By Aaron
Merritt Paulson, co-owner of the Portland Timbers and Portland Beavers, proposed a potential PGE park remodel, a renovation that may well allow Major League Soccer to come to Portland.
There are a lot of very boring taxes to be worked out, and a lot of very important city council members must have a number of very tedious meetings, but in the end, if this works out it would be awesome.
The Beavers would be moved to a new baseball stadium to Lents Park in Southeast Portland.
Minor-League sports such as the Timbers and the Beavers are interesting, but tend to attract a smaller following of devoted fans than the larger professional sports. If a professional soccer team were to come to Portland, a city so enamored of soccer, one would think it could bring in a decent amount of revenue for the city.
The city, however, is still caught up in a recent debt from a previous renovation of PGE Park. The city still owes $28 million for the new bathrooms and press boxes of PGE Park. And the new plan has an estimated price tag of $85 million.
That includes $40 million in renovations for PGE Park that would go towards increasing seating to 23,000 and convert the baseball-style stadium to purely ?soccer.
Monetary issues aside, Portland needs another professional sports franchise. The city has over 2 million residents, and only one professional sports team to be its champion
And soccer seems to be the best choice at present. The MLS has two expansion teams available for budding cites to take advantage of, and the commissioner already voiced that if Portland built a stadium exclusively for soccer, they could nab one of the expansion teams and host professional soccer in the year 2011.
But where would this $85 million dollars come from?
Paulson, himself, is willing to spend $40 million for professional soccer and the city is looking into selling taxpayer-backed bonds to finance the expenditure.
But this would not cover the remaining costs, and eventually the money would probably come out of the city or states tax revenue.
For my money, having a new professional sport is well worth the cost. The University of Portland community brings one of the largest crowds to its soccer games, and the Portland Timbers have had a financially secure franchise since 2001. Clearly, the city of Portland loves its soccer.
Plus, the notoriety of another professional sport would undoubtedly bring in new fans and supporters. Especially in a shiny, redone PGE Park.
Fans of soccer would have a new outlet, and Portland residents would have another professional team to rally behind.
Ultimately it will be the taxpayers and politicians call whether or not the professional sports expansion is worth the price. But soccer is cool, new stadiums are cool and professional sports are cool.
It just makes sense.
Aaron O'Connell is the Sports Editor for the Beacon. He can be contacted at oconnell11@up.edu
