PGE Park, MLS and “Felony Flats” Stadium
If you don’t know the story yet, you can go here and get the version from The Oregonian, which actually called all of Lents “Felony Flats” today (boy, are they going to get letters). I don’t have the space here to rehash the whole thing and want to zero in on what’s wrong and what’s right about the Randy Leonard/Merritt Paulson plan.
First, for those who just don’t understand why a city should ever invest in sports facilities, you might as well move on now — I have nothing here that will interest you. I will only make you angry. Just about every major U.S. city (Portland is now the No. 22 TV market in the country, yet it still wishes so fervently to act like a hick town) has invested more money in sports facilities than Portland has. And I think those cities have also managed to fill their potholes, educate their children and keep the streets safe as well or better than we have. I do believe they may not have as many bike paths as we do, however.
The point is, Paulson is going to come up with a $40 million fee for a Major League Soccer team and I think it’s possible he’s going to lose his shirt on the investment. If this city really is as soccer mad as it claims, helping him with a stadium shouldn’t be out of line. That league, by the way, is anything but major league and anyone who watches the Premiership every week knows what I’m talking about. I’m not sold on the future of the league but I admire this man for having the nerve to chase it — which seems to me what this city wants him to do.
I don’t think you’re going to find a bigger supporter of baseball than me in Portland over the last 30 years. Particularly major-league baseball. Which gets me to this plan. I’m not totally convinced that building an 8,500-seat, minor-league facility in Portland fits into our future unless it’s a piece of a bigger plan. If a new minor-league park is built here — that’s fine, I don’t necessarily care how many seats it has. But I would like it to have the ability to be expandable someday to serve, at the very least, as an interim big-league facility. I’d like that to at least be part of a long-term strategy.
I worry that if this ballpark is built it would, 10 years from now, turn into an impediment to building a separate big-league park. You know, the way the last (poorly planned) PGE Park renovation is a bit of a roadblock to this very plan. People don’t like having to pay taxes to redo something they just did a few years ago.
I’m not going to debate the Lents Park location here today at all. Let’s take that out of the equation. Mayor Sam Adams and Leonard are sold on it for a variety of reasons and so are the residents of the neighborhood — which is a big plus. There are certainly better spots but they aren’t as viable right now. I spoke with Paulson Thursday morning and he did make it clear that the Lents location isn’t etched in stone quite yet. “We will not do it without adequate parking,” he said. “It has to have enough on-site parking.”
What bothered me a lot about the Thursday story is the notion that attendance for Triple-A ball is something that impacts a city’s chance at a major-league club.
The Oregonian story today contained this priceless gem, not as a quote, mind you — but a statement by the writer, Anna Griffin: “If anything, Portland needs to prove that it can support a thriving Triple-A franchise first. Getting the Beavers out of cavernous PGE Park — where even the rare crowd of 7,000 or 8,000 fans leaves the place more than half empty — is crucial. Average attendance at a Beavers home game is about 5,500.”
The fact is, there is no correlation AT ALL to drawing well in the Pacific Coast League and getting a big-league franchise and I’m sick of hearing that there is. It’s like telling a city that it must show it can support the WNBA before it gets an NBA team. Tampa Bay and Miami didn’t even have Triple-A baseball before they got big-league teams. Denver drew only 347,615 in the season before it went into the National League. Las Vegas, likely Portland’s biggest rival for the next available big-league team, drew 400 fewer people per game than the Beavers did this season. So can we please give that argument a rest?
I have a great deal of appreciation for Paulson’s guts. He’s paying a lot of money for an MLS franchise. He’s going to have to sell that thing like crazy in a town that talks the talk about soccer but has to show it can walk the walk. And he’s shaken up the baseball community with the idea of building a minor-league ballpark in a time when most of us would rather Portland move on from its bush-league-town image.
But at least someone is out there pushing Portland toward a better sports future. He’s gotten Portland’s two most powerful politicians on board, too — which is a major achievement.
Moving forward, there are things to be mindful of and here they are:
Any renovation work on PGE Park has to include enlarging the concourse and adding rest rooms and concession stands. The main aisle has to be wider and access to seating must be better. The previous plan was a cosmetic upgrade but not an upgrade at all in terms of accessibility or function. Let’s get our money’s worth and make this one work for fans, OK?
The Lents Park ballpark could be a cool place that will revitalize that area. My concern is the cost. They’re talking about $35-$40 million and I think that’s too low. It wouldn’t surprise me if it takes $60 million in tomorrow’s dollars.
But if they can keep the costs under control (always a question with governments everywhere) and a consistent vision toward the future, I’d endorse it.
Baseball, small-town Portland | Dwight Jaynes | September 4, 2008
Dwight Jaynes, Lents, Merritt Paulson, MLS, PGE Park, Portland Beavers, Randy Leonard, Sam Adams
I love baseball , and it is so much better live , but I will NEVER go to Felony Flats to have my car broken into every game.
Stadiums need to be in a central location. The PPS property north of the Rose Quarter would make a stunning ball park on the river. It could be built as a bowl for triple A , with plans for a 2nd deck when the Bigs move in. We own parking garages at the RG , and more could be built which would also help Blazer fans.
mr. paulson should money up and buy the florida marlins…
http://deadspin.com/5045341/the-600-club
pge, lents…. how bout waluga park, we’ll draw more than 600.
Was at Lents park for a function a few weeks ago. Within 10 minutes of being their, a man who worked for the parks department came over and asked us to make sure we were careful with out possessions as two purses had already been stolen. This is at 11 am on a Saturday. Sorry Lents-livers, but your hood is sketchy.
So far the 3 comments have reinforced the reason for the ballpark being in Lents. Look at the reputation it has. I mean the Oregonian just called the entire neighborhood “felony flats” and you all made perfectly good points about what a hole Lents seems to be. Evidence like this back up the reason for why the city wants this park here. It’s a less than desirably neighborhood, whose economy all goes to Arkansas via Walmart and the community is stuck with a terrible image. That could possibly all change with the simple addition of a baseball stadium in that park, where indeed crime is common. Want to revitalize an area, build something that the community can flock to, and that outsiders can as well. It will bring money, quality human beings (baseball fans are top notch) and new business to a community desperate for it.
Also, Ben, Merritt Paulson cannot afford to buy the Florida Marlins. That’s an investment that is way out of his, and most people’s reach anymore. The MLS investment may look a little steep, but 5 teams are profitable, and a couple more are expected to be very soon. It may not happen immediately, but the plan Paulson has for MLS is a plan designed for profitability. Being the chief tenant in PGE will help achieve that goal. It takes a while, but it is possible and likely considering the low wages in the league and how it is designed as single entity. It might not be a guaranteed success, but when the Timbers draw 8,000-12,000 to a game on a Thursday night on a school week, I think the market is here. I think the league thinks so as well. Time will tell.
I know I’m looking forward to many Lents Stadium AAA and PGE MLS visits after this project is done. Once done, our city will love em.
Totally agree with you, Dwight. If this is built with public money, a plan needs to be in place for future expansion. If you are going to spend $40 million to build a 8,500 seat stadium then we need to make sure we could easily add another 10K seats plus parking to the existing site. Lents is a good spot for a potential MLB stadium given the availability of space, public transit (MAX, buses), surrounding community support.
In ten years, Portland will have grown enough population wise to support a MLB team. I think we could now, personally. Regardless, I think our politicians are short sighted and using this as a means to fix the boondoggle Urban Renewal that has been the Lents improvement area.
I thought Merritt’s dad’s job was to literally print money. And he doesn’t have enough for the Marlins? Weak.
For all of those who keep erroneously referring to Lents as “Felony Flats” (which really historically describes another area further south and west of Lents, and contemporarily really applies to neighborhoods further north) I’d like to invite you out to actually take a tour of Lents…especially the area around the Park.
I live a block and a half from the park, and 5 blocks from Eastport Plaza. It’s no more dangerous here than anywhere else in the city of Portland. I wouldn’t leave my purse unattended in any park. I suspect Park Rangers encounter those sorts of thefts periodically at every park they patrol…particularly those that draw large amounts of people from areas outside of the neighborhood.
I walk alone at night from the town center to my home by the park regularly. I have never felt threatened or unsafe. In fact, we have a very diverse neighborhood, and very few of the tensions that come along with that sort of diversity. Overall, it’s a pretty pleasant place and the Park is pretty bucolic even with the current dilapidated stadium taking up the northeast corner. A new ball park there will just make it that much nicer.
Dwight, please explain how Portland “talks the talk” but doesn’t necessarily “walk the walk” when it comes to soccer?? The Timbers already out-draw the Beavers and the occasional exhibition game against English clubs brings in 15,000+. The women’s World Cup, too was huge. So please explain what evidence you’ve seen of how soccer wouldn’t work in POrtland??
OK, let’s take a look… you mentioned that the Timbers draw 15,000 for exhibitions against English clubs. They’re going to have to AVERAGE two or three thousand more fans than that just to break even in MLS. And that’s against teams that are inferior to the ones from England that come here for exhibitions. And remember, in the old NASL, where Portland originally got that Soccer City, USA nickname, the franchise went DOWN in attendance every single season from the first one to the last one. I’m not sure there is tremendous evidence that Portland will support MLS. It’s a gamble.
[...] He’s been following the pending Lents baseball stadium deal pretty closely for the last week o…. Dwight’s been a pretty very vocal proponent of bringing Major League baseball to town for years. He even had a spot picked out down in what is now known as the South Waterfront. It’s still a pretty decent idea in need of a champion. Unfortunately no one has stepped up. So we go to Plan B. [...]
The only part where I think you are off is on the “lose your shirt” valuation of a sports franchise. The going rate for a team (expansion fees) was $10 million in 2004. Just 4 years later it’s $40 million and there is already talk of $50 million for the next team. (Google MLS expansion fees for sources) You’d have to lose more than $10 million per year in operations to wipe out the appreciation in franchise value.
There are two types of potential owners in sports, ones who want their initial investment recouped by operations and ones who realize that franchise appreciation is the real game. Can you guess which ones end up buying teams?
There is one glaring omission in the debate over Paulson’s MLS proposal. He claims that PGE Park is inadequate for MLS soccer because it is not “soccer-specific.” But nowhere in the city’s task force report is there any explanation as to what constitutes a soccer-specific venue, or any analysis as to whether or not Paulson’s claims are valid. And now that I’ve done some research of my own online, it’s clear that there are no standards for what constitutes a soccer-specific venue. Basically, the terms is simply a marketing catch phrase. The only standard is that the playing field must have certain minimum dimensions. What it all boils down to is that the city has not made any effort to analyze what the full range of options are for upgrading PGE Park, including the possibility that PGE Park could be upgraded for MLS soccer without changing its basic configuration. That would mean the Beavers could continue playing there, and that would save all the expense and hassle of tearing down the Memorial Coliseum and building a new baseball stadium.