You can find the podcast here, when yesterday, as guest hosts on the Bald-Faced Truth, Chad Doing, John Strong and I had the opportunity to interview city commissioner Randy Leonard.

Among other things, the commissioner said he expects Commissioner Dan Saltzman (the swing vote on the City Council) to make up his mind this week. And it sounded as if Leonard expects Saltzman to vote for the proposal to put the new Triple-A ballpark at Lents Park.

Leonard was also critical of the Trail Blazers’ role in steering the ballpark away from the Rose Quarter. I think you’ll want to listen.

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City Commissioner Randy Leonard is just back from New York and a visit with the commissioner of Major League Soccer. What are the chances of Portland being granted an expansion franchise by the league?

Leonard says it’s in the bag if all goes well with PGE Park. “It’s clear to me that it’s ours to lose,” Leonard said Wednesday.

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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.

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