Squeeze play
The people flogging the fantasy of major league baseball in Portland have come up with yet another site for a stadium. First it was Lloyd Center, then it was a golf course in Beaverton, and now it's... drumroll, please...
The organization has agreed to purchase Zidell Yards, a former shipyard south of downtown Portland that overlooks the Willamette River. It's bordered by the Tillikum Crossing to the north and OHSU tram to the south. The Ross Island Bridge splits through it. The project enters a 120-day due diligence period with a 42-month period to purchase, Portland Diamond Project reported.
Are they kidding?
South Waterfront (SoWhat for short) is a traffic disaster. It's hard to get in there, and hard to get out. There's no freeway exit for it that works. Ingress and egress gets confined to a single lane in places. Shoehorn a 50,000-seat stadium in, and you're talking serious gridlock. And right at a spot that's already one of the biggest chokepoints for traffic in the whole region.
Try getting through there on I-5, or crossing the Ross Island Bridge, at 5:15 p.m. on a weekday, any weekday. Then think about adding thousands of cars trying to snake their way into SoWhat for a game that starts at 7:00. Insanity!
Besides, the MLB boys and girls like a view of downtown over the outfield fence. At SoWhat, the Tillicum and Marquam bridges block any view of downtown. The upper deck of a stadium would see Mount Hood, when it's out.
I don't see any of the latest version of the fantasy coming true any time soon. I just hope we taxpayers don't get taken to the cleaners too badly while they flail around trying to make it happen.
Yep, the traffic nightmare was my first thought. I-5 already backs up with a much smaller crowd for a Blazer game.
ReplyDeleteAnd there are actual exits with parking right at the Moda Center. Not the case at SoWhat. And a baseball stadium would take up pretty much every square inch of that lot. There would be next to zero space for parking.
DeleteWe can all take the bus to OHSU, then take the tram down to the ball park - 30 people at a time!
ReplyDeleteThere's also the question of whether we can support both an NBA team (40-plus home games) and an MLB team (80-plus home games). Not to mention soccer and now WNBA. How much disposable income do the Portlanders have for sports? They'd be pushing the envelope.
ReplyDeleteWill it be covered with AC for those 100°+ days?
DeleteLike it’s been from the start, this is just a complete ruse for merch and (maybe) a real estate development deal. Zero chance MLB goes for any of these BS sites. Buy a MLB to PDX shirt! Then enjoy some mixed use fun.
ReplyDeleteQuestions I have are who these people are, and where the money is coming from.
Deletehttps://www.oregonlive.com/mlb/2019/01/ready-for-a-25-billion-swing-at-major-league-baseball-portland-diamond-project-charter-investors-revealed.html - I find it interesting the lack of old money being funneled into this. Are the funders from 2019 still interested in Portland in 2024? A lot of people have moved out.
DeleteThat’ll certainly boost streetcar ridership!
ReplyDeleteBoats.
ReplyDeleteMLB is a business. Some say it’s profitable. Since business investors want to see a profit. The question for Portland becomes , how will a Portland team find enough paid attendance in the 80+ home games to cover any operating cost.
ReplyDeletePlease don’t tell me that TV money will pick up the slack.
Despite averaging fewer than 11,000 fans per game, the A's will be one of baseball's five most profitable teams this year. Revenue sharing is a helluva thing.
DeleteBaseball is a mess right now. You've got maybe a quarter of the league out there trying to win, half the league treading water in various ways, and another quarter who are just here to optimize their balance sheets.
I actually think that current infrastructure will support the attendees because THERE WON"T BE ANY!
DeleteIs there any TIF left in SoWhat?
ReplyDeleteOr will they siphon away increment from other UR districts?
You know that urban renewal will be part of the equation.
Just another lame duck city council play before the mopes on the new council take over and spend the better part of a year trying to figure out how to turn the lights on. (But another greatt Bojack column.)
ReplyDeleteBaseball, hot dogs, apple pie and the USA don't sell well in Potland.
ReplyDeleteMust be something about the elite mind set in Portland.
DeleteAt least it's a better site than the RedTail property in Beaverton. There's at least a light rail stop there already.
ReplyDeleteRedTail would have been miles of backup on Beaverton Hillsdale Highway and 217 with no other option.
Looks like a squeeze play to me. Do these guys have stolen money like Paulson got from his dad's shenanigans while running the Treasury department?
ReplyDeleteYour buddy Dwight Jaynes is a big proponent of this whole mess. Why not ask him the who’s and where’s?
ReplyDeleteI think the WNBA is more in line with the average Portlander than MLB. Baseball is pretty low key and laid back, not as many opportunities for virtue signaling which is so important these days.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the music venue racketeers could join forces with the MLB scammers and the developer weezles for a combined mixed-use boondoggle!
ReplyDelete