Squeezing it in
The folks who are still fantasizing about Portland having a major league baseball team have shown what they think the stadium would look like if they put it where the Lloyd Center mall is now.
I dunno. That's a mighty skinny footprint. You'd think they'd knock out the dumb high-rises on the sides and add some more seats. I'm not sure what that's about. Plus, I understand that the leagues like a view over the outfield fences. Here you'd be looking out at some pretty nondescript real estate across the Banfield Freeway.
My hat's off to anybody who wants to give big league baseball a go in the Rose City. But with the Blazers already raking in 41 big-bucks nights a year from their die-hard fans, you have to wonder whether the money is around for 81 more for baseball. But hey, as Debbie once sagely observed, dreamin' is free.
UPDATE, a few minutes later: The O just put up an interesting interactive graphic about the site, here.
If they can squeeze Fenway Park into crowded Boston the way that it is now, I don’t see why they couldn’t do this. Not that I want to see the LC torn down though.
ReplyDeleteWhat about some other US cities without major league teams. I don’t know, but I think that Omaha, Louisville, Austin, or Tulsa would make much better landing spots for a future MLB team than Portland would.
Portland will always be a one-horse town. Especially nowadays with all of its associated problems.
It would be interesting to mark on that map where shootings have occurred over the last two years. I'd bet there'd be a *lot* of marks. As for Fenway, like Wrigley, it's there because it's a shrine. And there's actually more room around it than you see here.
DeleteThe politics of trying to put it in the Lloyd District are unnavigable. Way too many stakeholders and hands out to make that ever work. It'll make Paulson's attempt to build in Lents look like a fourth-grade checker game. It'll be fun to watch them try though.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to drop this thing on-top of a dead mall, Mall 205 is right there. A developer could have everything from Burnside south to Main Street, from I-205 to 112th Ave. Easy freeway and MAX access. And would instantly catalyze east Portland. A little sketchier, but as interesting, would be the Gateway Freddy's.
You wanna go Big Brain? Phil figures out how to pry the Blazers from Jody. Phil knocks down 1/3 of his Nike campus to build a new home for the team. Then we build the new stadium in the Rose Quarter.
Otherwise, punt and build it in Wilsonville where Fry's used to be.
To be fair, Paulson can play a first-grade Candyland game, at best.
DeleteAs soon as the high rises are filled with tenants, they will complain to the city that the light pollution from the stadium is disturbing them and the city will of course accommodate them by only allowing day games.
ReplyDeleteI like day games.
DeletePaulson has made a lot of people a lot of money on the soccer thing. There's a reason no one is forcing him to sell despite everything that went down at his club.
DeleteMLB likes to wring public money out of cities to build stadiums. I'm pretty sure that's a non-starter for Portland.
ReplyDeleteThe Portland Crack and Jacks?...
ReplyDeleteIf it’s in Lloyd District, you know the Albina Vision folks are going to be elbowing their way in for a chunk of cash as reparations. Anyone remember Jumptown or the attempt to put baseball at PPS headquarters?
ReplyDeletePortland’s lack of an MLB team —and its status as the largest U.S. metropolis without one — is puzzling, but something to be admired.
ReplyDeleteDespite a municipal government that seemingly specializes in rudderless drift, incoherent officials and astoundingly bad ideas, the city of Portland has somehow managed to avoid getting shaken down by some paper billionaire promising an exciting new “entertainment” district that will be as popular as the Rose Quarter when the Blazers aren’t playing.
What makes this even more surprising is local officials who seem willing to throw millions of public dollars at any preposterous boondoggle dredged up by Homeless Inc.
It should be pointed out that Portland remains, at best, a second-tier small-city market. In baseball terms, think Pittsburgh — a club that can develop talent but can’t afford to keep it.
Aside from the Blazers — the only major-league franchise — the city has been home to an assortment of charlatans masquerading as “major” sports. The World Football League, the USFL, World Team Tennis, the North American Soccer League, Professional Roller Hockey and no fewer than three iterations of the Pacific Coast League Beavers have all either left town or folded altogether. Anyone remember Marshall Glickman?
On another note, just imagine the excitement of a chilly, drizzly night game in September featuring the local Spare Parts expansion club taking on another woebegone nine in a contest signifying nothing.
At least it would be quiet. Until eight or 10 years down the road when ownership would be braying for a new, shinier public-financed playground for its princes and promising to leave if the request is denied.
Be careful what you wish for.
The “Field of Schemes” book is STILL perfectly on point. Now updated regularly through a blog
Deletehttps://www.fieldofschemes.com/
Yup. And yet civic boosters are still lining up to be fleeced.
DeleteOf course, it’s not THEIR money.
In the summer of ‘49. A couple of guys, with sufficient money, had a discussion about buying a major league team and building a ball field in Guilds Lake. The dream ended when the pile of money was framed insufficient and the Braves weren’t ready the sell yet
ReplyDeleteIn 1964, Portland voters twice shot down a proposal that would have built a domed stadium in Delta Park.
DeleteSince then, MLB and the National Football League have each added 10 new franchises. Not to mention numerous franchise shifts (Milwaukee Braves to Atlanta; Kansas City Athletics to Oakland; Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee; Washington Senators to Texas, Montreal Expos to Washington, to name just MLB’s shifts; in the NFL, there has been Los Angeles Rams to St Louis and back to Los Angeles; Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles, then back to Oakland, then to Las Vegas, with a threatened move to Irwindale, Calif., mixed in; San Diego Chargers to Los Angeles; Houston Oilers to Memphis, Tenn., and then to Nashville; Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis; Cleveland Browns to Baltimore; and New York Giants and New York Jets both moving to New Jersey.
As for Portland, we’re still the stalking horse of choice for team owners threatening to move from their current cities unless a new palace is built.
And likely to happily remain so until another group of corrupt Portland political climbers needs a new, shiny distraction from its financial failures and socio-economic disasters.