Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Beavers played their last game in Portland Monday. They beat Las Vegas 6 to 5 in front of a sellout crowd at PGE Park. But as Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, the team's owner predicts the Beavers will return.

Merritt Paulson has spent the last year working with Portland City Council and leaders of other jurisdictions to find a new home for his team.

He considered Beaverton; Portland's old Memorial Coliseum; and Lents Park in Southeast Portland. But with no luck.

He now says the Beavers are up for sale and he expects to announce a new home within a month. But he thinks the Beavers will return to the Portland area.

For proof, he points to what happened with the Albuquerque Isotopes.

Merritt Paulson: "When the team moved to Portland in 2000. Absence made the heart grow fonder. The city decided they wanted to build a ball park. It was a facility issue that caused the team to leave. They built that ball park in 2003. They got another triple A team and attendance literally doubled."

At the last game, Beavers fans expressed their disappointment that the team is leaving. Many blamed Portland City Council for not working harder to keep them in town.

PGE Park will now undergo extensive renovations to become Major League Soccer’s home for The Timbers.