYs 2, Beavs 0.
Clearly you have no idea what you are talking about in regard to Beaverton. I heard no one complaining about having a stadium there. They just didn’t feel so good about having the friggin’ bill for one being forced down their throats. Plain and simple.
As far as this pathetic tact Dwight keeps trying to proffer about some “identity”, nobody gives crap. You can’t shame people into buying something they really don’t care about, when there’s no shame there to begin with. If the people of Beaverton felt the city was in dire need of an identity they wouldn’t have moved there in the first place. They would have gone to any number of the other pretentious spots around to bask in their “coolness”.
We can only hope the city doesn’t somehow fall for Paulson’s latest tactic….
Actually it’s 3-0, but maybe the 3rd run goes to unemployed architects and cat fanciers more than NIMBYs.
Since the MLS will not be around in about 5 years, bring in portable seats to PGE Park for the couple of seasons the MLS has left.
I realize you hate soccer but it must really be hard to have been saying that same line over and over again the last 15 years.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=687260&sec=mls&root=mls&cc=5901
Don’t mind Bumpity. He continues to confuse soccer with oregon state football
Some things just weren’t mean to be …
Hello Tuscon Beavers.
It’s funny how you blame Beaverton. This is such a great deal that it’s now failed in three seperate locations. I think that points to what is at fault.
Do you honestly blame Beaverton for wanting to put a $100 Million issue before voters? (Tes, that is what this thing would cost when you factor in parking, bond interest rates, etc).
Obviously Paulson and Co know this would’ve failed misrably, or they wouldn’t have been afraid of the vote.
It was a poorly planned, poorly executed plan from the start.
Paulson assumed that he has the leverage to push his plans down community’s throats, because of MLS. He’s learning quickly just how irrelevant MLS is.
And, for the record, Dwight, I hope Lake Oswego is next… then you can be the recipient of increased taxes, and tell us first hand about all the “economic benefits” you achieve.
Yeah, like I live in Lake Oswego… as far as soccer goes, it like I’ve always said — it’s the sport of the future, and it always will be!
Garrett — honestly, I was reading that same story 10 years ago. And 20 years ago. And even 25 years ago. And it never happened. Portland might support that MLS team extremely well. I hope it does. But that doesn’t mean the league will make it. And if the league doesn’t make it, your team won’t either.
10 years and we’d be talking about MLS…it’s still around. 20 years ago MLS didn’t exist. 25 years ago the NASL was crumbling so I doubt you read the story at the time.
By the time PGE Park is finished with the renovations the MLS will have collapsed and we can talk the taxpayers into converting it into a baseball park.
Dwight. I usually agree with you. And sorry about Beaverton. I was pulling for that to work out. I’m not a hater.
However, I find it ironic that you mention ” I think soccer is the sport of the future, and it always will be!”
Obviously you were being light-hearted and a tad sarcastic but a very good argument can be made, and all indications are that MLB is going the way of the dinosaurs. It’s a dying sport. Archaic.
The only reason it’s really slightly relevant is the ESPN east coast machine. The league is plagued with bad leadership, steroid scandals, bad teams, over-priced product, over-paid players, empty brand new stadiums etc…
I honestly haven’t watched a second of the MLB playoffs and I grew up loving MLB. It’s just too slow, boring and I don’t care for the storylines which are usually east coast centric.
I’m too busy watching the Blazers, College FB, NFL, EPL and Champions League.
You are in a minority… look, baseball’s got problems. But the ratings this season in the postseason are sensational. And in Portland, the baseball postseason always draws well. Check MLS ratings sometime.
Dwight. The ratings are no doubt doing well THIS YEAR because of the NY and Philly east coast storyline and ESPN propaganda machine. I am not disagreeing with the power of the NY market or that people don’t like the Yankees.
But times have changed. Just like I used to wake up every morning looking for the box score from SF Giants games and collect Topps cards. I would argue a lot of those thing are borderline archaic, the baseball card, the print newspaper sports section and box scores have been polluted with meaningless statistical analysis fueled by steroids rendered irrelevant. Relics.
I would also argue that tv ratings are not a true barometer or relevancy. On your very own blog (obviously you know this) when you post a new blog entry subject on the Ducks and Beavers you get 20x as many hits as you do when you post on MLB or the Mariners.
Canzano would not have a radio show were it not for his schtick with the UofO and OSU. His schtick gets ratings and brings in money! His ratings and sponsor money would dry up talking about MLB, let’s face the facts. MLB is a dinosaur.
wrong on the east-coast take on the ratings… TBS did the first round of the playoffs — all the division series games — and had best ratings they’ve had for them…. and that was ALL the teams… you’re caught in that old tunnel vision deal, where you think EVERYONE is interested in what you and your pals are interested in.
I promise you it’s not tunnel vision. American Football is the economic engine of the US sporting landscape, college or pro.
I wonder what they care about more in Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Miami? The Pirates or Steelers, Marlins or Dolphins, Twins or Vikings? Each and every one of those cities is an east coast city and I would argue the Steelers, Dolphin and Vikings blow them out of the water. Those teams produce national story lines and cram sports bars coast to coast each and every week.
Or is it tunnel vision and I was imagining the 20 Steeler jerseys at the sports bar on Sunday morning. I have never seen 20 MLB baseball jerseys in Portland of the Pirates or even Yankees for that matter. What about the 20 Cowboys jerseys I saw, what about the 20 Packer jerseys. I’m sure they were dying to get home early so they could watch the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles play the Sox.
But it’s your blog and I respect your opinion. It’s not about MLS it’s about MLB being a dying sport and people refuse to acknowledge it for some reason.
Must’ve been a big-ass sports bar you were in…
whoa.. i won’t ever argue football vs. baseball right now… never said that. This thing got started talking about interest in baseball.
good posts Dwight. I have been loving the MLB playoffs. I had to switch back and forth between Fox and TBS last night at the start of the Blazer game. I myself see very little support for soccer and a lot of fans of baseball but like you say Dwight that is likely my personal tunnel vision. I mean look at it we get to watch one of the greatest relief pitchers ever. Last night I saw some of the most fascinating pitching by Pedro, as he clearly doesn’t have the strength, it was great to watch a guy pitch so well mentally and have such a wicked change up.
Baseball fans always see little support for soccer lol.
Sorry you can’t seem to find a new location. The people of this metro area don’t seem to want to build a park for minor league ball. While I find that disappointing it also tells me that baseball is in it’s PAST-time phase.
Football, UFC, soccer,and basketball are all still relevent.
Want baseball, horse racing, and boxing? Get on a time machine and go back to the 1950′s
“he people of this metro area don’t seem to want to build a park for minor league ball.”
Last I checked, we have a park for minor league ball.
yeo you have one more season there and then your (scuse the pun) OUT!
Sauvies Island Beavers….
ooh wait they have beavers and ducks …
I will not go to Soccer , boring !
Bring on MLB , hey Paulson your ol man can swing the big dough , go for MLB Now.
Oh Dwight. The world is a very different place than it was even in the 80′s, let alone 50′s.
Ask a 10 year old kid at a grade school if he know who Willie Mays is. Arguably the best ever. They haven’t got a clue. Kids these days don’t know Willie Mays from Willie McCovey, from Willie Stargell, from Willie McGee from Willie Wonka.
They could give a rip about Bill Buckner and Kirk Gibson.
Hell they don’t even know Pele. The world is not flat and things don’t stay linear.
What they do know is Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and what shoe they wear. Hell growing up I didn’t even know if Barcelona was a country or a city.
Don’t take my word for it, the billionaires know. Phil Knight knows. He’s made a fortune off of soccer. I understand if people can’t come to grips about it. Change is hard sometimes.
ESPN, Fox, they know. They’ve invested hundreds of millions.
But like I said, I am not a hater, and I hope they build a ballpark somewhere.
LOL–
If you can go to any RANDOM elementary school and find five ten year olds that know who those three people are, I’ll kiss my own ass.
wow that’ll hurt!
Merritt Paulson is much to blame for this, like it or not: He made a major commitment (to MLS) without first making sure of alternate arrangements for the Beavers. And now he’s threatening to go back on the MLS if someone doesn’t buy him a stadium (or at least chip in big bucks for one). Of course, after Randy Leonard came down hard on him, he’s walked back the latter threat.
Beaverton WAS playing ball with him–the council supported his plans. They also thought a vote on the matter appropriate, and as a Beaverton resident I tend to agree, even though I would have probably voted for the stadium. (My wife, OTOH…) At no point in the process with Beaverton, can I discern any bad faith on Beaverton’s part.
But what it looks like, is that Paulson is trying to steamroll various players–first the city of Portland, then Beaverton, and is expecting these parties to give in–only the professional politicos are much better at hardball than Paulson is.
My advice to Paulson, and the Portland Metro area: MLS is better than AAA baseball, and this observation is not intended as a comment on the merits of either sport, just on the size and scale of the leagues. If you can’t find a home for the Beavers here, take ‘em somewhere else. We’ve lost the Beavers before, and AAA franchises move all the damn time. AAA ball does well, and there is a good busniess model for the sport. But since its not major league ball, shifting lots of expense to taxpayers is not going to fly–the NBA and NFL can get away with that, but AAA ball, not so much.
I should note that the Biggis tried to steamroll Beaverton as well–don’t think they wouldn’t have sold for the right price.
But the current mayor seems to be a tad bit smarter than his predecessor, who got burned badly by public-private partnerships gone bad.
You can finger point at Paulson all you want but the fact is he wanted to upgrade both baseball (a real ballpark stadium) and Soccer(MLS), and is willing to put millions of his own money into making that happen.
Paulson didn’t take away baseball. He has proven he wants to keep the Beavers in the metro area. Your politicians and apathetic public let it go
Merritt er I mean “Panama” your shilling is quite entertaining….
The way he’s going about it, though, is incompetent to the extreme.
Does he think that he’s going to get a deal done somewhere else by the deadline? Beaverton was more than willing to play ball; however the lack of a suitable site was an issue. Unless Paulson has an ace up is sleeve, his negotiating skills are incompetent. The fact is, everyone knows he’s got a 2 and a 4 in the hole, and aren’t going for his bluffs. Maybe he does have another site lined up, one where the local pols have the checkbooks out, and he was just waiting for an excuse to tell Beaverton to get lost, but I somehow doubt it.
Yes! Let the Beavers leave. Getting MLS and losing AAA is a net win for Portland and its sports fans.
Is it too late to put the Memorial Coliseum site back on the table? That was the best option from the get-go anyway.
really the shame of this all isnt any of the things listed above. its what ive been preaching for many years now. its that this metro area has gotten so apathetic and so over-cautious about anything that might present a challange to a city that they just blow it off and find anything and everything they can to use to oppose it. this city and metro area will never have pro baseball or nfl because the citizens of this area will want to debate and discuss the issue into eternity and then noone will want to take a “chance” on possible prosperity because its not green enough, or it dosent fit the neighborhood, or our other pro team dosent want it here, or it will increase crime, blah blah blah! its really a pity that we have degressed to this. this is deffinetly not the place that i grew up in! truely a shame.
What about Hillsboro? Don’t they own that nice shiny stadium just off US 26?
BTW, there is some resistance to stadium siting at the old Westgate by the Biggi family. Baseball in Beaverton made sense otherwise.
The comment made by someone about them moving to Keizer made me double over laughing. The sweetheart deal was already made to the Volcanoes (formerly Bellingham Mariners) owner.
Hillsboro Stadium might work as a temporary location, but it’s a football stadium first and foremost. Won’t work well for baseball.
Well no big surprise here. I no longer find my way home in PDX. Grew up and lived the majority of my adult life there tho. I do still have immediate family, even more family and friends still under the over cast and walking thru foggy bottom mornings. I admit up front none of them are baseball fans. So I am likely looking at this thru the tunnel vision of my own surroundings. Not a single one of them I ever talk to believed there was even the slightest chance this would happen. No one believes there is even the slightest chance there will ever be anything close to a majority consensus that PDX will build any kind of a baseball only, triple A, let alone MLB ball park. I think the tunnel vision here is on the part of those whose desire for a ballpark outweighs all local sentiment and political leanings or logic. Some day you may just have to wake up and realize. Portland is not. Will not ever be a baseball town. Unless of course you make the stadium out of recycled garbage, the in-field of bat guano, have homeless pan handlers as ticket takers and a special box seat section for celebrity political NAMBLA members.
Dwight – what on earth makes you think another suburb is going to step up and quickly throw together a funding plan? And what on earth makes you think that jamming residents with a UTILITY TAX is a great funding mechanism for a ballpark?
I love baseball and argued passionately for the Beavers to move to MC, but this effort is going down in flames. It started as soon as Merritt Paulson agreed to decouple the two stadium efforts.
We are losing professional baseball in Portland in 2011. And who knows, maybe this is for the best. Maybe after a few years of no baseball and flailing around with drawing of velodromes, the city (and/or constituencies) will wake up, fund a facility in the Rose Quarter, and bring the AAA Tacoma Rainiers out of decrepit Cheney Stadium.
It might have been easier to use the money to renovate PGE park into a soccer only venue as a down payment to build a new soccer venue somewhere instead and leave the Beavers in PGE Park.
We also should not totally blame Merritt for pulling out of the Beaverton deal, as Beaverton did stepped up to the plate and couldn’t deliver.