Goldy may not miss the SuperSonics, but if anyone is missing the spectacle of incredibly rich people getting public guarantees to build their sports playgrounds, Portland seems glad to oblige. The plan is to build a new minor league baseball stadium, probably where Memorial Coliseum now stands, and to refurbish PGE Park for soccer. It used to be called Civic Stadium, and hasn’t been refurbished since way back in 2001. The horror.
As always, there is absolutely no risk to the taxpayers. None. Not possible. Not in a million years.
From Blue Oregon:
Without any apparent sense of irony, the Oregonian this morning offers us up the following in vouching for the deal reached between city negotiators and Merritt Paulson:
Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Randy Leonard, who negotiated the agreement, said [the] city is getting solid assurances from a wealthy family. Paulson’s father is Henry Paulson, the former U.S. treasury secretary and Wall Street mogul.
The timing of those “solid assurances” is, well, unfortunate, to put it mildly. On Friday the Congressional panel charged with overseeing the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) released its latest report, and this week the panel’s chairwoman Elizabeth Warren has been making the rounds on tv and radio to discuss their findings.
Warren minces no words: she accuses then Secretary Paulson of lying to her and the panel about the ways in which they used public funds to bail out the banks. Warren had asked Paulson whether, in purchasing assets from the troubled banks, they were receiving assets “at par” – and he answered yes. But the panel’s own investigations revealed that Treasury was receiving them often far below equivalent value – on average a third below.
Nope, everything should work out just fine for Portland.
Vancouver residents will be magically transported to games at the new facilities via an organic bio-fuel flying carpet, as the aging Interstate Bridge spans will be converted to a fixed-gear velodrome.
Portland needs an MLB team. They are the largest TV market in the country to have only one major sports franchise (NFL, NBA, MLB and…oh all right, NHL). And what better way to spend those stimulus funds! Plus they could balance the league by adding another team to NYC, to steal some of the Yankees obviously bloated market.
The question is, did the economy rebound to the tune of a 380-point bounce today because investors are elated at the wisdom, elegance, and righteousness of Obama’s vigorous and manly leadership, or because yet another of Bush’s henchmen has been outed as the lying sack of shit they all were?
1 BNW
And don’t forget MLS.
3 DL
I didn’t.
4 BNW
Now you’re just being mean. And funny.
Lolz.
So I wouldn’t be surprised to find MLS creeping up on the NHL in terms of fans / sales / respectability any day now. It looks to be a pretty hot ticket here, if my sports-loving friends are any measure.
6)I hope the Sounders FC can sell out Qwest, it is too big for MLS, some of the stadiums in major markets only seat around 20,000.
As for the future of PGE Park, I wonder if this renovation will affect it’s use as a football stadium. It is currently the home field for Portland State(proximity to the campus makes it a good stadium for them), and Portland is being considered as a city for the proposed New USFL.(If the economy does not kill it, should start next spring. Unlike the UFL, they learned their lesson, no going head to head in the fall against the NFL, even if there is a loophole that allows it).
I miss the Sonics. I think I’ve been missing them since Wally Walker fired George Karl.
I wonder if the Thunder are one of the teams seeking a loan. I know Sacramento and Orland are in trouble. Rumor has it the Hornets might be leaving New Orleans as the local economy cannot support more than one Professional Sports franchise. I heard a joke that there is a saying in New Orleans, Food and Saints Tickets come first. OKC wanted the Hornets. If they move, even to Seattle(again, if), I think Clay Bennett will be hated in OKC. The Hornets played a season in OKC post-Katrina but had to move back to New Orleans.
Are you visiting the sins of the father upon the son? I think so. LeftJab Radio already squawked this tripe months ago. I know this because I head it on my satellite radio.
Here’s some facts:
Merritt Paulson is not his father. Henry Paulson is involved in Shortstop LLC, the company that owns both the USL-1 Timbers and the AAA Beavers, but only as a minority owner to the tune of 20 percent.
Merritt Paulson has agreed to back the bond plan with his own money if need be.
Today the City of Portland approved the PGE remodel/ new Beavers stadium deal.
And remember, it’s only costing $75 million. While that’s certainly a lot of money, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what was being bandied about over the late, lamented SuperSonics. The benefits will eventually outweigh the initial costs.
The projects will put a lot of people to work.
Honestly Jon, this has very little to do with the Evil Bush Empire, so let this go, and find something else to write about.
ERF:
Sounders FC already has a season-ticket base larger than most MLS teams’ stadia can hold, but for their matches the upper deck of Qwest Field will be covered over, which will limit the stadium’s capacity to somewhere around 30k or so. Given the buzz that’s going on, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see a lot of sellouts this season. And MLS has already announced that Seattle will host the MLS Cup championship this fall as well. If Sounders FC makes the championship (which wouldn’t be the first time an expansion team did so – Chicago Fire won the MLS Cup in ’98), you can bet that the tarps would be off for that game.
And as for your question about PSU football at PGE Park, they could likely play around the construction just fine, since IIRC, most of the work will be done on one side of the stadium. After that, it’s just a matter of putting football lines on the much bigger soccer pitch.