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’m hearing a lot of grumbling from my baseball fan friends who are really disturbed that it appears the city will once again lose the Portland Beavers because PGE Park is going to be modified for soccer and football, with no further configuration for baseball. And of course, no obvious sites for local baseball relocation.

And I’m having to tell them that this time, I’m not on their side.

While I’m not a soccer fan, I understand this city’s romance with the sport. In many ways it is the perfect sport for Portland — all-inclusive, European, Yuppie, rowdy. It’s perfectly Portland, actually. And it’s an easy sport to garner fan support because there just aren’t many games. Perfect for a “mid-major” city like this one.

But the bottom line for me is real simple: Is PGE Park as a baseball venue worth fighting for? The easy answer is: No way. I was there as a little kid for the very first baseball game there, in 1956. It was poor then and it’s still not a good spot for baseball.

Yes, a lot of great players have played there. But if anybody ought to be nostalgic about the joint it’s me. I practically grew up in that place, as a batboy for the Beavers and later a clubhouse boy, pressbox boy, PA announcer, scoreboard operator, official scorer and even a director of group sales. Later, I covered the team for many seasons, starting when it returned to Portland in 1978. I do not think there are many people on the planet who have watched more games there than I have.

But I’m not feeling much of a connection there. It was always a very cold-feeling stadium and never a “ballpark.” Ever. It’s pretty much an inadequate place for baseball, from having too many seats to having way too many poor seats. The concourse is too small, the restrooms too scarce and the seats are difficult to get to. And when you get more than about 7,000 people in there, it’s a very uncomfortable place to be.

I long for a day when the citizens of Portland can have a real ballpark. Not a football stadium pretending to be ballpark, like PGE Park, which is still a venue better served as a greyhound race track than a ballpark.

But oh yeah, we don’t want to spend money in this town to build even a minor-league park. Mostly that’s because a great many people here don’t know how nice those cool new minor-league ballparks are — and what they would do to spark interest in the team.

And hey, we just remodeled old PGE Park a while back, didn’t we? Well, yes — but it was an overall catastrophe, for sure. And we have to admit that and move on. It was poorly designed and not well-thought-out — a project I will always believe should never have been chosen in the city’s request-for-proposal process — but that’s another topic for another day.

Yes, we did fund a poor stadium remodel. But it’s not as if this city has been investing a whole lot of coin in sports venues over the years. Sports fans, you’re living in a city that has NEVER, and I’m including old Vaughn Street Ballpark, funded the construction of a new baseball stadium. It has NEVER funded the building of a new football stadium.

EVER. I mean, is there another city in the world of at least moderate size that can say that? Yes, we funded Memorial Coliseum for peanuts, about half a century ago. That’s pretty much it for all of sports. And of course, the collective ego in this city dictates that a lot of people here think we’ve taken the right path in that regard — and the entire rest of the world is wrong. Yeah, sure.

In the last few years, Seattle has spent more than a billion bucks on football and baseball venues and while you heard a ton of grumbling about it at the time, you’re not hearing it now. People up there are ecstatic with what the Mariners and Seahawks and their venues have done for Seattle.

But that’s the difference between a big-league city and a bush-league town. And so don’t come at me asking to save PGE Park for baseball. I’m not down with that. We’ve lost the Beavers before — twice. And maybe being without them again will finally spark an interest in building a new ballpark. If it doesn’t, well, that’s fine by me.

I mean, really — this is Portland. And it’s about time we started holding out for something better than just the constant attempts to turn a cow’s ear into a silk purse.

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Tags: Baseball, Dwight Jaynes, MLS, PGE Park, Portland, Vaughn Street Ballpark

I know, I know. Some of you will say that the crowd of 16,637 that showed up in PGE Park last night for the Triple-A All-Star Game is an indication only that Portland is a “big-event” town. That it doesn’t care much about anything but the Blazers but will show up for the occasional Women’s World Cup or big golf tournament.

Yeah, right. Folks, we’re talking about the Triple-A All-Star Game. I’ll be the first to admit when this event was announced a couple of years ago to a lavish news conference and lots of attention, I couldn’t stop laughing. I had no idea Paulson could sell this game out.

Look, I’m a huge baseball fan. I worked for the Beavers all the way through high school and college. Push me against the wall and I’ll admit that the last time a PCL all-star game came to Portland, I was a bat boy for the home team.

But in today’s world, a Triple-A All-Star Game? I’d rather watch the Beavers play Tacoma. But more than 9,000 showed up Monday for the home-run derby — which shocked me. And about 16,000 people showed up last night for the game not knowing a soul on either team. Most of them didn’t even know that “Round Rock” is in the Pacific Coast League. Half of them probably didn’t know who to root for. And once they jammed into the building, they probably couldn’t believe how uncomfortable they were when they tried to do a bathroom or food run.

But they showed up, and at those ticket prices it was stunning.

Give this man a great minor-league park to work with and you’ll see it packed all the time. Congrats on a job well done, Merritt.

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Tags: Merritt Paulson, PCL, PGE Park, Portland Beavers, Triple-A All-Star Game

Geesh, if everyone who is suddenly screaming now about the Portland Beavers moving out of town actually went to games, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

I’m not that concerned about this fuss. If Vancouver, Hillsboro or anywhere else around here stepped up and built a beautiful ballpark, I’d like that better than PGE Park for minor-league baseball. And believe me, PGE Park is a very short ride from where I live.

It’s just that it’s time for us to have a real ballpark. Not a stadium. A ballpark — built for baseball. And if it’s done right, I repeat, it’s going to work even if it’s on Sauvie Island.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, PGE Park, Portland Beavers, Sauvie Island

I don’t think so. Not from the metro area, at least. Yes, soccer and baseball have been disconnected in the latest effort to ensure a conversion of PGE Park to a soccer/football only stadium.

Either the Beavers will end up in Lents Park or somewhere in the suburbs, is my guess. Merritt Paulson isn’t going to let go of the one sure thing in his portfolio. People in Portland refuse to come to grips with the fact that minor-league baseball is successful, financially, just about everywhere and is here, too. Paulson’s made more money off the Beavers than he’s ever made off soccer.

His move to bring the MLS to Portland is a big financial crapshoot, too. It SHOULD be successful, but who knows? Meanwhile, the Beavers will continue to throw off a tidy profit every season, whether they’re in Hillsboro, Vancouver or Troutdale. And a new ballpark, nicely done in a pastoral setting, will be a bigger draw around here than people realize.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Lents Park, PGE Park, Portland Beavers, Portland Timbers

. . . the idea this city is probably most in love with: The idea of turning it into some sort of athletic club. This, from our comments section:

Now we can pick up the pieces , starting with recalling sammy , and fix up a fine work of Architecture. The idea of turning it into a Community Sports Center is STILL a great idea.

I could puke. I mean, there aren’t enough athletic clubs and community centers in Portland as it is? They’re everywhere — plush ones, too. There are rock-climbing gyms, weight-lifting gyms, basketball-court gyms and several places with a combination of all things necessary to a fitness center. There are so many a lot of them are losing money. To even imagine what it would take to convert that old rat-infested barn into some sort of “community athletic center” and keep it running is mind-boggling.

But typically Portland. Again, an idea fostered by people who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.

I love the premise, too, that there’s no point in building a new Triple-A ballpark because the Beavers “only draw 5,000 a game.” Seriously? Man, if PGE Park were any worse for baseball, the Beavers wouldn’t draw that many.

The whole point of a new ballpark is to make the experience of going to games more rewarding. PGE Park has been rejected as a baseball stadium at this point. Just as Civic Stadium and Multnomah Stadium were rejected in previous years. It’s NEVER really been a ballpark — yes, Portlanders, there is a huge difference between a ballpark and a stadium — and the previous renovation did not address the problems with access, concessions, rest rooms and sightlines. PGE Park is still just a football stadium you can play soccer in.

If you’ve seen any of the modern Triple-A ballparks around the country, you’d know why one here would be a roaring success. The one in Sacramento has been a huge attraction for the community.

I used to get upset about how this town didn’t think big. But nowdays, it doesn’t even think medium. It thinks small. An athletic center? Seriously? The old idea of building a roller coaster is better than that. Especially if that coaster is the world’s biggest, or fastest, or the only one that’s covered to protect it from rain — ANYTHING that’s unique and fun.

Not in my city, though. Our big dreamers here would rather put up one more athletic club or just leave it as it is. Let someone else worry about it, is really what they’re saying. Put it off. Think about it sometime in the future.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Memorial Coliseum, PGE Park, roller coaster, Rose Quarter, Triple-A baseball

Now there is a blog for all the well-meaning but misguided people who want to “save” Memorial Coliseum.

Look, you can be opposed to everything Merritt Paulson or Sam Adams has proposed. You can hate soccer and minor-league baseball and you can be against baseball evacuating PGE Park. But I’m telling you this right now: If you think Memorial Coliseum hasn’t outlived its usefulness to the city of Portland you simply don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You obviously haven’t been inside it for an event in the past 10 years.

The old barn was fine for its time, a half century ago. In today’s world, nobody wants to be a tenant there — even the Winter Hawks, who are smartly just working this thing to try to get the best possible lease at the Rose Garden. The coliseum is empty most of the time — with good reason — because it’s inadequate as a spectator facility.

The concourses are too small, the bathrooms too few and the concession stands too outdated.

Don’t talk to me, either, about somebody’s ridiculous plan to turn it into some sort of athletic club on steroids. There are athletic clubs all over town and a good portion of them are losing money. We don’t need another one.

And please, don’t talk about it as being sacred because it’s a memorial to fallen veterans. The “memorial” part of Memorial Coliseum is a dank, usually empty pool on the northeast corner of the building, located below ground where nobody ever sees it and it’s been in disrepair for decades. It’s an insult, rather than a memorial.

Hey, nobody has better memories of that building than I do. I was at the first Portland Buckaroo game. The first Blazer game. Watched the Dream Team’s every game there. Saw the Blazers win a title and play for two others there.

But it’s over, folks. I don’t care what plan you choose for that area, the building has got to come down. Its time has come and gone and don’t insult its proud heritage by using it as a hostage because you don’t like the Paulsons, or the mayor or soccer.

Just let it go.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Memorial Coliseum, Merritt Paulson, PGE Park, Rose Garden, Rose Quarter, Sam Adams

The Trail Blazers took care of business — nothing more and nothing less. The win over Memphis wasn’t much of a contest. But this is the way a playoff-bound team is supposed to handle games like this one.

Not really a lot I can say about it and I doubt you want to read much about it. Interesting sports night in little old Portland, though — 20,000 people in the Rose Garden watching one of the worst teams in the NBA play the Blazers while another 15,000 shivered in PGE Park as the Ducks and Beavers played baseball.

Not bad for a soccer town.

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Tags: Ducks-Beaver baseball, Dwight Jaynes, Memphis Grizzlies, PGE Park, Portland Trail Blazers, Rose Garden

The City Council has passed the proposal that will turn PGE Park into a soccer/football-only facility, which also means a new minor-league baseball stadium for Portland.

It’s all predicated on Portland getting an MLS franchise but you can take it to the bank that’s going to happen. It’s a done deal unless somebody drops the ball in the next two weeks.

There are several interesting aspects of this that we’ll touch on soon, but the most interesting thing is how the location for the new ballpark is now matter-of-factly being reported as being in the Rose Quarter. Originally, it was going to be at Lents Park but slowly that was switched to the more desirable site at the Rose Quarter. In fact, compared to all the discussion and fuss over the Lents location, there’s been no argument over the RQ site.

Nice going by everyone involved to move it over there, by the way. It’s one thing that will give that district some life about 75 nights a year and if done correctly, it could be very picturesque. Also, it stakes a claim to a footprint in that neighborhood for a big-league park down the road a few years, when we’re ready for it.

Considering the freeways, the public transit and proximity to downtown, it’s a dynamite location. And make no mistake, the showpiece of this whole proposal is the new ballpark, which will probably get four times as much use as a soccer/football PGE Park.

But there is so much to do in regard to that site I just don’t see how a ballpark could be thrown up in a very rapid manner. First off, where will it be placed? People keep saying that Memorial Coliseum will be torn down — but that’s a lot easier said than done. First off, it’s going to take time to do that and the site won’t exactly be ballpark-ready immediately.

Second, and most important, there’s going to be a battle there when it comes to bulldozing that building. It’s been waged previously. Everytime someone mentions tearing that old dump down, the veterans come out in unison and raise all kinds of hell about it. I doubt most of them have been inside the old arena in decades because if they had, they’d understand that the old relic’s life is nearly over. In fact, as it stands it’s an embarrassment to veterans as a memorial.

Another veteran’s memorial can be built on that site somewhere, one that will be a lot nicer than the tepid, non-functioning fountain that nobody sees near the basement of the MC.

We’ll examine more of this tomorrow, but I’m not shy at all about saying I’m happy to see sports fans of the city get their share of the city’s financial pie. In the long run, these two venues are going to be enjoyed by a lot more people than ever set foot in the convention center.

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Tags: baseball stadium, City Council, Dwight Jaynes, PGE Park, Rose Quarter

From what I hear, this city has only about a month to figure this whole MLS issue out. No, it doesn’t necessarily matter if Sam Adams is mayor. It doesn’t matter what he’s done with or to that young man, either.

What matters, quite obviously, is whether or not this city will go ahead with plans for a new baseball stadium if Adams is NOT the mayor. Or if Sam stays on, whether he’ll have the political clout to make this happen. That’s really the crux of the matter. And whether Portland can get all that tied up in the month prior to the Major League Soccer franchise deadline.

Here’s the thing — the MLS wants its teams playing in soccer (and football)-only stadiums. Turning PGE Park into a soccer/football stadium is dicey because there simply aren’t that many dates to keep the place busy without minor-league baseball. That place would stand empty about 340 nights a year.

But it appears this city is still convinced it’s Soccer City, USA (remember, in the days of the old Timbers, attendance went DOWN every single year the franchise was in town) so that decision has apparently been made. Just so those of you who weren’t here know, Portland fell in love with winning that magical first Timbers season, not soccer.

But the decision that hasn’t been made is the issue of the minor-league baseball park for the Portland Beavers, which is the real fly in the ointment. Do we want to spend the money on it? And where will it be located?

Adams had a plan for this and, I believe, he was going to get it done. That’s the thing about Adams, he’s the kind of politician who won’t put his name on something until he already knows it’s a done deal. If the stays on as mayor, you’re going to see a lot get done. Or, depending on your political point of view, you’re going to see a lot of stuff get railroaded through without meaningful discussion of it.

The original plan for that ballpark for the Portland Beavers was to locate it at Lents Park, replacing old Walker Stadium. Those plans are dead, from what I understand. The Rose Quarter area — a much better site — is the latest rumored location. It would certainly put some life into that area throughout the summer, which would be nice because the Rose Quarter is a ghost town on every night the Trail Blazers don’t play.

I’m not sure where I stand on that whole thing at this point. And I am also not sure I need to have an opinion. I want to know if the project has any legs without Adams. Or whether Adams can survive the current scandal.

Incidentally, I think he can survive if he chooses to fight the battle. They’d not be able to get the votes to recall him.  Man, this is Portland. You know how things are around here.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Lents Park, Major League Soccer, PGE Park, Portland Beavers, Sam Adams