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.

Stadium Update and Timbers Thoughts

Reading Links:

The City is close to a deal to put the new Triple AAA Baseball Park in Lents Park.

The original article announcing the change in venue from Memorial Coliseum to Lents Park

Anna Griffin from the Oregonian asks should we care about the Beavers at all?

William Glasgow talks about MLS again and gets schooled in the comments

The Trail Blazers' plan to refurbish the Memorial Coliseum isn't without its own set of risks.

And apparently, the cost of upgrading the Memorial Coliseum is about as much or more than actually building a baseball park there.

So it would appear that things in the MLS to PDX and the Portland Beavers world have gotten a bit clearer, but things have really changed a lot since my last posting about it. To recap the high points, the Memorial Coliseum is safe from demolition for now as the baseball park is now being considered for Lents Park. The particulars couldn’t be worked out, as the Trail Blazers decided to support their Live Area concept of restaurants and shops around the Rose Garden, although it’s now been determined that the cost of saving the MC will be significantly more than the cost of putting the ball park there.

So why are we at this point? Well, apparently, the Trail Blazers and a small chorus of architectural professionals have convinced the city that the MC should be saved, because of its structure and significance to the area. Yet, in the 15 years since the Rose Garden was built, the Trail Blazers have effectively done nothing in the area around their arena, and the MC has fallen further into disrepair. It still serves a purpose as the home to the Winter Hawks hockey team and other assorted events, but the arena is slowly dying in front of our eyes. I place a lot of the blame squarely on the city and the Trail Blazers, as it was their responsibility to keep the arena updated. The Trail Blazers owed it to the city as part of their operating agreement to help keep the MC updated, yet it hasn’t made a dent in the overall condition. The city should have been more proactive in keeping the Trail Blazers at their word, but instead, they just let things sit where they currently are.

The city council had the right idea in bring the ballpark to the MC, where it would be centrally located, easily accessible to transit, and put near the center of the city. It would revitalize the area, giving baseball the attention it deserves while giving PGE Park new life as a soccer and football facility. But instead, the NIMBYs and naysayers clouded the facts of the deal, stating that this was a bad deal for the city and the MC deserves a better fate. And so now, we are looking at putting the ballpark in SE Portland.

While it’s not the center of the city, Lents Park wants the ballpark there and I think it will do quite well in the area, giving the neighborhood an anchor that it has been lacking for a while. It should attract development, it will bring people to watch games in an area that is deserving attention, and allow baseball to flourish. I’m based this simply on the enthusiasm for bringing baseball there, along with the attention that most teams get in a new stadium. Portland is a good baseball town, and we will support this team, despite the challenges. It doesn’t help when the Mariners have a hold on the area because of their aggressive marketing and television presence, as well as the fact that Triple AAA baseball, by nature, is hard to market at points because players come and go all the time. Unlike other sports, it’s hard to build the face of the franchise when the faces change all the time. But give the Beavers credit, they are getting more attention now than they have in a while. And unlike other versions of the Beavers, it's nice to put them in an area that really wants them there.

But the fact that this park should be in the Memorial Coliseum instead is a travesty, and the blame can be pointed in many different directions. The Trail Blazers don’t want direct competition on their doorstep unless they have control of the revenue streams, and I can see why they opposed the baseball deal. It’s too bad that they couldn’t see the benefit of revitalizing the area by bringing a baseball team that wouldn’t directly compete on most scheduling nights, and attract more people to the area for events. We aren’t a Live Concept kind of town, especially since we already have neighborhoods that have the same amenities that are being offered by this. But the Trail Blazers have had such a monopoly on the attention of sports fans here, they want to protect their position at all costs, never mind that having another top-level professional team would improve the overall sports profile of our area, and draw attention away from the team at key points. When the Trail Blazers were having all sorts of off the court issues, I bet they would have likely having some other sports around to distract attention. It's about establishing a sports profile for your town, and the Trail Blazers at this point prefer to have the spotlight all to themselves, whether it's best for the city or not.

I blame the city for not realizing or supporting the deal more than they should have. I get that you want to have a public process here, and it’s important to see all sides of things, but at the same point, the facts need to be made and presented. In looking at the costs of the Live Concept, the cost of it doesn’t compare to the cost of putting baseball there, yet that distinction was hardly made. I understand that some of our political figures have issues right now, but you have to stay with your convictions unless you are proved wrong, and none of the criticisms leveled by the opponents carried enough weight to cause this kind of reversal. Every point could be refuted, yet we still have plan B coming around because the voices kept saying this won't work. I have news for those that say keeping the MC is a good idea, it's coming down whether you like it or not. It's a matter of whether you want a developer to help with the costs and put forth a good idea for the space or the alternative of having it destroyed for some cookie cutter bars and restaurants.

I blame the sports fans who are pining for MLB and NFL or just hate soccer in general. I respect the desire to have those leagues come to town, but if you are struggling to commit $88 million in funds for MLS, how can you justify spending 10 to 12 times as much to bring MLB or NFL here. Recent stadiums for both leagues are costing around $700 million, and that doesn’t include the needs for corporate support or the need for ticket sales. We watch games quite a bit, but does that translate into success when it’s live? MLS is a great jumping point to establish Portland as a real sports town, and will cause MLB, NFL or other sports that want to come to town to look at us differently when it’s a success. And soccer is growing in popularity here and abroad, where it’s already a hugely popular sport and America in on the cusp of ingraining it into regular sports. But instead of realizing that other sports help bring attention to a profile and supporting them will make a market more attractive, it’s easier to belittle or hate on it. Mind you, I have a beef with some soccer fans that couldn’t care less about baseball and it’s future, because as long as the teams share a stadium, their futures are intertwined and will be until they both get taken care of. And our future with baseball is much better than if they leave, as it will give further credence to the non-sports fans of another team that got away for whatever reason.

I blame the media for not asking the right questions until now, and providing a thorough and well written analysis of the deal in detail. Instead, the facts came out very piece meal, and it distorted the picture at points. Mind you, the sound bites are catchy and easily digestible, but they don't provide an honest investigation unless necessary. I give the Oregonian some credit for trying to keep up, but they've done as much damage by printing stories from people that don't completely understand the facts of the situation, using tired and faulty arguments to make their point.

But finally, I blame the NIMBYs who use pithy quotes and misinformation to cause undecided people to make faulty decisions. I get that you might not like soccer or sports in general, but this plan won’t hurt the city or their providing services to those in need. While it’s important to take care of potholes and kids, it’s also important to give citizens things to do when they aren’t working, and sports does that. And cities want to own stadiums, not only to share in revenues but also to have some control over teams in case they want to leave for greener pastures. What makes sense is teams and cities working together to find a deal that works for everyone. And while this plan was on the table before, it’s now dead and so Portland moves forward with plan B.

I’m not worried about the long-term fortunes of either team, because I think for a fallback plan, this will work just fine. What I worry mostly about is the attitude that keeps Portland in a perpetual state of wanting to keep the status quo. We want to keep the town weird, but at the same point for many residents, it’s important to keep things as close to the way they are as possible, using the process to help. Let’s talk to whomever will listen, and try to use whatever tactics we can to make whatever point we can to gain traction against the plan. So many good ideas have come through town and left, yet all I seem to hear about at points is what is wrong with what has been done.

For a supposedly progressive city, we seem to lack in confidence to make tough choices, especially when the “I told you so” people pop up all the time. I get the Tram was a huge cost overrun, I get that we are in tough economic times right now, but at the same time, tough times demand tough choices and conviction, and right now, our city is struggling in that area. I feel that Sam Adams is still our best choice for Mayor, because he has shown the ability to make tough choices, even if he’s made a mistake or two in his life. And I think if he survives the recall, we’ll see more leadership in that area. Otherwise, I worry about the next few years in our city with the mass asylum running the show.

The Timbers played Cleveland last Saturday and drew nil to nil. For the non-soccer group, that is zero to zero. My plan really is to only do match reports on matches that I actually see in person, either on TV or on the computer, and I had a match of my own to play Saturday night. The Timbers are in action Thursday night versus Rochester, with a late 8 PM start due to the game being on Fox Soccer Channel. Hope to see you all there.

The Rules of An Institution

I remember the days of growing up in Boise, Idaho, a sleepy hamlet in the southern part of the Treasury Valley. It was a big city, or at least what I thought was a big city for the time, because we had just topped 100,000 people when I was in the 7th grade. Mind you, this was from a town that at that point had no mall, no professional sports teams, and was trying to find an identity outside of being the capital of a state that most people didn't know a whole lot about. I remember spending a bit of time at the A and W Root Beer restaurant on the corner of Fairview and Curtis, because the food was pretty good, they still had the carhops that would deliver the food to your car, and the floats gave you the bestest sugar buzz until I discovered Pixie Stixs. The place was always busy, because while the food wasn't anything special, it was the place to hang out and be seen, or at least get your snack buzz on. I remember a lot of good times, eating in the car with my family, and I wished the times would never end. As I've traveled back there from time to time, I see the old corner that now has a mini mart or something, and it makes me sad to see an institution of my youth tossed aside like that, but I also realize that times have changed.

It's something that we in Portland are facing with the eminent closure of GI Joe's, a popular sporting goods chain in the area, and the potential loss of the Memorial Coliseum for a proposed baseball park. I've lived in Portland long enough to have eaten at Rose's in Beaverton and Quality Pie when they were still open, I've had sundaes at Farrell's, and saw shows at the old Pine Street Theatre before it faded into the sunset, I used to eat burgers at the Red Coach, skated in Pioneer Square the winter they put a rink in downtown, and saw Ramblin' Rod during many Twilight Parades. I may not have grown up here, but I understand Portland institutions quite a bit, and realize that GI Joe's and the Memorial Coliseum are two of our most long standing ones.

I remember a trip that my family and I made to Long Beach, Washington when I was 13, and we rented an RV and drove from Idaho to the coast. I remember being told that Portland was a huge place, so be quiet while we drove through it. It's funny to look back at the same roads we drove on that time, and realize that while Portland is a really big city, it's also pretty well signed and it's really difficult to get lost in most parts of it. During our stay in Portland, we spent quite a bit of time out in Beaverton at the mall, and that was my first encounter with GI Joe's. I'd never seen anything like it, a mish mash of sporting goods, camping, hunting, surplus gear, electronics, automotive stuff, and other things in one place. And it was packed with people, buying various things. I'd seen sporting goods stores in Idaho, but nothing like this, and I realized that this place seemed pretty special and different. I saw clerks taking care of people, answering questions, a ton of Trail Blazers gear, not realizing that I was in a Portland institution.

When I moved here in 1989 after college, one of the first places I stopped at was the GI Joe's in Beaverton to get some supplies and check on concert tickets. It was still bustling, and it didn't seem like much had changed. Over the years, I bought various things there, but I also began to notice in the late 90's that the store was changing. I saw less and less of people interacting with clerks in the rows, asking about hiking trails or the fishing gear to use, and the stock in the place was different, with more high end equipment and less of the things I remember, like surplus stuff, boats and such. The few times I did check there for automotive things, they never seemed to have anything in stock, and it often seemed like a ghost town in shopping there. I even felt a bit of sadness when GI Joe's just became Joe's because the new owners felt that the name would be more welcoming.

What they failed to realize is that the first rule of institutions is change might be necessary, but don't stray too much from what brings people here in the first place. Joe's put a lot more effort into higher end sporting goods, clothing, camping equipment, and spent less time and energy on the things that brought in clientele in the first place. I heard less and less people talk about going to Joe's unless there was a sale, or something that they knew would be in stock there. By reaching out and trying to capture another market, Joe's abandoned part of the loyal customers that visited often, and people stopped visiting. I also encountered employees that knew less about the things they were selling that I did, which meant getting any type of advice from them was useless. If you want to buy outdoor things, you want to speak to people that know their stuff. While I'm sad to see the institution go away, I'm surprised it had lasted as long as it did with the new changes. I realize retail is a fickle business, but the one thing about Portland is they are loyal to places, and if you keep giving them what they want, they will go there always.

The Memorial Coliseum, however, is part of the second rule of institutions, and that rule is that sometimes you have to realize when it's time for an institution to fade away. Loyalty will get you so far, but it's important to keep up with the times without altering your core. The MC was the site of my very first Trail Blazers game in 1989 versus Denver, and I went to 3 Winterhawks games that year, and found the MC to be small, intimate, and cozy. The place rocked when the crowd was into the game, and it was awesome to see the banners of the past glory of the teams. Since then, I've attended various games there, a few concerts, and even spent two summers rollerblading on the concourse, so I feel I know the building rather well, and it seems like that in the past 20 years, they've not done much to the MC at all.

The interior roof and acoustic tiles look water damaged, the seats in some sections feel worn out or appear broken, the concourses are hard to move around in with a full house, and some of the nooks and crannies show off old plumbing and bathrooms that need some serious TLC. It became more apparent that the building was getting old when the Rose Garden opened in 1995, and had the serious bells and whistles of modern arenas, with great sight lines, big scoreboards, and concessions everywhere. It was no comparison in the experience, and after a while, I stopped going to the MC because it just wasn't a fun place to watch games. They've recently updated the scoreboard within the past year, but the arena seems old and tired. Especially if you find the veterans memorial, which is needed some love. Granted, the memorial hasn't been updated since the 60's, so while the veterans have remembrance there, it's only the old war Veterans that get recognition.

One of the ideas for getting a baseball park for the Portland Beavers so that PGE Park can be fitted for soccer is to tear down the MC and build a park there, with an improved memorial and other things. It's been 15 years since the Rose Garden was built, and even after it was finished, there were talks to change the MC into retail space, a community center, a park, a refurbished arena, yet to this day, none of that has been ever completed, and the arena is now falling into further disrepair. But since the idea has been floated to tear it down, people in the are have been clamoring to try and save the old relic, saying it's a historic place and should be preserved.

I am angry at the city for not doing more to keep the building up over the years, because it could be in very good shape with some regular maintenance and upkeep, but instead, the RG got a lot of the attention and the MC became the forgotten arena. It still serves many events, and I would hate to see it go away because it's actually an interesting looking building. But I have to ask myself: am I wanting to keep it because of the memories only, or is there a purpose that this building still fulfills? And honestly, the Rose Garden is a much better arena in so many ways, and can fill most of those purposes rather well. Knowing that the city is paying $500,000 each year to keep this building running at a very minimal level, it makes me realize that as a city, we could be investing those funds into something that helps the city more, which is bringing baseball to the Rose Quarter, and filling more dates and events in a season when basketball and hockey aren't around.

Seriously, the Rose Quarter is a ghost town when the Blazers aren't playing or there is a major concert about. The area was touted as an entertainment mecca when it was first built, but it's failed to live up to those dreams simply because there is little to do outside of go to the RG when you are there. Putting baseball in with other shops and arenas would make the area a destination point, which is what you want to build to attract people to come, and not just sports fans. As much as I like the MC, I don't want its continued existence to be the reason why the Beavers are still playing in PGE Park in 5 years, and MLS decides to go elsewhere because we can't get our stadium needs figured out.

I've posted links below to various articles about the topic:

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/04/portland_soccers_perry_mason_m.html - An opinion piece about PGE.

http://portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=124001070455212200 - Discussion about URDs and a plan that will help stadium financing.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/04/portlands_rush_to_replace_memo.html - Calls to keep the MC as is.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/04/portlands_accelerated_major_le.html - Accelerated time frame squashes debate?

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/mls_soccer/ - The MLS soccer coverage home on the Oregonian. They've done some decent pieces in there, but the slant of most of the articles lately have been taking bits of information and distorting them a bit to give the anti-soccer crowd something to use against proponents of the plan. I get that a lot of media now doesn't spend time showing both sides of a story, they print what will antagonize or irritate readers into buying papers and continuing to read, so why not put stories out about a plan to build a stadium that will bankrupt the city, which is full of potholes, teachers that are getting laid off, and social issues piling up all over. Honestly, I realize the city has challenges going on, and I don't want to make light of anything they are facing, but seriously, the benefits here outweigh the risks, and doing this could likely help the struggling tax base and job front.

But what both stories have shown me is that people are passionate about institutions, and they are a tough thing to let go of, even if it's the right thing to do. They invoke memories, feelings, and make people feel comfortable, and that's a good thing to have those thoughts because it means you've invested something in being there and spending time and money at a certain place. But sometimes we need to remember that new things aren't necessarily bad, and you can form new memories quite easily. It's just tough to say goodbye to something that means that much, but sometimes that's the only choice.