Cliff Pfenning is the editor of oregonsports.com
PGE Park is a baseball stadium that’s also home to soccer and football games. And, that’s how it’s going to remain, so fans of MLS to PDX should begin supporting a drive to build a true soccer stadium.
Argue all you want to keep PGE Park as the home to the Timbers so people can walk across the street to the Bullpen, but PGE Park is a baseball stadium that’s going to be home to the Beavers for quite a while. That’s why the Bullpen is named to attract baseball fans.
There’s a fever pitch in the Timbers Army and the baseball-luvin’ part of Portland’s media to renovate PGE for soccer and build a baseball stadium for the Beavers – currently it’s in the Lents area of Southeast Portland. But, this plan, which is being promoted by the Timbers/Beavers, is going to last about as long as Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential campaign.
Remember Rudy?
Whatever gets built is going to be downtown, and it’s not going to be a hard sell to promote that stadium being for soccer because PGE Park is already a baseball stadium. And, it’s plenty capable, parking-wise, of handling crowds of 3,000 to 12,000 throughout spring and summer.
Portland has a baseball stadium. It needs a soccer stadium, one that’ll make the rest of the world take notice of the creative and artistic abilities of the Rose City. There’s plenty of space to build it next to the Rose Garden, which already handles crowds of 20,000 – the crowd size the Timbers will be aiming for 20 times a year.
This is how Seattle worked Safeco Field and Quest Field – they’re across the street from one another.Beyond parking, think of the soccer fans 10 years into the future walking into the soccer-specific PGE Park wonder aloud, “why didn’t we build a soccer stadium when we had the chance, instead of turning a baseball stadium into soccer stadium?”
Let’s start driving public opinion toward building a soccer stadium - across the street from the Rose Garden.
There’s strong logic in this strategy, the kind that can attract the general public.“Let’s get to MLS as fast as possible,” is not filled with the kind of logic that will sway the public to support using public funds to build or renovate anything.
It would be great if the people who own and manage the Timbers/Beavers came up with this strategy. Building a stadium – for any sport - anywhere outside of downtown Portland isn’t going to happen, especially with $4 gas. And, putting a stadium next to the Rose Garden is a pretty easy sell to the public because of the parking issue and mass transit and the access to land that can be turned into housing such as exists in the Pearl District.Maybe, a headquarters hotel goes into that area as well.And, the owners of the Bullpen can open another Bullpen there, too. That’s the kind of strategy that might be supported by, say, Barack Obama. Remember him?Short term vs. long term.You all need to get behind the long-term strategy … unless you want the soccer stadium to be built in soccer-luvin’ Beaverton – it's not that far away.
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5 comments:
what you state as putative 'facts' are still your opinions.
I would argue that one of the reasons why a baseball stadium makes sense to the owner of the Beavers is parking revenue. PGE Park has almost no parking controlled by the site. Most of the lots are private. A new stadium for baseball in Lents or elsewhere would likely include a 1500 space parking facility. 72 nights a year compared to 20 for a new soccer facility. Then that facility at the Rose Garden? Goodbye parkign revenue.
The picture is about soccer/football/baseball/money. What combination works best with the facilities and opportunities.
Uhhhh... Baseball staduim? PGE park was originaly built for football not baseball. The original design was for a complete horseshoe shape, but the MAAC didn't own the land for the East Grandstand so it wasn't built. Ironically, the MAAC football team was disbanded 1 week after the stadium was dedicated. Oregon and OSU (OAC at the time) also played there. The major tenant for 20+ years was dog racing. Baseball didn't arrive until 1956. http://www.pgepark.com/stadium/history/.
PGE Park has it's fun little quirks for baseball, but it is hardly an ideal layout and isn't expandable should Portland ever get MLB. By adding an east stand and bringing the existing stands down closer to the touch lines, PGE is the perfect soccer/football stadium.
My reasons why it makes more sense to relocate AAA baseball:
1. Aesthetics - PGE Park will never make a good baseball facility unless it was completely gutted. Look at all of the successful minor league facilities and you'll see open concourses, outfield berms, etc. PGE Park simply can't accomodate this;
2. Cost - it is cheaper to build a 10,000 seat AAA baseball stadium than a 25,000-30,000 seat soccer/football stadium.
3. Revenue - The Timbers and the city (redevelopment-wise) will make a ton of revenue whether they stay at PGE Park or move. However, the Beavers and the city stand to make a lot more money in the Rose Quarter compared to staying at PGE. Why? Well, aside from the stadium aesthetic issues, you have better transit access (which will matter for baseball but soccer will sell out regardless), and you also have city-controlled parking garages to accomodate 8,000-10,000 fans for 70-100 days per year (this is important to help pay off any stadium debt). Not to mention the redevelopment potential in and around the Rose Quarter which would do far better with baseball and its many more games compared to soccer/football.
Economic development projects work far better in baseball stadiums and basketball/hockey arenas than soccer/football stadiums simply because they are filled more often.
Bruce makes a good point about parking revenue but this is an area that the city will need to tap into if you want them to help build the facility. Paulson should be able to make it work as long as he get a fair cut of the in-stadium revenues, while the city capitalizes on parking and adjacent development rights to pay their share and help build synergy for a more successful streetcar line/convention center hotel.
Go for the soccer specific stadium.................. not a baseball stadium. Portland timbers need a new home. Portlnad Timbers hace very nice demographics for a European type of stadium, like the new New York Red Bull Stadium. Then Portland will be soccer USA, u you need to be ahead to be the best, look at Seattle.
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