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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.
Tags: PGE Park, PK Park, Portland Beavers, University of Oregon
Well said Dwight, I think that you’re right on the money about this city facing the facts about its pro sports future. If we want a ballpark, a ballpark needs to be built and if that means losing the Beavers (AGAIN!) then so be it. More than anything I want to see baseball in the Rose City in a real baseball stadium, not some stadium clearly not built for baseball. All it took was one game on the third baseline stand for me to realize this fact.
I want baseball here, I don’t care how it gets done if Civic has to be transformed for soccer so that some day I can watch major league baseball in Portland on a sunny August afternoon with a beer I’m in.
How is it that Salem/Keizer was able to build a ballpark for a short season A team and a city like Portland can’t get their you know what together and build one for the Beavers?
Is a sad statement on the affairs of this city and the surrounding area. Beaverton had a chance to come through, but as usual a good idea gets dumped.
Portland will reman a NBA only city for a long time at this rate. (I don’t count soccer as a “major league” level sport in this country).
MLS IS the top level of soccer in this country. It isn’t as popular as NFL/NBA/MLB, but that doesn’t make it minor league. Just because one doesn’t like soccer they then deem it minor league. MLS IS Major League Soccer, it will continue to grow and do well.
Please understand that PGE park will be back to baseball after the MLS goes bankrupt and folds within 3 years….
They were saying the same thing three years ago, and three years before that. Thanks for playing, dittohead.
This story will probably get 10-15 comments which will show how few people really care about soccer or minor league baseball. I would love to spend my summers watching MLB, but that will NEVER happen in our 1 trick pony state.
I’d rather have a multi-purpose stadium with baseball than no baseball at all.
WHy don’t we tear down the M.C. and build a ball park there. Wait that make to much sense. Instead let’s keep that decrepid builing for the architectural wonder that it is.
You can blame Paul Allen and his architect friends for that one.
yeah and Frtizy for it too!
How much money was wasted in the LAST reincarnation of Multnomah Staduim – becomes – PGE Park?
Who, in the final tally, paid the bills for a project now deemed (or should I say doomed) to become a MLS arena?
All of the hype & smoke/mirrors that was put forth for the LAST renovation – and once again we’re subjected to yet ANOTHER expenditure of funds to renovate the place for yet ANOTHER likely failing venture.
I’m all for it – as long as not one single dime of public money is involved. If you can finance the project from 100% PRIVATE monies, great.
This city has no vision of it’s future in Major League sports. Never really has – it’s always taken a haphazard approach toward it’s goals – when it even had any. I’ve watched it’s… er, “progress” since the late 50’s, and after a lot of talk, talk, talk, where are we right now? The same place as then, with the exception of the Blazers. That’s a long, long time to wait for one major league team to be the end result.
Could it be that this attitude is one of the reasons Portland will never have MLB? Look, you’ve got to get over the “we deserve MLB and it should be completely financed by someone else” mentality. Never going to happen. Portland is minor league because the majority of folks living here think like this.
Marc, the “attitude” is one bred from years of watching the incompetent financial management of the City of Portland.
Spending millions to refurbish PGE Park – only to change directions a couple of years later, for example.
Had the approach been organized, competent, and above all TRUTHFUL in the past, that would have been one thing. But once again, the TAXPAYERS are now going to be asked to ante up MORE funding for some half-baked pipe dream to follow the last one.
I really could care less whether a MLB team arrives here or not. My point revolves NOT around the reality of achieving that goal – my point is the inane way in which that goal has been pursued over the years.
Maybe the “majority of folks living here” as you put it should be the ones to make that decision, being the majority and all……..
how about voting down twice for building a proper stadium and dome?
Spot on
marc is spot on….the city historically has thought too small, minor league thinking citizens. MLS will be great in Portland.
I’m not against MLS – in fact, I prefer it to MLB. And I disagree that Portland thinks “too small” – I still say it’s the poor performance by those promoting things that have discouraged development. EVERY presentation infers that “this will be the one” that brings in the Majors – and then follows through with crap. You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. And we’re tired of the attempt at doing so.
And for the record, I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to see the old Vaughn Street ball park again – the glory days of the sport live on, if only in the mind (in PDX).
Stadium?
Like a “stadium” were the Raiders play?
Or like Cleveland Browns “Stadium”?
Dwight, who is in charge of putting you in the old folks home because I think it’s time you made you way there.
That thing downtown is not a stadium, or a ballpark, but rather a amphitheater? Maybe? Or the MAC’s backyard?
It’s just an embarrassment! Like Portland is a “sports” town.
Oakland used to have a nice ballpark until they built Mount Davis in centerfield to get the Raiders back from LA. The addition of Mount Davis completely changed the feel of that place and made it a bad baseball venue and a bad football venue. Check out the Raiders & A’s attendance. Both are bottom of the there leagues! Multi purpose venues suck.
Get real Dwight! Like the the Portland City Council would listen to another plan if there was one?
You want my plan? Well here it is…Stop screwing the tax payers!
Sorry, Dwight. You’re shilling for Merritt Paulson here. Sharing has worked for 10 years, and how many more years when the old soccer team was here? Paulson could keep both teams at PGE until this brand-spaking new fantasy boutique baseball stadium of his becomes a reality. The truth is if he cared about baseball, he wouldn’t be kicking the Beavers out of PGE Park for soccer. All he cares about is real estate. It is pretty sad to see sports fans and sports writers being used like a trusty tool from the toolbox.
Yeah! Paulson always cared primarily about the glamor of owning a minor league soccer franchise. That’s why his company which bought the Timbers and Beavers was named Shortstop LLC. Wait, what?
What made Paulson a soccer supporter was the fans of this city. Soccer fans turned out in droves to watch their team and did such a good job of selling the idea of soccer in Portland that a guy with absolutely zero prior experience with soccer decided to spend $10 million of his own money to help renovate a stadium he’ll only be renting in order to bring MLS to Portland.
What did the Beavers fans do? They stayed at home and talked about how they deserved MLB.
Right on Dwight! To heck with the negative humans that keep this great community down.
I will be an MLS Portland Timbers season ticket holder, there’s not doubt about it!
I already am a Blazer season ticket holder.
If we ever get MLB I probably would be a season ticket holder, especially if it’s the A’s.
If they ever brought an NFL team, count me in, even if its the Raiders.
Amanda Fritz says every Timbers supporter should give a Blazers fan a hug. Since she’s never been to a game for either, she probably didn’t know how many Portland sports fans love more than one team in this city.
Self-love time!
but she is well paid by mr allen and JUMPtown!
There is so much Amanda Fritz doesn’t know or have a clue about. Her thinking is beyond strange. She does well at keeping Portland heading in the wrong direction.
I could care less about soccer, but a full stadium for any sport is a good thing for downtown, and no one talks about the benefitthe new configuration will have for PSU Football….they may actually have some homefield advantage now.
MLB will never come to Portland, the area just north of the pearl district/I-405 would have been an awesome site for a MLB park-but its too late now.
I did a little search to see how taxpayer dollars are being spent in Portland and I did not have to go far to find this little gem:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/us/31portland.html
It seems that it is okay to spend $133 million to remodel a building to see $280k of savings per year. In an ideal scenario, this will pay for itself in only 475 YEARS!
Wouldn’t it make a little more sense to put that money towards a ballpark or other entity which generates revenue, jobs, and pays salaries (some of them sure to be over $250k), all of which will benefit the tax base of Oregon, especially in light of the new measures passed recently by the voters there?
Perhaps I am asking for too much, since it is Portland we are talking about here.
Multnomah Stadium is not a baseball facility, but Portland has put up with that for how many years?.
Like Mac Court it is more historic than Memorial Coliseum. but not as a baseball field.
For the few of us who remember Vaughn St then Portland had a baseball stadium. To play baseball in Multnomah Stadium all these years is a perfect example of the City of Portland.
And soon they will be spending almost $700 million on a bike plan to get 25% of people to ride/walk to work The other example of Portland, glad i do not live there.
I’m very happy that baseball will not be played at the Timbers/PSU Football stadium after this season.
I’m unhappy that the city is losing baseball, even if it is minor league. Hopefully Merritt Paulson can find a way to make the Beavers work here somewhere, if not then there’s always room for a single-A franchise somewhere (Hillsboro, Vancouver, etc.)… with a cheaper stadium and a better season (June 15th-September 1st) to fit the local climate, that’s a complete no-brainer.
I can guarantee you that if Beavers fans coalesce around an idea or a location to place a AAA stadium, they will receive a lot of support from Timbers fans. No one is happy about seeing baseball leave Portland.
I hate baseball but I was a supporter of the MC deal till….I will support theb beavers staying in the area.
Another note: Soccer doing great to good in the city will open eyes to the possiblity that we could support other teams *cough* MLB/NFL *cough* the Timbers doing well will only help our cause.
Plus Mr. Allen owner of the flounders and blazers does not want another Pro team in portland and will do anything to stop it. he is a sh**ttlite!
so very true
For those who want baseball to stay in the Portland area, get on Paulson’s side because he’s right there with you.
This is the 22nd post, apparently people do care about soccer and minor league baseball. I for one care about both and hope a Beavers deal can be worked out somewhere in the area. Tear down the Greyhound track and build it there in Gresham. I’m a Gresham resident and support this, even if it means *gasp* paying some property tax or a pothole or two remaining on my street for 2-3 weeks longer than it should.
How many of the posts actually say they are going to support the teams?
Now, more than 10-15
1st of all, I am thrilled to be getting MLS in PDX. It will be absolutely awesome and the park will be filled to the tune of 20,000-22,000 peeps each and every night for Timbers games…I love it when people try to kill Paulson and make him into some kind of greedy, Republican Mr. Burns-type–it’s so easy, and so naive…PDX is getting an unbelievably great deal here, and I can’t say the same thing about Paulson–maybe, if he’s really fortunate, he may break even on MLS in PDX…it’s not that I doubt MLS will succeed in PDX (it will thrive in PDX, to put it mildly)–it’s that I don’t see how the financial details w/the city, etc., permit Paulson to make money…in any case, thanks Merritt Paulson, for having the guts (financial, and otherwise) to bring MLS to PDX–I know Portlanders and Oregonians will love it.
Portland should have the money to turn the Industrial broken hearted east side into a ballpark, but that isn’t gonna happen.
Two locations I’ve always thought were interesting were the old Southgate Cinemas area, where 99E and the Milwaukie Expressway come together, or a space in the still not filled in Cascade Station, near I-205 and the Airport MAX line.
there is the rumored 217 site that torn down hotel…
Not allowed to have low flying aircraft over large concentrations of people (stadium). I agree with your other possible sites though.
We have not lost baseball in Portland. Now is the time to act if you want to help the Beavers find a new home. With the MLS stadium sorted out Paulson will be placing full attention to a new home for the Beavers.
It’s all politics Portland. You have ding bats running your state and beloved Rose city. You also have more than enough dingbats inhabiting your populace. For crying out loud you just voted yes for more taxes on business’s in a high unemployment state in the middle of a major recession. That and the simple fact that Portland has no real baseball history. You can not sell the Beavers as any sorta history. It’s all politics. Soccer, excuse me “football” is excepted cuz it is euro trash, international, politically correct sport. Baseball is rejected cuz it is all an American sport and thus corporate and greedy and no sell.
I take exception with your comments. Baseball and Soccer are both very international
Baseball is an incredibly international, multi-ethnic sport.
You ought to get out of your little rain soaked corner of the world.
You might of heard of some of these players: Pujols, Pedro, El Duque, Big Papi, Matsui, Ichiro etc…
The sport of baseball unites much of Latin America and the Caribbean…and Far East Asia.
Soccer or “Euro Trash” as you call it is similar but even on a larger scale.
If you ever watched the MLB network or ESPN Deportes you would know the Carribean World Series is playing as we speak but of course your an “American” baseball fan so you already know this.
and these great international countries you are referring to, the Caribbean, Japan, well they are just about as Americanized as any foreign country can be, In fact a case could be made that in many ways they are more American than Portland, For they do have baseball. That’s baseball as American as apple pie, well except for in Portland. They like soccer.
Baseball and Soccer (football) have a heirtage in the area not just Portland but the area. The sport of baseball I find rather boring 20minutes of action (if that) spread out in 4 hours but I would rather watch/follow a Portland Team than the Sh**TLE STariners.
I mean COME ON! Dont you get tired of having sh**tle shoved down your throats by sh**tle and the east baised media?
Your right Dwight PGE is not a ballpark. The new remodeling will allow this venue to become exclusive for football and futbol. It will allow fans to be up close to the action and the atmosphere will be electric.The Timbers move to MLS is the right one and soccer city USA will thrive once again
I am not a baseball fan, and I must say going to see a game is PGE was frankly depressing. Just like any other sport, baseball needs it’s own ballpark, and I hope for baseball fans here that Portland does work to get it.
I am a huge supporter of the Blazers, Timbers, and Winterhawks and attending those games are a real pleasure. Like these organizations, the Beavers have a history here and I hope they can get a ballpark for their fans
The Timbers fans really showed a grassroots yet cohesive effort that eventually culminated in a hard fought campaign to attain a MLS franchise.Initially they were given little or no support from the local media, but the fans continued support and passion for the game eventually could not be denied
Are the baseball fans of this community really all that united about having their own ballpark and team? Honestly I haven’t seen it yet. What I have seen that appears larger is the opposition
Until that is properly addressed and baseball fans become cohesive and actively vocal, you won’t have a chance in hell of seeing a ballpark here
If you want it baseball fans…align and fight for it
Well said!
There is a portion of the baseball community here in town that would rather spend their efforts and time being moronic and flaming their dislike for soccer, or Mr. Paulson with derogatory stereotypes.
As a guy that loves beisbol, this saddens me.
Dwight, so you’re in favor of losing baseball to have MLS soccer right? The fact that PGE Park is far from perfect not withstanding boggles the mind. So just kick baseball down the road and give the stadium to soccer? some baseball fan you are. And don’t give me that crap about being a batboy or playing the game. That makes you about as important as me.
You don’t want an awesome baseball stadium instead of PGE Park? I sure do. Let’s show City Council (whichever one it may be, Portland, Beaverton, etc) that WE WANT BASEBALL, just as the Timbers Army showed Portland it wanted Major League Soccer. Baseball fans, OUR TIME IS NOW! Write the city, write the suburbs. Do I need to do this for you?
Depends upon what you mean, Anna–if, by “baseball”, you mean Major League Baseball, then I’m in–I would looooove to see MLB here…OTOH, if you mean minor league baseball in a major league sized city like PDX, I could pretty much care less…
This attitude is why the Beavers are on their way out of town, not because of Timbers fans.
yup but they cant see it…or that the TIMBERS might actually help their cause…too much venom.
I would love to see a study of how many declared “baseball” fans, that are so opposed to considering soccer as a major professional sport, have ever played organized soccer as a kid or teen. Or how many of their kids play(ed) soccer as well as baseball. Or instead of. People are so quick to dismiss soccer because they believe it to have no “history” in our perceived American culture. That may be true in a professional league kind of way, but it is completely ludicrous to dismiss its historical place in our current culture. I contend that in the last 30 years, more kids (boys and girls ages 7-18) have played organized soccer than baseball/softball. Case in point, the decline of american-born baseball players in the MLB vs the increase of american-born soccer players in MLS and Euro leagues. Maybe this has some relation to the increased numbers of central american people emigrating to the U.S., but there is no indication that trend will change. What’s my point? I contend that the MLS has a better future from this point forward of being a profitable professional venture in Portland (at the current cost of starting a team and building a venue) that will probably have attendance betw 10K to 15K (I doubt 20K except for when Seattle or Vancouver are in town) vs a minor league team that can’t manage half that attendance. And way more inexpensive for our cost-sensitive Portlanders than worrying about building a half billion dollar MLB stadium in hopes that someone may move a money-pit of an MLB franchise for another $300 million (KC? Pittsburgh?). I think its time baseball fans look up from their stat sheets and realize soccer in this country is here to stay and has more potentional for growth than MLB. You want to save money for taxpayers in this town, try asking your city, county, and state reps to stop wasting millions on building new bridges (or conceiving of new ones) when they have existing bridges that need to be massively updated for the safety of its citizens.
Maybe someone should see if the old ESCO property is for sale. It would be pretty cool to reincarnate the old Vaughn Street ball park!
I’d hate to see the Beavers leave town, but like others have said, maybe being without baseball for a while will result in someone(s) with guts, leadership ability, and money stepping forward to build a park and bring a team back here. I know there aren’t many Paul Allen’s out there, but maybe Phil Knight still has a few bucks left over after building the new Ducks ball park?
If only state government had allowed the Indians to build a park in exchange for building a casino in Pdx….what would have been the real harm in that?
Gary