Californian eyes MLS here
Developer Michael Keston holds the rights to discuss placing an expansion soccer team in Portland or Seattle -
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
BOAZ HERZOG
The Oregonian
The owner of a potential Major League Soccer franchise in Portland is a California real estate developer with ties to former Trail Blazers owner Larry Weinberg.
Michael Keston said this week he retains the exclusive rights to discuss with MLS the possibility of bringing an expansion team to either the Portland or Seattle area.
MLS commissioner Don Garber has touted both areas as viable candidates for one of three expansion clubs the league wants to add by 2010. Areas other than Portland or Seattle that the 13-team league is considering include Atlanta, the Bay Area, Cleveland, Miami, Philadelphia and St. Louis.
Garber has said MLS has discussed its options in Portland and Seattle with an undisclosed investment group for several months. MLS officials confirmed Tuesday that Keston is heading the group.
Keston, 67, said he has not ruled out Seattle but that he and his son James Keston came away very impressed from an initial two-day tour of Portland and PGE Park two weeks ago. James Keston, a 30-year-old recent graduate of the London School of Economics, would probably assume a top leadership role in an expansion team, Michael Keston said.
"We very much would like to be in Portland," he said. "We think the people and atmosphere are great and it's a place we could very happily be."
One hitch, Keston said, is that MLS would want a Northwest expansion franchise to compete within two years.
The MLS season runs concurrent with the spring-through-summer seasons of the two professional teams that currently call the stadium home, the Portland Timbers of the USL and the Portland Beavers Triple A baseball club. The teams signed a lease with the city to play at PGE Park through 2010, and the teams each have the option to extend the lease by two years.
John Doussard, spokesman for Portland Mayor Tom Potter, said Tuesday that the city is very interested in helping the owner of an MLS franchise become a tenant at PGE Park and help pay for upgrades of the facility. City officials have said replacing the 7-year-old NeXturf playing surface probably would be necessary. Other needed upgrades include boosting seating capacity from 19,566 to 25,000, adding more restrooms and concession areas and upgrading the locker rooms and press boxes, Keston said.
The city, however, has a good lease with the Timbers and Beavers, Doussard said, "and we wouldn't want to do anything that would compromise that agreement."
Gavin Wilkinson, general manager and coach of the Timbers, described the idea of an MLS team in Portland as phenomenal, but he couldn't see the team coexisting with the Timbers.
"There's not enough population to support two professional soccer teams in such a small area," Wilkinson said. "It would be great for the community, but how it could work and when it could work still needs to be figured out."
The Oregon Sports Authority is trying to broker a solution. The nonprofit group led a gathering of city, business and community soccer officials who greeted the Kestons on their visit last month.
"Now, it's really time to put our heads together and explore what we can do to make this work here," said Drew Mahalic, the Oregon Sports Authority's chief executive.
Mahalic declined to describe possible solutions but said, "All options are on the table."
It appears that a bid by real estate developer Ben Stutz, of JB Equities of Portland, to bring an MLS expansion team to Portland is dead. Mahalic said he referred Stutz to Keston a few weeks ago. Keston said Tuesday that he has not heard from Stutz.
Stutz did not return phone calls from The Oregonian, and MLS officials said they had not spoken to him.
Keston has amassed his fortune -- enough to afford the $30 million MLS requires for an expansion entry fee -- by building and investing in California residential and commercial real estate as the owner and chief executive of Larwin Company. The privately held business was founded by Weinberg, the original owner of the Trail Blazers.
A native of New York City, Keston joined Larwin in 1970 and bought it from Loews Corp. eight years later. The residential building arm of Larwin, with 43 employees, generated revenues of between $100 million and $150 million last year, Keston said.
Keston said his interest in soccer grew from the excitement his two sons have for the sport and his eight years coaching youth teams that they played on during their childhood. Los Angeles, where Keston and his wife, Linda, reside, already is home to two MLS clubs, the Galaxy and Chivas USA. So owning an expansion club in the Northwest, where Keston said he enjoys visiting, became the next best option.
PGE Park is the preferred venue for an MLS expansion franchise in Portland, but Keston said he would consider the idea of building a 25,000-seat stadium outside the city should a lease at PGE Park not work out. Keston estimated it would cost about $120 million to build such a facility.
Officials operating stadiums in Hillsboro and Gresham said they would be open to negotiations to host an MLS expansion team during the construction of a new facility. Hillsboro Stadium seats 7,000 people but has boosted capacity to as high as 10,000 for Portland State football games in 2000 and some high school football games since then.
Steve Gregor, director of Hillsboro's Parks & Recreation agency, said he wasn't sure of the maximum crowd the stadium could hold but that it would probably be feasible to go higher than 10,000 by adding extra bleachers on the facility's north side.
"If the interest starts drifting west toward Hillsboro, we'll start looking at what they need," Gregor said.
Mt. Hood Community College's stadium on the Gresham campus can barely accommodate 4,000 fans.
"But there's room for more if someone wanted to bring them in," said Brandon Drawz, the community college's assistant athletic director. "I'm all for upgrading facilities."
The college is in the middle of a $1.5 million project to renovate its aquatics center. About $300,000 of the project's cost is coming from private donations, Drawz said, adding: "So it's not a leap to go into a partnership with the soccer community."
Keston said he would be very interested in discussing options in Hillsboro and Gresham. First, however, he wants to hear back from Portland officials to see how their offer measures up with Seattle's.
Ultimately, Keston said, choosing between the two locales will come down to which stadium has the best lease to offer. That's because MLS "wants to make sure there is strength in the team and, via the financial arrangements, would be sustainable," he said.
Keston described Qwest Field as the perfect venue for an MLS expansion team in Seattle. The 67,000-seat stadium is home to the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL and the Seattle Sounders, which compete against the Portland Timbers in the United Soccer Leagues' First Division.
Suzanne Lavender, a spokeswoman for First & Goal Inc., which operates Qwest Field, said Tuesday that officials last spoke with Keston a number of weeks ago but that "right now, there aren't any specific discussions going on."
Keston said he hopes to make a decision on selecting Seattle or Portland as the preferred city for Northwest expansion within a month, then seek the blessing of MLS brass.
Boaz Herzog: 503-412-7072,
boherzog@gmail.com
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