I’d love baseball to come to Portland and I quiver at the prospect of the disgruntled Florida Marlins coming to P-Town, but I’ve come around to the belief that the city/county/state shouldn’t fund the majority of the cost. In fact a token contribution in the way of helpful permitting or helping with road construction to facilitate cars and trucks get to the ball park are fine with me. But I don’t want to use public monies to build a stadium so “they will come.”
I want some owner to work a deal and buy his/her/their own doggone stadium.
We don’t have the money to spend on the stuff I want because we’re so busy spending money elsewhere.
Herewith are my 12 reasons why Portland, Oregon can’t afford baseball:
(feel free to add your reasons)
We don’t have $ for baseball because that $15 million dollar tram turned into a $40 million dollar tram.
We don’t have $ for baseball because we’re spending it on…The campaigns of the Portland City Commissioners who thought they’d impose this cost on taxpayers without a vote of the people.
We don’t have $ for baseball because we’re spending it on…helping the Portland Public Schools build a new school at the Columbia housing projects…even though private parties wanted to put a charter school there. For Free.
We don’t have $ for baseball because instead of $10,000 in property taxes that would have been paid toward schools, fire, police, and running the government, the buyer of that $700,000 downtown condo only has to pay $198 bucks.
We don’t have $ for baseball because we’re spending it on…Portland’s civic EGO in the form of the inefficient, 19th century, Lightrail system, that moves less than 1% of commuters…for $100 million dollars a mile.
We don’t have $ for baseball because we’re spending it on…chasing businesses out of the city with the business income tax.
We don’t have $ for baseball because we’re spending it on… the Wapato Jail. Oh, wait, we don’t have the money to open the Wapato Jail. Nevermind.
We don’t have $ for baseball because we’re giving WIC, food stamps, free education, free health care, driver’s licenses, and free housing to people who broke the law and came to this country illegally.
We don’t have $ for baseball because we’re spending it on…a green roof for the Portland building and the multnomah county building.
We don’t have $ baseball because we keep paying for the mistakes of people who hired Steve Goldschmidt…and fired the janitors…offended panhandlers and pepper sprayed wimpy protesters.
We don’t have $ for baseball because the big dog in town…the Blazers…don’t want the competition for your sports dollar.
And finally we don’t have $ for baseball because we’re still spending it on… the renovation of PGE Park the last time we sniffed pine tar in the air.
Sorry I wasn’t able to call in last evening, but here’s my take on Portland taking on another White Elephant that the elected officials no nothing about:
1. If there are enough people in this metro area that would attend enough times each year to make baseball a profitable business here in the metro area, let them prepay for enough tickets to build the stadium, the team salaries, etc., etc.
2. We have too many other things that take up our time here, the beach, the mountains, the rivers, etc., etc.
3. If the sucessful baseball franchise holders don’t think they should build a stadium here and move their team or another team here, why should the leaders of the City of Portland think they know better?
4. Besides, they’re going to use the last few dollars they have in the pot to set up a wi-fi system. (Also non-profitable)
I’m sure glad I moved to Vancouver!
Victoria; Your reasons for why we cant afford baseball in Oregon points out how much our priorities are out of whack.
As a libertarian I agree with the absurdity of the things you point out. We do however need to keep from being overly jaded by previous bad government decisions. If we become cynical and not take each proposal on a case by case basis we will pass up on any truly good opportunities. I went to Oregonstadiumcampain.org and researched Portland’s baseball proposal. It actually looks good.
$150 million of the funding is to come from the baseball players income tax. Minor funding is to come from naming rights, ticket taxes etc. Also in the case of the Marlins
they have mentioned investing up to $220 million of their own money.
Granted there are a lot of “ya but”
at this early stage of the game.
If in fact we can work up funding a stadium using funds generated exclusively from baseball related business and iron clad built in protection to shield taxpayers don’t we owe it to ourselves to bring major league baseball to Portland?
On to Ed R.
1. I am not aware of any facility public or private, profitable or not that has used prepaid ticket sales to fund construction and salaries.
Portland can however purchase bonds against future ticket sales, naming rights,corp. sponsors, television rights etc.
2. Although the beach, mountain etc. are wonderful, folks in Portland would still find time to squeak in some summertime ballgames. After all studies show Portland watches a lot of baseball on TV. Also all that money spent at Seattle Mariners games by Portlanders would now be spent locally.
3.The baseball franchise holders look to the leaders of potential relocation cities to “sell” them.
The franchise holders (owners) want the best fit for their team. Portland may have been a bad fit for the Expos (who passed on Portland) but a good fit for the Marlins. Everything is a case by case basis.
4. The Wi Fi system! Ha! That’s a whole other topic. If they can craft a way where only the people who choose to use it pay for it, than I’m there.
From what I read, that is exactly how the baseball stadium financing is crafted!
Well ed r. At least if we do get major league baseball you will be a short ride from Vancouver to enjoy the game!
I’m with Roy on this possibility to bring MLB to Portland. I’ve actually read the documents posted at http://www.oregonstadiumcampaign.com. I wish you, Victoria, as someone who some people expect to have some time and willingness to learn about issues would go through the documentation yourself. But you just get on the air, and have your pre-conceived opinion (like Lars, Rush, Sean, Mike) and its just a waste of time talking/listening to you. Can you ever, ever, surprise us, at least once. And can you, unlike Bush, ever admit that you are wrong. Forgive me, being in a cult, you can never admit your wrong.
One fact that you have decided to ignore about baseball fans in Portland. We are going to Seattle and spending lot of cash (10 percent of each game come from the Portland vicinity, they spend on average $100.00, 3,000X100.00=300,000.00), thats $300,000.00 per game. Why don’t you want that cash and those jobs in Oregon. Why are you so anti-business Victoria?
This question is from a Democratic Party member.
Victoria,
Not wanting MLB in Portland is fine, but please fully understand the funding.
Look at the proposal. One hundred & fifty million comes from the players. No citizens there. Another hundred plus comes from business taxation districts…I.E. business’s that will profit from the proximity of a ballpark. Bars, resteraunts and motels would fall under this. No taxation on Joe citizen there either.
If a ballpark is funded prudently, this is a no brainer. A pro baseball franchise in PDX would be a MAJOR business here in the state. Being uninformed and scared is one reason Oregon falls in the back of the pack in the business world. Reward requires some risk.
Having 30 millionaires living in Oregon and their taxes going to our schools, buying cars, buying houses, shopping…that ain’t gonna hurt.
Remember, every player that plays even one game in Oregon would pay state income tax (exceptions being Ca & Wa due to reciprocity). So if The Red Sox play here for 6 games a year, every player will pay 6 days of state income tax. With a team payroll over 100 million, that is a chunk of change going into Oregon Coffers.
No ballpark would even be built without an ironclad lease in place.
The last MLB All star game in Seattle pulled in nearly $75
million…in one weekend. That would be nice here wouldn’t it? If you check with Seattle or Denver COC’s..they can forward you economic impact reports regarding MLB in their community’s. Remember, it isn’t just the park, its the whole district around the park that benefits…in Denver this is LoDo, in Seattle its SoDo, in Baltimore its the HArbor..In PDX it would be..where?
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