Lents Gets Their Wish - UPDATE!!

Merritt Paulson has decided to withdraw the plan to put a triple AAA ballpark in Lents, per this letter to the City Council and the Lents URAC. What this means is:

• The Timbers front office will focus efforts on getting the details done for MLS in time for the 2011 MLS Season, including securing financing to update PGE Park for MLS.
• The Beavers' future is cloudy at best, but probably not as bad as people might make it out to be. What this means is that the original agreement to get the Beavers a new stadium within Portland would not occur by the September 1st deadline that has been set to secure financing to update PGE Park for soccer.
• Merritt Paulson is committed to do everything he can to keep the Beavers local, but this now means that they can look at other sites within the local Portland - Vancouver WA area. The only sites that have been reviewed officially were the Memorial Coliseum and Lents Park, and now at this point, the rumored sites are Terminal 3, OMSI area, Vancouver or Beaverton. Other people mention sites like Delta Park, Portland Meadows, or the Greyhound Park in Wood Village, but those sites haven't been mentioned officially just by people on blog entries.
• Baseball has been here for over 40 years, and I'm not 100 percent about what this means for the future for the Beavers, but we've had baseball leave PGE Park on 4 different occasions, and so losing it again may be a reality again. This also opens up the possibility that other cities might jump to see if they can buy the Beavers from Paulson and move them when the lease is up in 2010.
• The Memorial Coliseum is still the best stadium site, but it will not be revisited, and Lents Park won't be reconsidered either. Right now, it appears that there might be baseball fans in the area, but they haven't stepped up enough to make their feelings noted.
• The City Council needs to step up and make some decisions soon, and next week, there will be a discussion of the MLS deal for PGE Park only on Wednesday during their regular meeting. We'll here more about the whole baseball issue as this plays out.
• In the past 4 decades, Portland has only built two major stadiums within the area within that time, the Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Garden. The Memorial Coliseum was built with minimal investment, and the Rose Garden was paid for mostly by private money from Paul Allen. The history of this city supporting stadium building has been poor at best, and there is nothing to think that it will change.

So Lents gets what they want and the URD money stays where it is, where it's sat for 11 years without minimal projects, and baseball people are having less of a leg to stand on as the attendance numbers don't seem to support Portland as a baseball area while the Timbers put up better numbers. The debate will rage on, and while the Beavers have over 100 years of history, it appears the days of baseball here might be numbered unless something dramatic happens.

Right now, I'm going to put this on the back burner and focus tonight on the Timbers - Thunder because the lads need our support tonight. As much as I'm interested in this, I'm tired of this city and some of our leaders who can't show enough leadership to make a decision and stick with it and instead we now have the possibility of baseball leaving town over the whole mess.

The boys at 955 The Game are talking about it right now, with Wheels and Strong saying the baseball plan to MC was a good idea, while Vance and Allen are upset about the chance of baseball leaving. If you get a chance to podcast it, it's a fascinating listen as it essentially boils the arguments down to what we've all been talking about for the past year.

Game Day Vs. Minnesota and Way to Stay Classy, Lents

It's game day!!! The Timbers face their rivals to the east from the land of lakes, the Minnesota Thunder!!

http://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/index.ssf/2009/06/game_day_minnesota_thunder_at.html - The O previews the game, but let's recap some specifics:

Game Time: 8 pm at PGE Park. It's a late start because of the broadcast.
Broadcast: You can listen to the match at www.portlandtimbers.com, or watch in on Fox Soccer Channel, channel 401 in the Portland area if you have digital cable.
Special Night: It's Teddy Bear Toss night, where teddy bears go flying after the first Timbers goal. Last year, it was bears ahoy after an early goal, and it's always a fun night to see things landing on the pitch for a good reason. Timber Joey also has a birthday celebration tonight at Barracuda after the match.
Overall History: The Timbers have a winning record against the Thunder with a 10 - 5 - 11 record in 26 meetings throughout the years. At home, the Timbers are 5 - 3 - 5, while on the road, they are 5 - 2 - 6 versus the Thunder.
Timbers Form: Still unbeaten in 10 league matches, a friendly and 2 Open Cup matches since losing their opener in Vancouver. They sit with 20 points at 5 - 1 - 5, and most recently, drew on the road in Carolina last Thursday 0 - 0 and in Charleston on Saturday 1 - 1. They beat Sonoma County on Tuesday 3 to 0 to advance in the Open Cup.
Timber Player Updates: At this point, we know Ryan Pore, Tony McManus and Takuro Nishimura have been dealing with injuries and visa issues. Pore and McManus have targeted the Montreal match on 6/28 for their possible return or at the very least the 7/1 Open Cup match vs. FC Puke Green. No word on Nishimura so far, but I'd like to see him return soon. Everyone else appears to be healthy and ready to play.
Timber Key Players: Mandjou Keita is on a tear lately, with 3 league goals to tie Ryan Pore for the team lead in goals, and Keita got 2 goals on Tuesday in the Open Cup match. He's playing very well lately, and his partner up front, George Josten, has also played well, getting a goal in the Open Cup match as well. Brian Farber continues his stellar play, leading the team with 2 assists, but Johan Claesson and Keith Savage have also played well in the middle by keeping thing stable and providing support in the front or back as needed. The defense continues their stellar play, giving up only 5 goals on the season so far, and Steve Cronin making some rather incredible saves and heady keeper moves. Can't say enough about the job Keel, Hayes, Scot, Cam and Danso have done in back. One guy I've been impressed with lately is Taka Suzuki, who seems to have found a place in the midfield, showing some creativity and flair that have been missing lately. He has made some nice plays and is showing some hustle, and it's good to see him showing some skills.
Upcoming Timbers Matches: They get a break for a bit, not playing again until June 28th versus Montreal, but then play 7/1 versus FC Puke Green, 7/2 in a friendly against Bayern Munich II and then head to the road to play Minnesota on 7/4
Thunder Form: Courtesy of their website, the Thunder got their first win of the 2009 USL campaign on Sunday 6/14 versus Carolina at home 2 to nil. They also beat the Chicago Fire PDL team 4 to nil in the Open Cup to advance to a meeting with the Kansas City WIzards on 6/30 at home, and their next league match in the USL after tonight is the 27th when they host Rochester. They currently sit in last place in the USL Division 1 with 7 points and a 1 - 5 - 4 record in 10 games played.
Thunder Player Updates: Per their website, the team has been playing better lately, but got off to a really rough start. They have two injuries to Kevin Friedland and Rich Costanzo, as Friedland has hamstring issues and Costanzo has a dislocated elbow. Everyone else is healthy.
Thunder Key Players: The Thunder have 3 players with 2 goals each, Brian Cvilikas, Leonel Saint-Preux, and Ricardo Sanchez, while Sanchez has 3 assists to lead the team. Long time Thunder player Melvin Tarley returns to the Rose City, along with a former Timber, Lawrence Olum, who has a goal and assist. Olum was a midfielder for the Timbers last season, and was a fan favorite with his high energy runs. Nick Platter returns as the long time Thunder net minder, a veteran of many Timber - Thunder matches.
Key Notes: Former Thunder player and coach Amos McGee is now coach with the Timbers, so he faces his old side tonight. McGee resigned from the team last year, and was replaced by Manny Lagos, who is still coach of the Thunder. The Thunder are playing a bit better after their rough start, but the Timbers are on a roll right now, not having a loss since April and they are getting a lot of contributions across the pitch.
Prediction: As much as I'd like to rely on the records here, I don't think this game will be as easy as people might think. Minnesota is a scrappy team, and they traditionally play smart soccer by trying to control the midfield and make short passes to their attacking forwards. But, the Timbers are playing very well lately, and tonight gives them a chance to keep the streak going before a much needed break after a rough road trip. I expect 3 goals from the Timbers, and the Thunder get 1 to keep it interesting, but in the end, it will be a Timbers win and they'll be bears flying all over the place.

Last night, the Lents URAC held a public open house to talk about the stadium deal for the Beavers, although some of the anticipation of the night was pulled out of the air with the earlier announcement that the soccer and baseball stadium efforts had been decoupled, and would proceed separately from each other. The baseball opponents held a rally, and when the actual meeting started up, Merritt Paulson spoke to the crowd and was greeted by jeers and boos. Apparently, Randy Leonard suffered a similar fate last night, and there was a report of something thrown at him by someone in the crowd. Also, Nick Fish, the city's self professed biggest soccer fan was there to tell the opponents he supports their efforts and won't let the city take away Lents Park.

The whole stadium thing has reached epic proportions of ineptitude, and I can pin a lot of blame on the architects and the Trail Blazers for killing the MC idea, but I can't think of any reason why people need to get so worked up that they throw things at city leaders or purposefully boo people who are there just trying to make their position known. I get that this is a passionate issue and people are entitled to their opinions, but have we all just lost whatever decorum or respect we have for each other that we have to turn public meetings into a spectacle.

I get that many of people in Lents don't like this idea, but by acting this way, you do nothing more than perpetuate the stereotypes that many residents outside the area hold of Lents - crime filled, working class, uneducated. I hold out hope that public debate and discourse can always occur in a civilized manner, but then I read about these kind of reminders of why that will never happen. It's too bad, because this will mean that some other part of the city will get a very nice ball park to enjoy and help their area while MLS comes to Portland and revitalized the area around PGE Park, and Lents will be known as the area with the big Walmart. Nice calling card there, but hey, if it's what you all want, the rest of us won't stand in your way.

De-Coupling the Stadium Issue

Many of us read Steve Duin's take on the recent stadium issue with Lents last night, and it hit the papers this morning:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2009/06/end_the_madness_at_lents_park.html

Duin is pretty middle of the road on most issues, but I did find his take hard to deal with on a couple of different issues. Like the Memorial Coliseum deal, it appeared that there was little interest in doing anything commercial in Lents until suddenly it was discovered that the Lents area had a pot of urban renewal dollars that they haven't used for some time and there was an area that seemed to work for baseball. Memorial Coliseum might make sense for the ballpark, but you'd have to come up with the money in a private-public mix that ended up making the deal more complicated until the architects started screaming the the MC is a treasure and the Trail Blazers decided they didn't want competition in their back yard. Lents made sense because of a $45 million dollars or so that was ear marked for development in the area for urban renewal, and try as they might, Lents hasn't been able to attract much in terms of bringing big business or other anchor pieces to the area. They've tried but nothing has materialized, and there doesn't seem to be any good ideas right now to attract anything new there at this moment.

The baseball plan wouldn't destroy Lents Park, but build a stadium over the old dilapidated Walker Stadium and add some parking, but apparently there are traffic and parking concerns which would need to be addressed. But the soccer fields are apparently near traffic and are considered by soccer folks to be very dangerous (apparently, someone got hit on a bike during a match there while TA folks were playing on the field) and the fields themselves are in bad shape. I get that people use the park, but the plan here would only use a small portion of it. But apparently, the plan is full of madness, not only with Duin's words but the various comments noted.

What I don't get is that for such a progressive city, we seem to be afraid of making tough decisions which will keep our progressive stance. So we overspent on a tram to OHSU, it was a mistake that people noted because of a lack of oversight, yet some citizens refer to this project as a reason why we need to slow down with progress. Gee, Paul Allen built the Rose Garden so why can't someone just build a soccer park? Allen had the money, and if he had waited for the city to help with the process, the Trail Blazers probably would still be playing in the MC or would be playing elsewhere right now. We're in such a desire to keep Portland weird and in some ways progressive, it almost paralyzes the decision making process because we want our decisions to be risk free and bullet proof. Life doesn't work that way, but for some stupid reason, the leadership in this town doesn't seem to want to make a decision.

I just got late word from the Mayor's Twitter account (http://twitter.com/MayorSamAdams) that the decision makes want to de-couple MLS and the baseball situation, thus allowing each decision to be made independently. While it does mean that there are less moving parts to the proposal and people can look at the merits of each sport individually, what it does mean is that someone needs to keep the overall picture in view. It's been mentioned that MLS would want a Portland team in a stadium where the soccer team controls the scheduling and revenue streams, and while they'd prefer the MLS team to be the single tenant, they are willing to share if it makes sense. PGE Park is entirely too big of a stadium for triple AAA baseball, and they need to find a stadium location that works for selling season tickets and giving everyone a chance to watch games. Very few people buy season tickets for the Beavers, knowing that in a 19,000 seat ballpark, the chances of being shut out of tickets is pretty nil unless you are wanting to watch the 4th of July ballgame. There's a market for each team, and we need to find a way to make it work. I hope that this tactic really means that there will be honest and constructive conversation about the plan, rather than just another excuse for a small minority to trash the idea of the city getting into stadiums instead of helping schools and potholes.

Match Preview - Portland Vs. Montreal

One of the USL's flagship teams is visiting PGE Park on Thursday, as the Montreal Impact make one of their two visits to PGE Park tomorrow night at 7 pm. The game is televised on FSN, and the Timbers Army has promised quite a display to start the match, including some coordination of balloons and banners. Should be an interesting site to see for sure.

Key Points:

• This is the first meeting of the year for these squads. The Timbers lead the overall series record with 5 wins, 3 losses and 2 draws. The Timbers have 2 wins in PGE Park versus the Impact, but they also have two losses to them.
• The Impact are 2 - 3 -2 on the year with 8 points, while the Timbers sit in third place on the table with 15 points and a 4 - 1 - 3 record. Portland played Vancouver on Saturday, winning 2 to nil and winning a friendly versus the Club America reserves on Sunday 4 to 1. Montreal also played on Saturday, winning in Rochester 1 to nil over the Rhinos.
• Roberto Perea and Joey Gjertsen have two goals each for Montreal, while Rocco Placentino leads the team in assists with 3. Matt Jordan has played 6 games in goal for Montreal, getting one of the two wins. Montreal has 9 goals scored, but they have given up 7.
• The Timbers start up a tough stetch of games, as they play the Kitsap Pumas in Bremerton on Tuesday night in the opening round of the US Open Cup, which is the US National Soccer championship. Teams from all leagues qualify to play in this tournament, and the Timbers will be facing a new PDL team in the Puget Sound. If they win, they face the winner of the Sonoma County Sol or the Orange County Blue Star, both PDL teams. They would be in the same bracket as the team up north, so depending on how things played out, it could be a rematch between two old rivals.
• Montreal continues their trip out west, playing old Canadian rivals Vancouver on Saturday.

Montreal: Edward Sebrango has been their main target for years, but now they've added the former WhiteCap Gjertsen and now Roberto Perea and so they've got a stable of forwards that can score. And it would appear that midfield wise, they've got veterans in Donatelli and Gjertsen mixed in with some younger guys Felix Brilliant and David Testo. Matt Jordan has been their long time keeper, and has a good leg and organizes the defense very well. He has been dodgy in some catches, but overall, it seems the issue with Montreal is which defense is going to show up, the one that holds teams down or the other that struggles to keep the ball from the net.

Portland: The Timbers are flying high with two wins this weekend, and it appears that George Josten has found his touch, with a nifty goal versus Vancouver. The defense has also played stellar ball, keeping the shots to a minimum, as Steve Cronin wasn't even tested on Saturday night much. The real key from Saturday, though, was controlling the midfield, and Claesson, McManus, Pore, Farber and Savage are doing a great job of countering the other team's attacks and also assisting the defense when needed with numbers, while generating shots for themselves.

Prediction: We always win 2 to 1, we always win 2 to 1. Seems like this is our year to have this happen a lot, much like the wonderfully fun 2007 season.

It's a Thirsty Thursday, so the crowd should be bigger, and the weather should cooperate with a cooler night. Hope to see a lot of you there.

Stadium Update: A new group called Friends of Lents Park has formed to provide some opposition to the proposed Triple AAA ballpark slated for there, replacing the old Walker Stadium, and providing a home for the Portland Beavers. The article itself isn't much more than what we know, but in reading the comments, there is a comment from Jeff Rose that is one of the most thoughtful, articulate, and correct statements about this debate. Keeping things as they are for the simple sake of keeping things that way is no way to run a city or a neighborhood, especially if you have an opportunity to really change things potentially for the better. So far, this seems to be the most organized of the opposition groups, even though in reading various blog spots, there are more residents that don't want the stadium than do.

We'll provide updates as we hear more about their plans, as we all wait for the next episode of "What Will Dan Saltzman Do?" Because right now, he's the main vote in saying what happens now, as he is the swing vote in the City Council, as Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Randy Leonard support the idea, while Commissioners Nick Fish and Amanda Fritz are opposed. And Saltzman isn't saying anything about his plans, after providing the initial third vote to support starting the negotiation process. A lot has changed since that big vote, except for one major thing. It's still a great idea for the city, and it will work. Wishing you loads of luck, Dan, and hopefully, you'll share with us soon your grand plan to make this happen.

The Natives Are Still Restless

Recent posts and articles about MLS and the Triple AAA Stadium:

Peter Apanel comes up with another idea to help soccer here, by building a soccer specific stadium for the Timbers instead of redoing PGE Park. His base premise is using Montreal as the bench point, stating that the team spent $13 million dollars to build Saputo Stadium, so why couldn't something like that be done here. Mind you, he never mentions a specific site for this stadium, he fails to mention that the Impact received a generous donation of land from the government of Quebec to build the stadium, and that the current owner has been asking for at least $25 to $30 million more to invest in upgrading various parks of the park. I'll get that Lents may not be the best place for the ballpark, but following this idea doesn't pan out in terms of saving money. The comments on this article are truly hysterical, but I'll talk about that in a bit.

The Portland Mercury has posted a blog entry about an economic study done for the new Lents ballpark, showing that the ballpark would create 453 jobs but the net result would be lost jobs in the end. The hastily prepared study was done in one day, and the results held for almost two weeks before being reported, and most ballpark opponents have been having a field day with the results, but there are major flaws in the premise of the study. It only accounts for ballpark construction jobs, it doesn't take into account the jobs for the team, the possibility of other jobs put in the area because of the park, or the other economic streams that Lents suddenly gets by having a ballpark there. But hey, the opponents need to hang their hat on something, and this gives the situation some traction. Now, their archrivals in the alternative newspaper world, Willamette Week, run a bit more balanced take on things, not immediately calling the idea bad but providing some food for thought that maybe this isn't such a terrible idea.

But perhaps the most crazy take on things was done when Commissioner Randy Leonard appeared on the Bald Faced Truth on Tuesday and spoke with the guys about the park. The few calls that made the air were against soccer, which led John Strong and Dwight Jaynes to rip on the soccer haters because of the process here. Leonard is hopeful a resolution is coming, it's all dependant on what Commissioner Dan Saltzman is deciding to do, and right now, he's not talking to anyone about his thoughts. But suffice to say, the process is really about where it was a few months ago, full of posts and conjecture and nothing really resolved. But what this whole thing has gotten me thinking about is some observations about how things work for the city that works:

Observation 1 - We love our process, no matter how clunky it is or how many hurdles it has. We love our neighborhoods, we love our town, and we love to talk about ways to get things done. And when decisions need to be made, there's more talking and more discussion and more thoughts, and then we talk more. It's the Portland process, labeled to be progressive and inclusive, and I don't want to squash anyone's right to be part of the process and provide their voice. The problem is simply that the process needs to have an end resolution at some point, and too often, decisions made lead to more discussion and a vicious cycle of talking. What our city lacks right now is someone to actually make a decision, good or bad, and have the guts to stand up and say I'm doing this and here's why. Instead, the circular logic goes on and on, and we sit in this version of status quo.

Observation 2 - While we crave change, we secretly despise it and are resistant. If you look at Portland as a whole, on the surface it's a lot about new ideas, trying to think outside the normal, or as it's put here, "Keep Portland Weird" We want to be thought of as a cutting edge city, thinking above and beyond other areas, but yet, the way our city is set up, it's really easy to keep within your own comfort zone, thus resisting the changes that could really kick start an area. People in NW Portland rarely venture to the eastside, because they have everything they want in their neighborhood, so why do I care about what happens in Lents? Well, the fact is the city is one big collective, and what affects one of us, affects us all. And staying within our institutions and not thinking on a larger scale sometimes puts us in a small town way of thinking.

Observation 3 - The NFL, MLB and NHL aren't coming anytime soon. Get over it. Seriously, I'm tired of sports fans shitting on the soccer idea because it's not one of the major sports, and they proclaim why can't we finally think bigger. Do you even seriously think the NFL would come here, knowing the process that MLS has been put through trying to be secured here. Other cities are clamoring to get professional sports to come to town, and Portland is tripping all over itself trying to figure out where to put a minor league baseball park. So by all means, sports that will demand an investment 7 to 10 times as much as the proposed price tag for just a stadium and need huge corporate support will come here simply because we have passionate football fans? It's not going to happen, and the sad truth is that if this deal implodes, no other league will want to come here knowing how difficult a process it is to try and survive here unless you are the Trail Blazers. Just ask Angela Batinovich, the owner of the Portland Lumberjax, the most recent team that failed here.

Observation 4 - We run the risk of losing both our teams if we choose to do nothing. If we choose to keep the current Timbers and current Beavers in PGE Park and say we are happy with the status quo, we are taking a huge chance that the park will be empty in 2010. That's when the Beavers lease is up, and there are cities already watching this process to see what happens. If Portland can't make a go of it, there is at least 3 other cities that have been rumoured to make a play to move the Beavers there. It's already happened twice when the Beavers left town, so you can't say it would never happen. And honestly, if I was an owner and saw the process here and then saw a city falling over itself to bring baseball and it could be a smooth process, where am I going to choose. The Timbers, meanwhile, would be the only west coast USL Division 1 team on the west coast with Vancouver moving up, so you have a soccer team on an island. So you immediately increase travel costs, scheduling becomes more difficult, and if another city that was closer to where the USL is came calling, what would stop the Timbers from going there? I would hate that happening, but seriously, doing nothing means this is a very true possibility.

Observation 5 - The teams can't share the stadium, no matter how much you think they can. MLS wants their teams to control scheduling and revenue streams, and with PGE Park as it is now, the Timbers are second fiddle to baseball. Baseball also requires a specific footprint that doesn't mesh with soccer, so that's why you have the empty area behind the Timbers benches. PGE Park is a great multi purpose stadium, but not quite good enough for baseball itself or for soccer itself. It makes sense to pick one sport and go with it. And soccer could easily stay by adding seats along 18th Avenue, and we could even host football there easily. Seattle already has that arrangement with their MLS and NFL teams, but that is only because the park was built with both sports in mind and the guy that owns the stadium happens to be an owner of both teams. Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Allen.

Observation 6 - The Trail Blazers destroyed the Memorial Coliseum deal because they don't want competition. I can't confirm this completely, but I was in the room when J Isaac talked about the ballpark destroying income potential for the Trail Blazers, and that it would hurt the team in the long run. This despite the fact that up until then, most insiders felt the team was OK with triple AAA baseball coming in. The Rose Garden is dead most nights unless there is a show there or a Trail Blazers game, and the ballpark going for the Memorial Coliseum made sense because the MC has been under utilized and it's not been kept up. The Trail Blazers don't own the MC but run it and are in charge of the upkeep, but they've done about as little as they can just to keep it from falling down. And they want the land for their properties for bars, shops, and the like, and as long as the MC still stands and it's owned by the city, that will never happen. If the MC is still standing in 5 years, I'll be shocked, but for those that saved the building, it's coming down whether it's for a ballpark or the Trail Blazers ideas. And no, the MARC isn't the idea they are thinking of because there's not enough dollar signs behind it. The Trail Blazers want to keep their monopoly on the sports market, and so far, they're doing a really good job of it.

Observation 7 - The ballpark won't destroy Lents Park. It's not a jewel, but it is a good sized park in an area that has really not changed much over the years. And you have the footprint of an old baseball park that could be used for the new baseball park, and suddenly you have an anchor to the area that will draw people from outside the area to come and watch games. In the past 10 years, urban renewal monies for Lents have gone unused as they try to come up with ways to draw people to the area, and now there's an idea that could do that and suddenly it's a huge risk. I get that it's a huge investment for the area, but here's the point. What good is affordable housing and jobs if your residents have nothing to do when they aren't working? People expect a certain level of services from their town to give them things to do, and many people put sports on the same level as arts, movies, concerts, parks, and the like. I get that some of the park land will be used, but they are looking at replacement sites, and the traffic in the area is not nearly as bad as other areas of the town. It's all about planning, and then finding a plan and sticking with it. While I would have preferred the MC for the ballpark, Lents is a good fallback because it will give the Beavers a stadium that they can fill that isn't a cave, and it will give an anchor destination to an area that has been looking for.

Observation 8 - There is a market for soccer here. Just listen to stories of pubs around town showing the UEFA Cup championship earlier this week, or World Cup matches when that is going on in Pioneer Square. Yes, the Timbers are part of that, but follow the passion of the University of Portland and their fans, the Timbers, and the various clubs and national teams around town, and there are fans everywhere. Portland sports fans are unique in that they follow some of the more fringe sports, like track and field, cycling and soccer. I hate calling soccer fringe, as that is only the case here in the States, but having other sports fans refer to soccer as "boring" or "not cool" misses the point that it is a beautiful game to watch. It's not for everyone, but if you can appreciate the skill, passion, and strategy of what's going on, it's an amazingly fun game to watch. It can be very simple and so complex all at the same time, and if you bring MLS here, the fans will come.

Observation 9 - Public discourse isn't civil at all in a state that prides itself on being civil. Whether you can blame Fox News or the Internet, but simply put, there's a lot of haters on the whole MLS and Triple AAA idea simply because of who is proposing it. If it was Phil Knight, I don't expect we'd be dealing with nearly the backlash that we have here because of Merritt Paulson being involve. And people aren't very civil in their arguments either, latching onto any small nugget of information that can be distorted and then using it to post everywhere. And if you happen to wander into an article or discussion about the topic, it's usually the naysayers spouting anti-sports, anti-tax, why doesn't the rich guy pay for it himself versus the passionate sports fan who can't figure out why people are so against it. We don't have public discourse in this country anymore, it's who can come up with the cleverist line to prove a point.

Observation 10 - Cities and teams will work together to build stadiums. Cities want to own stadiums to help their tax base, earn some potential revenues and keep some control over teams leaving in the middle of the night. Some teams prefer to own their own park, but at the same time, if you have another group that is willing to own it and maintain it, why not? But as any tenant will do, teams demand things from the stadium owner, and it's usually a long discourse into getting sides to agree. But as Dwight Jaynes pointed out earlier this week, Memorial Coliseum was the last facility built here without public money, and that was over 40 years ago. You may not like the trend, but it's happening all over, and it's not going away.


I'm a sports guy, so this is simply my take and I'm entitled to it. And I've shared my thoughts on blogs around town, and the crowds are diametrically on the opposite ends of things. You have the naysayers talking about wasting tax money, the prosayers saying that events will come here. The arguments all really fall into one question in my mind - Are you satisfied with the city the way it is now or do you think it's time to invest in an idea that has the potential to help the city long term? It's that simple really, and you can phrase the arguments anyway you want, but it comes down to keeping things as they are, thus avoiding risk, or taking a chance on an idea that could bring revenues at a time where jobs are being lost and people are struggling to make ends meet. My answer is simply, passionately, unwaveringly, that it's time to think long term and invest in the future with MLS and the Beavers/Lents.