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.

Bring On the Flounders, Stadium Vote Coming Soon?

Flash back to a fine August evening back in PGE Park during the 2008 season, and the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers met for the last time as rivals within the USL during the regular season. With the Sounders moving up to MLS for the 2009, this would be the last time the two teams were slated to meet each other officially, although there was an outside chance the teams could have met in the playoffs. After that, the only time they would meet again would be if there was a US Open Cup match, an agreed upon exhibition game or if the Timbers were moved up to MLS at some future point.

We now know that the Timbers will be joining FC XBox in MLS in 2011 after Portland was awarded an expansion team, so the once bitter rivals have a two year hiatus from meeting each other until that point unless the US Open Cup put the rivals in the same bracket. And sure enough, it was learned that after the bracket was announced in June of this year that the Timbers were in the same bracket, but had to win twice versus Kitsap and Sonoma County to set up this match, and a few days ago, it was announced that if Portland won in Sonoma, they would host FC Puke Green here.

The Timbers took care of business last night, beating Sonoma County 3 to nil in California, as Mandjou Keita notched two goals and an assist in leading the team to the win. Keita has been on fire lately, notching a goal late in the Charleston match to draw that game level, and he gets two more last night while keeper Steve Cronin and the defense kept the Sol attack at bay. The Flounders - Timbers match will be at PGE Park on Wednesday, July 1st at 7 PM and the winner advances to the next round. So, the old USL rivals meet in the Open Cup as a tuneup for the eventually matchup that will be forthcoming in 2011. It should be an epic night, and I'd advise anyone that is remotely interested in getting tickets to get them know through the PGE Park box office, Portland Timbers ticket sales, or through Ticketmaster. After talking with my ticket rep today, the great Dan Zusman, sales have been really brisk already and the tickets aren't officially on sale to the general public yet. Also, knowing the rivalry between the supporter groups, the Timbers Army and the ECS (I call them the POD), there will be some crazy TIFO displays and some bantering on message boards between these groups. I hope there is no significant trouble between the groups, but at the same point, some good natured ribbing is anticipated. The Timbers next home match is Friday versus Minnesota at 8 PM at PGE Park, which should be a good time, and I'll have a match preview and recap for you later this week.

The Offsides has a good match preview and recap for your perusal:

http://timbers.theoffside.com/team-news/portland-timbers-face-sonoma-county-sol-in-us-open-cup.html - a great match preview, including some history of the Sonoma County Sol, and the fact that both teams came into the match on very hot win streaks.

http://timbers.theoffside.com/match-reports/us-open-cup-portland-timbers-defeat-sonoma-county-sol-advance-to-face-seattle.html - Match recap from the Offsides.

http://portlandtimbers.com/newsroom/headlines/index.html?article_id=1250 - Official Match recap, courtesy of the Portland Timbers

Stadium Updates - Apparently, the Lents URAC (the Urban Renewal Action Committee) will be holding an open house on Thursday to hear discussion of the plan to put a triple AAA baseball stadium in the north corner of Lents Park, so that the Portland Beavers could move out there to make way for PGE Park to be refurbished for MLS. The plan is to hear from both sides, give groups the chance to talk about the plan, and it is anticipated that the URAC might actually vote on the proposal that night. Two of Portland's city commissioners, Dan Saltzman and Randy Leonard, have indicated that their support for the park is conditional based on their vote, so if they approve the idea, they'll vote for the proposal.

The Oregonian has continued to be busy on the topic, providing a front page article about the residents of the area and what they are thinking about the ballpark, and they are as divided as some other groups about the idea:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/06/residents_will_get_a_say_in_le.html

Some folks see the ballpark as a benefit, and could spur other development or draw people in that wouldn't otherwise visit the area, while others have concerns about the amount of money being used for the stadium or giving up part of a somewhat popular Portland park for a professional baseball team. A few other folks have weighed in on the idea, including John Mulvey, who lives in the area, and Tracy Francis, who was part of the Goose Hollow neighborhood association when PGE Park was being refurbished:

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/06/lents_the_false_choice_between.html - Mulvey isn't convinced the stadium is such a good idea, presenting it as a false choice. And while I see some of his concerns, my issue is that it's really something that we have to make a decision on, because the future of the Timbers and Beavers does hang in the balance. If we do nothing, we risk losing the teams to other cities or in the case of the Timbers, risk having the costs go skyrocketing because of no regional rivalries.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2009/06/lents_park_stadium_project.html - Lematlents is concerned about a lack of public process in the whole stadium situation, and honestly, I don't know what else the city could do about getting people involved. There have been public meetings, presentations, studies done, mailings sent, and discussions in various media sites, and yet there are some that still think this is an idea that is just being thrown at us without any discourse. I love that Portland wants to have their process honored, and I think there's something to having people talk about options and not make rash decisions. The problem is that at some point, you have to make a decision and stick with it, rather than just keep talking until the decision becomes obvious or the opportunity passes you by. That trait is called leadership, and right now, I'm frustrated at some of the leadership in this process who really are struggling to make a decision and stick with it.

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/06/what_goose_hollow_would_advise.html - Tracy's post, which talks from the voice of experience, and as being a resident of the area when PGE Park was being built, I would agree with her that PGE Park has been a very good tenant to the area, and they've done a lot to help the area. However, I do take some offense to her assessment of Steve Janik's comments (the MLS commissioner has said the teams can't share PGE Park, so that's all you need to know) and the only part of the process that has been like a runaway train is the seemingly non stop opinions that are relying on limited information to try and prove a point against this idea.

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/06/bridges_vs_the_stadiums_a_port.html - Steve Novick weighs in and talks about the difference of the Columbia Bridge process versus the stadiums, and why they are being treated differently. It's actually an intelligent question, even if I don't agree with his conclusion. Building a newer bridge between Washington and Oregon makes sense, and I wouldn't mind it being artistically pleasing, but for my money, I'm a sports fan and to me, building a stadium for the Beavers is a good investment in my mind. I'm troubled that some people that call themselves progressives are still struggling with that concept.

Finally, in an unrelated topic about baseball, we found out today that Sammy Sosa cheated. Wow, what a big surprise that the two main guys in the home run derby were both juiced up on some form of drugs, and that the results might have been chemically enhanced. I'm not surprised at all, and honestly, I find myself caring less and less about baseball because of it. Instead of being honest about the issues of drugs, baseball has played a game of deceit and deception about how rampant drugs are in their sport. I agree that baseball shouldn't be on an island in that respect, but it's hard not to point blame at them when even some of the big stars of baseball's current generation have been caught with drugs.

I get that most of the drugs weren't actually against the rules at that point, but at this point, it's just become boring and tiresome, and this discussion only gets amplified when we start talking about Hall of Fame players and statistics comparisons, things that happen in baseball all the time. Until the baseball world can come to a conclusion about how to deal with the situation, this problem just won't go away. My solution to the problem is simply this, if you broke the rules of the game to either influence the outcome of the games, be it gambling, drugs or whatever, you shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame and I can't seriously consider that person as a true great baseball player. But I'm just one opinion, and right now, I would just like baseball to step up and make a decision rather than this stupidly slow piece meal process of dealing with things as they come along.

US Open Cup Match - Timbers Vs. Sol

The Timbers are about ready to kick off versus the Sonoma County Sol in the US Open Cup down in Sonoma, CA. The winner gets to face FC Puke Green in the next round either on June 30th or July 1st. It could be possible that two old USL rivals will get to meet up before Portland jumps to MLS in 2011.

You can track the match at www.twitter.com/TimbersFC, where the team's front office will be providing updates. Come on Timbers!!!

Stadium Updates - Apparently There's Another New (Old) Idea

So in vacationing in Bend and feverishly getting back to town in time for the TAFC match on Sunday night, I missed out on reading an editorial or two on the whole Lents stadium issue. One of the Oregonian editors, David Sarasohn, floats an idea that had been discussed earlier in the whole MLS - Triple AAA stadium issue, why can't the Timbers and Beavers share a park? Another colleague at the O, Arts critic Barry Johnson echoes the sentiment in his time, and at least considering the idea of a shared stadium.

The points against it were covered in the comments, but I'll try and summarize them. One, the MLS commissioner Don Garber has indicated that MLS wants to have their teams in stadiums where the MLS team controls the revenue and scheduling dates. For those MLS clubs that share stadiums currently with other sports, it's a temporary situation (Kansas City, where they are building a new stadium), or the team owner happens to be the owner of the stadium and the footprint makes sense (New York, Seattle, New England) for soccer and another sport. DC United did share a stadium with baseball for a while, but their old stadium, JFK Stadium, could be converted between the sports relatively easily. All other MLS teams have a stadium that they control scheduling and revenues, and you even have one stadium that has two tenants, Home Depot Center in Los Angeles (the Galaxy and Chivas USA). I don't think MLS is adverse to a team sharing a stadium temporarily, but at least permanently, they've been against it.

Baseball and soccer have different field needs, as baseball requires a more quarter circle, pie shaped design with cutouts or dirt around the bases, home plate and the pitchers mound. Soccer and football both share a rectangular field design, so it makes sense you could have teams share fields with that. Because PGE Park has a short left field area, it's not ideal for baseball, and trucking in temporary bleachers for a home stand could be significantly expensive, not to mention the time it takes to convert a stadium from baseball to soccer. Right now, home plate is left exposed for Timbers matches because it is too costly to cover it and it takes right now up to 24 hours to convert from sport to sport there. Add in bleacher movement, which would hurt the turf, and if you had international competitions you'd need grass, and the cost and time goes up a lot.

I get that PGE Park has been the home of Womens World Cup and held many fine baseball games there, but with the Womens World Cup, they didn't have baseball on the schedule to conflict, sod was laid down and could stay down for a while, and the park thrived. Soccer and baseball do well there now, but the problems are mounting. The Timbers are one of two West Coast teams in USL division 1, and if Vancouver leaves and MLS falls through, the Timbers would be the only USL D1 team on the West Coast with their closets rivals in Minneapolis or Austin, TX. The Beavers are fine in the PCL, but with their lease coming up in 2010, rumors exist of cities wanting to entertain the thought of moving the team there. Tucson lost their triple AAA team to Reno this past year, and it's not uncommon to see minor league teams move a lot. The current Beavers team is the fifth baseball team to play there in its history.

Getting separate stadiums would give another facility that could be used to host other events, such as international soccer events, baseball tournaments, and other gatherings. Right now, PGE Park is booked most of the time, but having a similar facility in the area could give other groups a reason to come to Portland for their event.

This whole issue in my mind is simply people in Portland wanting to do it their own way within the process we hold dear. We have a truly unique city with lots of charm and fun things to do, and it draws people from all over to move here. We're quirky, we love brew pubs, we have lots of different events and interests here, a sometimes thriving arts area, lots of clubs around, and plenty of public institutions and fun neighborhoods. We have a great place here and it attracts all sorts of transplants to move here, even if long time residents complain about the influx of new residents. When you do things right, it draws attention, so people come here because they want to, but as with any growth questions, you have to ask tough questions about controlling development and managing the future so the city isn't completely fucked. Seattle may be a fun and quirky place, but you have to drive everywhere to get anywhere, and the traffic restricts a lot of movement, and so we want to avoid such problems.

And so now, faced with a choice of wanting to make serious investments and suggestions for the future, we want to slow down the process because it might harm the charm of our area. I think it's wanting to rely on the charm of the past and the quirkiness of our area to make people realize what we have here, but whatever you do, spend the money on the visit and then leave please. If we want anything good to happen here, it's either that the idea was so obvious it was a no brainer decision or we rely on the effort and money of others to do it. We want an NBA class arena, just let Paul Allen build it because he will, never mind that he declared bankruptcy and put the team on the market as well.

The stadium plan has gone around and around, and right now, I'm wanting someone to step up and say this is the plan, and while we'll hear thoughts about the idea, this is our top project and we're going to make it happen. All the preponderance of talking is doing is pulling up ideas that have no merit or were originally shot down but people still cling to the thought it might work now. I expect leadership from the people in charge here, and so I'm imploring them to just step up and make the call. Do you want to be a top class city with the potential of bringing events to town or do you want to hope and rely on our charm to draw people to come here by itself. MLS isn't just a Portland issue, it's an Oregon issue, as evidenced by people in Bend shouting pro Timbers stuff at us all weekend, and people asking about the team living 3 hours away. Pro soccer has the chance to be big here, and we need people with power to realize it and make the long term plan happen, despite the noise from others who want to bring the past to the table because it makes sense in their mind. Let's stop the talking, and let's make this idea a reality.

Weekend Wrap-Up

The Row N crew took in a road trip this weekend to Bend, Oregon, and spent most of our weekend hanging out at the Old St. Francis Hotel near downtown. We've had a history of gathering on occasion outside of Timbers matches to mostly eat, drink and just hang out, which sometimes we don't get to do a lot during the busy summers. The tradition started actually with my 40th birthday out at Edgefield in January 2 years ago, and has continued with our regular Thanksgiving weekend meet up at Edgefield combined with a spring/summer gathering that has ranged from camping on the coast to our road trip this past weekend.

I love the Row N folks, as they are some of the best folks you could even meet, and it was great to hang out with them and take in the sights from the road. Oregon has some great sights to see, and I'd only been to Bend once a few years ago participating in the Pole, Pedal, Paddle competition, so it was great to get back there. The guest list was comprised of Hornman, Fish Eye, Bubbles/girl, Regina, S3K, Dublinx and myself, not a huge list, but a hearty group.

Highlights of the weekend by night:

Friday - We checked in about 3 pm to the hotel, as Dublinx rode with me and girl. Our room was a king size bed with two bathtubs, two showers, and a bathroom stall. The bath area was as big as the room, which was nice. The drive over was pretty good, taking about 3 hours, and the only drive highlight was being tailgated the whole way by a white sedan with California license plates. An old friend, armybrewer, had taken over the brewing at the pub, so we were able to get a quick brew tour from him. Since Regina was coming in later and S3K had arrived, it was time to eat and drink. Hornman and Fish Eye were staying at another hotel in the area, but were scared by the absolute scary side of the Dunes Hotel, so they joined us later and there was an extra room to stay on site. We played pool, drank, and when Regina came, we wandered to Deschutes Pub for food and gluten free beer, which rocked. Dessert was back at St. Francis, which was good, and we all retired to our rooms very late.

Saturday - We went to Alpenglow Cafe for breakfast early, ate a nice breakfast, then wandered back to the hotel. Fish eye, Hornman and girl stayed at the hotel while a group of us took the Deschutes Brewery tour, which was fascinating. After the tour, a few hearty souls took a hike at the park while some of us returned to eat and drink. The Timbers match was at 4:30, so we all huddled into girl and I's room with the laptop, and watched a thrilling 1 - all draw. Ok, the match was boring at points, but getting a point was good, and the USL Live feed didn't suck. The rains came after the match, so we stayed close to the hotel, ate and drank until late. S3K's cousin came to visit later and hang out.

Sunday - We ate a hearty breakfast, and then wandered back home. S3K, dublinx and I had a TAFC match later in the day that we made it to in time to play. We played the full 90, and the result wasn't very good for us, but we held our own at points.

Observations:

Old St. Francis is a beautiful old Catholic school that the McMenamin's brothers turned into a hotel, pub and theatre. They are famous for refurbishing properties, and they did a great job with this place. It was quiet, the rooms were great, and the staff absolutely took care of us, even asking us about the game result after they figured out we were soccer fans and there was a match viewing on Saturday. Can't say enough great things about them, although the only complaint is that your tortilla chips have some wheat in them, so please don't tell us they are wheat free.

Deschutes Pub was a blast, and we got great service, and drank gluten free beer. The pub, for being packed, served us promptly, and our server even took a group photo. Even the breakfast on Saturday and Sunday were good, leading me to think that Bend has great restaurants. The atmosphere was great, and we even got some comments about our Timbers gear, and a few folks saying "Go Timbers"

There are a lot of inside jokes and comments I could publish, but it wouldn't be nearly as funny as it was in the moment, but overall, thanks to the Row N folks that could attend, as it was fun, and thank you to Bend for putting on your good side for us to see this weekend. And for those of you that missed out, well, better luck on our next big trip coming soon. And for those of you going, some pictures for viewing.

Timbers thoughts - After the tough match on Tuesday in Kitsap, the Timbers traveled to the Carolinas for a Thursday tilt in Cary versus the RailHawks and then off to Charleston to face the Battery. The team was facing a tough stretch of games, but the depth and talent should make things competitive.

Thursday Vs. RailHawks - We watched at the Cheerful BullPen, and the game was indeed at a practice field, but the pitch seemed OK. Steve Cronin faced a few shots, and Suzuki had a few moments of goodness, but overall, the Timbers had a momentum advantage until a RailHawk was sent off for a tough challenge, and then the Timbers really struggled being a man up. No real good chances in the second half, but getting a scoreless draw meant no loss and one point for the trouble. Not a bad result.

Saturday Vs. Battery - The Timbers had never played well here, but they got off to a great start generating chances all over the pitch and causing the Battery defense some concerns. The first half was a back and forth affair, as after Portland's strong start, each side traded runs and good shot chances. The first half ended scoreless, and it was that way until Charleston took advantage of a defensive lapse and went up 1 to nil. Portland substituted some players, and leveled the score when Keita headed up a Hayes corner kick. The Timbers got more late chances, but in the end, the defenses held, and Portland earned another point with a 1 all draw.

Thoughts - I can't complain about no losses on the trip and points from each game, although it would have been nice to get at least one win. But our points streak from wins and draws pushes to 10 matches without a loss, and my hope is to keep it going. Defense and Cronin are very strong, as Cronin made some great late saves vs. Charleston. Midfield is still playing well, and Suzuki has played very well there the past few matches, as he is helping to create chances. Keita keeps up the hot scoring streak, and the team rolls on.

Other Notes:

The St. Johns Pub had standing room only for Sunday's match, and a few special Timbers guests. Wish we could have been there, but Bend took care of us. Nice to see the fans showing up for viewings, and watch your email for more information about upcoming road matches.

Next Timbers match is Tuesday in Sonoma County in the next round of the Open Cup. If the Timbers win, they host FC Puke Green on June 30th in PGE Park in the next round. Next league game is Friday night versus Minnesota at PGE with a special late kickoff of 8 PM, as the match is on Fox Soccer Channel.