Supporters hope stadium plan leads to big-league ball
Portland Business Journal - by Andy Giegerich
Cathy Cheney | Portland Business Journal
The proposed PGE Park renovation could send its signature tenant into an entirely new facility.
Merritt Paulson, the owner of the Portland Beavers Triple-A baseball team and soccer's Portland Timbers, is mulling changes that could accommodate a Major League Soccer team but force the Beavers to find new digs.
The suggested renovations would convert the stadium into a soccer and football venue exclusively. Paulson said the moves could lead him to explore building a new Beavers stadium in Portland that would hold around 10,000 fans.
Paulson expects to complete a timeline for the efforts later today.
"I think PGE works great as a baseball facility, but the baseball-specific venue is very attractive and would work under the right circumstances," Paulson said.
The Portland Baseball Group, which includes many prominent business leaders, believes the move could buoy its own drive to attract a big-league baseball team. Paulson said he'll seek a site that could hold a larger facility down the road.
"It would make the process of attracting Major League Baseball significantly easier," Paulson said.
Before determining whether he could expand a smaller facility into a $500 million-plus Major League Baseball-quality stadium, Paulson would need to find at least $80 million to renovate PGE Park, purchase an MLS expansion team and build a new Beavers park.
While he's devised no financing possibilities, Paulson said he'll likely seek help from local government sources.
He could also draw on a 2003 state funding bill to offset some of the stadium's expansion costs. The bill would apply the state tax portions of players' and executives' salaries toward stadium construction bonds.
David Logsdon, the city's spectator facilities manager, said staffers will study both the proposed PGE Park renovation and new baseball stadium ideas by the end of the year.
Big-league dreams
Portland's interest in big-league baseball crests every few years. Earlier this decade, former Mayor Vera Katz ordered a stadium site study that explored several possible park locations. State lawmakers then narrowly approved the stadium funding bill in a dramatic late-session vote.
The efforts stalled when Major League officials moved the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C., in 2005, then briefly re-emerged when Florida Marlins executives visited town in early 2006.
The Marlins stadium lease expires in 2011, said Steve Kanter, president of the Portland Baseball Group. The group is also tracking whether the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, one of the majors' least successful teams attendance-wise, will remain in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla., area.
"There will be a team moving, and hopefully at that point, Portland will be able to persuade the world that we're ready," Kanter said.
Paulson's baseball vision emerged last week during a Portland visit by Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber. Garber's league will add four teams over the next four years; Portland is a serious candidate to attract an MLS team in 2011.
But first, PGE Park would require new soccer-friendly seating opposite what's now the first-base line. MLS officials would also want local operators to add more restrooms and locker-room improvements.
Still, any renovations to PGE Park could face resistance from Portland city commissioners who remember the financial troubles that stadium operators Portland Family Entertainment faced after the new facility opened in 2001.
The city remained on the hook for overdue payments as the Pacific Coast League, and eventually new owners, took over the Beavers and Timbers.
Austin Raglione, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Potter, said the meeting did not address a potential new baseball stadium.
Potter, who's lukewarm to a Major League Baseball bid, has yet to consider a taxpayer-aided new facility.
Paulson doesn't believe the previous stadium issues would affect city commissioners' opinions.
"There's nothing but positives going on with the teams right now, and I think people understand that PFE came in under a flawed financing plan from the get-go," he said. "That's not the situation here. I'm investing more for the long term."
The Katz-ordered study sparked debate over the best new stadium sites. The top candidates include the U.S. Post Office site in the Pearl District and the current Portland Public Schools administrative building's property, near the Rose Garden arena.
"It would be great if we could site it as a location that would make sense if we were to ultimately attract a Major League Baseball franchise," said Wally Van Valkenberg, a Stoel Rives LLP managing partner who headed the Oregon Stadium Campaign. "And I'd think Merritt would be interested in that as well because he might be in the franchise's ownership group."
Kanter said the prospects have his team ready to move quickly if, say, the Marlins come calling.
"We're quiet now because no one's moving immediately," he said. "But we remain convinced that someone will move. And I remain in close contact with the Marlins."
agiegerich@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3419
http://portland.bizjournals.com/port...ml?t=printable
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