Oregon Public Broadcasting

The minor league Portland Beavers take the field Thursday for their last home game of the season. But major league fans in Oregon are no closer now than they ever were to having a team. 

Five years ago this week, Oregon lawmakers approved a framework to help fund a baseball stadium, to help bring major league ball to the state.  But the next year, when the struggling Montreal Expos might have come to Portland in 2004, Major League Baseball sent the team to Washington, D.C. instead.

Rob Manning reports, Portland struck out with baseball, but could score in another sport.

North Portlander Jim Hoff heads into the stadium for his first-ever Portland Beaver game.

He says he'd rather be heading in to see a Major League, rather than a Triple-A team.

Jim Hoff: “I think the level of play, that mystique that comes with big league baseball, would bring me here. The star factor, definitely.”

Excited fans like Lewis and Clark Law School professor, Steven Kantor began trying almost a decade ago to channel that excitement into getting a major league team.

Kantor had visions of rallying all of Oregon around the American pastime.

Steven Kantor: “We also decided it was going to be a huge long shot and that we had a twin objective - one, we had to get on Major League Baseball’s radar screen, which Portland was not.”

And second, Kantor’s group had to convince the public, and elected leaders, that baseball was worth the  time and money.

Kantor says the Portland Baseball Group had members who were insiders experienced in such deals.  He says they put together a strong bill.

Steven Kantor: “And we very quietly went around and got 53 co-sponsors before we dropped our bill. So when we dropped it, there was a lot of controversy about it, and we were still working on the ‘mechanism’.” 

The funding mechanism, that is. Kantor says he’s still not sure if the initial plan to tap lottery funds for a stadium hurt the bill in the end. Kantor blames leading Republicans for blocking the 2001 bill. 

Steven Kantor: “Was really sad, because we were really close. If we had gotten a vote on the Senate floor, we would have passed, and I am convinced that if we had gotten through in 2001, we were the only solution for the Expos.”

Randy Leonard: “Yes, there was a real missed opportunity.”

Portland city commissioner Randy Leonard was the leading advocate for baseball in the Oregon House in 2001, when he was a state rep.

By the time lawmakers approved a $150 million for a stadium in 2003, he was at Portland City Hall.  City advocates, like Leonard were left to make the case all over again, locally.

Randy Leonard:  “Opposition to any kind of a funding scheme that wasn’t a complete private source has been ‘The One Thing’ that has killed Major League Baseball from coming to Portland.”

But some observers say the problems were deeper than that.

Merritt Paulson: “There was never an owner, you had some interested businessmen, there was never an owner who was committed.”

Merritt Paulson owns the Portland Beavers, and the Timbers’ soccer team. He says the lack of an ownership group, and the lack of corporate support made pro baseball a poor fit for Portland.

Merritt Paulson: “There were some efforts, and people got their hopes up, but I’m not sure how realistic that was.”

Advocates like Randy Leonard have moved on.

Randy Leonard: “I have since realized that the political stars don’t appear to align, and probably isn’t going to create an opportunity for us to have Major League Baseball, so I’ve been very supportive of Merritt Paulson’s effort to bring Major League Soccer to Portland, and then to cause a stadium to be built in the Lents’ neighborhood for Triple-A baseball.”

The complicated juggle that Leonard is suggesting could actually work out  for one simple reason: Major League Soccer is interested in a franchise for Portland.

Owner Merritt Paulson says for that to happen though, the stadium needs some work.

Merritt Paulson: “For Portland to be under consideration for Major League Soccer, they’ve been very clear that PGE Park has to be renovated so as to be soccer-specific.”

Paulson is offering to pay the $40 million for the soccer team. But he says another $75 million is needed. That would build a minor league baseball park for the Beavers -- possibly in the Lents neighborhood -- and pay for the PGE Park upgrade for major league soccer.

Merritt Paulson: “It’s not a simple deal by any stretch of the imagination, and we’re going to need public support to make the facility changes happen.”

Granted, $75 million is no small change, but it's a mere fraction of the cost of say, a major league baseball stadium.

Paulson plans to take his case to the Portland public, beginning next week, when he’ll share more details on the future of baseball - and soccer - in Portland.