A friend of mine let me know this morning that he’s going to Petco Park to see the Giants and Padres today. I’ve never been more envious of someone about to pay $6 for a hot dog.
It got me thinking about Portland and Major League Baseball.
A recent Forbes piece pointed out that commissioner Rob Manfred is talking expansion again. His owners need an infusion of cash amid the pandemic. Expansion is the quickest way to provide it. Manfred set the expansion-franchise fee in the $2 billion neighborhood. There’s another approximate $2 billion needed to build a ballpark, bringing the total to a cool $4 billion.
Here’s the Sunday question for the Portland Diamond Project: Do your backers have the needed cash or credit, and the desire to spend it in Portland?
That’s the $4 billion question.
I’ve spent considerable time in recent months talking with business leaders in Portland. They’re frustrated with the mess downtown and the lack of a plan to fix it.
One of them, Columbia CEO Tim Boyle, sent the Oregon Department of Transportation $145,000 to be used to clean up the highways (I-405 and Highway 26) around downtown Portland. ODOT spent $14,000 and sent the rest back, telling Boyle it couldn’t figure out how to use it.
He then offered the balance to the City of Portland. He waited a frustrating year for them, then Boyle shifted gears and gave the money instead to two charities aimed at downtown clean up.
Said Boyle: “Others are ready to help, but we need a leader and a plan.”
My colleague, Steve Duin, wrote a hopeful piece this week about modular housing units that are being used to give homeless people a warm, safe place to sleep. There’s also a proposed infusion of $240 million from the Oregon Legislature on the horizon. But for all that, the reality remains that there are simply too many people without a safe place to lay their heads right now. Also, our city is a glaring mess.
I’m as eager to see Portland cleaned up as you are, but something tells me it’s going to take a massive private effort. One likely fueled by those frustrated business owners and developers. Also, by you and I, because if we leave this to leadership in the city and state it’s just not going to get done.
We must:
♦ Clean up Portland.
♦ Respect people.
♦ Have no tolerance for destruction.
This is much bigger than bringing a ballpark to Portland. It’s about re-framing the image and condition of the most notable city in our state. If a beautiful major league ballpark pops up in the wake of the movement, wonderful. But we have an opportunity here to foster a great comeback story. We shouldn’t wait around for city leaders who can’t -- or won’t -- do this on their own.
There are a line of wonderful efforts already making a difference. Support them. People such as Frank Moscow have given us a place to “adopt one block,” in which you can make a one-year commitment. Organizations such as SOLVE, have given us a chance to bring the family out for a day and give back to the city. Boyle split his donated funds between both.
I know in my own circle of colleagues, family and friends, we’ve talked a lot lately about trying to do something to make a difference, to galvanize community spirit and repair a reputation that’s now nationally tarnished.
The Portland Diamond Project should be applauded for making big plans. They’ve positioned Portland as one of the possible expansion locations, but if we’re being real, MLB isn’t putting a franchise in a boarded-up, crumbling city with so many people without a home.
Basically, MLB is not coming to Dumptown.
Last October Portland was passed over for a women’s NCAA Tournament Final Four bid. The images the rest of the country were being shown of Portland weren’t pretty. I obtained emails sent between Craig Cheek, the founder of the MLB to PDX movement, and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and wrote a column about the sobering tone.
Cheek wrote to Wheeler: “Sorry to pile on, but need to convey that this is having an extremely negative impact and really poor backdrop to our effort in bringing an MLB franchise to Portland.”
Plans to bring Manfred and his inner circle to Portland to showcase the city were put on hold. Truth is, it should have been an alarm bell for us all. If we’re not the kind of city that can host guests, we ought to think seriously about what we can all do personally to change that.
Not for baseball.
But for our city.
Some billionaire may want to own a baseball team. But would that whale view Portland as the place to dump a few billion dollars? As in, right now? In its current state?
The Portland Diamond Project has some things working in its favor right now. MLB’s owners need money and the quickest and easiest way to get it would be to split $8 billion in new franchise fees. Also, because of geography Portland would only have the Mariners to worry about when it came to territorial rights. Las Vegas shares territory with a half dozen MLB teams.
Also, there’s some interesting commercial real estate that has come available during the pandemic. It makes me wonder if the silence from the MLB to PDX effort lately has been about repositioning the footprint of the proposed ballpark. Feels like they have more options than ever.
But first, we’ve got to deal with cleaning up Portland.
My friend is going to a ballpark today and he’ll probably text me a photo of himself sitting in the sunshine, taking in the Giants and Padres. I’ll bet has a $6 hot dog. I keep thinking it will take a series of small but significant steps to position Portland as a viable contender when MLB does expand to 32 teams.
Time to take one together.
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Email: John@JohnCanzano.com
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