Portland Beavers Ballpark

Last updated
Portland Beavers Ballpark (unbuilt)
Location Portland, Oregon
Capacity ~10,000
Openedabandoned 2010
Tenants
Portland Beavers (PCL)

Portland Beavers Ballpark was a description of a new stadium in Portland, Oregon, or in an outlying city that was being planned for the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League of Minor League Baseball. The ballpark idea was abandoned in October 2010, with no location ever determined for it; several locations were rejected due to public criticism.

Contents

Background

Until 2010, the Beavers played in PGE Park, now Providence Park and shared it with the Portland State Vikings college football team and the Portland Timbers soccer team, which played in the USL First Division, the second division of American soccer.

In 2009, the city of Portland was awarded a Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion franchise for 2011, also to be named the Portland Timbers. [1] Due to MLS requirements about the playing surface, seating configuration, and scheduling, PGE Park was to be renovated as a soccer- and football-only stadium and a new stadium was to be built for the Beavers. [2] Merritt Paulson, whose Shortstop LLC organization owned both the Timbers and the Beavers, estimated that a new baseball stadium with a capacity of 8,000 to 12,000 seats, along with the renovation of PGE Park for MLS, would cost about $85 million. [3]

On February 3, 2010, the Portland City Council approved a $31 million agreement with Beavers' and Timbers' owner Merritt Paulson to renovate PGE Park, meaning that the Beavers had to find a new place to play their home games by 2011. [4]

Location

Former Westgate Theater site in Beaverton Westgate Theater site - Beaverton, Oregon.JPG
Former Westgate Theater site in Beaverton

In the initial proposal, funding for the new soccer team was dependent on a replacement Beavers stadium being found in Portland. Initially, the ballpark was to be built at the site currently occupied by the Memorial Coliseum, which would have been torn down. [5] But public outcry about demolishing a Portland landmark led Portland mayor Sam Adams to propose a second site in the Rose Quarter area north of Memorial Coliseum, which proved to be too small. [6]

The Memorial Coliseum in the Rose Quarter was an original site for the ballpark, however, it met much public criticism. Portland Memorial Coliseum - Portland Oregon.jpg
The Memorial Coliseum in the Rose Quarter was an original site for the ballpark, however, it met much public criticism.

Attention then turned to a third site, Lents Park in the Lents neighborhood in southeast Portland, which had been considered in the early planning stages but rejected due to less-accessible location. [7] After a series of contentious public hearings in which neighbors objected to construction of the stadium in a city park, the Lents site was removed from consideration. [8]

On June 24, the Portland City Council voted to separate the soccer and baseball projects, allowing renovation of PGE Park to proceed without completed plans for a baseball stadium in place. [9] Other locations that were considered included a vacant terminal at the Port of Portland, Delta Park, the Portland Expo Center, Portland Meadows, the Westwood Corporation Heliport site, and a building owned by Portland Public Schools near the Rose Quarter. [8]

Other locations outside the Portland city limits were also under consideration. [9] In Beaverton, preliminary plans included building the park next to the Beaverton Central MAX station. [10] Clackamas County promoted a location near the Southeast Fuller Road station on the recently completed MAX Green Line light rail, [11] and Vancouver mayor Tim Leavitt indicated interest in bringing the team to his city. [12] None of these proposals gained enough momentum to proceed to the planning stage.

Abandonment of project

Unable to find either a suitable site, public support, or a source of funding, and with time running out before the start of the next season, Paulson sold the Beavers in October 2010. The new owners, the San Diego Padres, found a home for the team, renamed to the Tucson Padres, in Tucson, Arizona until the 2013 season, when it was planned that they would move to a new stadium in Escondido, California, a San Diego suburb. [13] After those stadium plans were placed on indefinite hold, the team remained in Tucson for the 2013 season and moved to El Paso as the El Paso Chihuahuas for the 2014 season. [14]

The Portland area was without minor league baseball in 2011 and 2012. After the 2012 season, the NWL Yakima Bears relocated to a new 4,500-seat stadium in the northwest suburb of Hillsboro and became the Hillsboro Hops.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tucson Padres</span> Minor league baseball team

The Tucson Padres were a minor league baseball team representing Tucson, Arizona in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). They were the Triple-A affiliate for the San Diego Padres. The team moved to Tucson from Portland, Oregon for the 2011 season. In April 2014, the team moved to El Paso, Texas and changed their name to the El Paso Chihuahuas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veterans Memorial Coliseum (Portland, Oregon)</span> Multi-use indoor arena in Portland, Oregon

The Veterans Memorial Coliseum is an indoor arena located in the oldest part of the Rose Quarter area in Portland, Oregon. The arena is the home of the Portland Winterhawks, a major junior ice hockey team, and was the original home of the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. It has been included on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural significance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Providence Park</span> Sports stadium in Portland, Oregon, United States

Providence Park is an outdoor soccer venue located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. It has existed in rudimentary form since 1893, and as a complete stadium since 1926. Providence Park is currently the oldest facility to be configured as a soccer-specific stadium for use by a MLS team, and is one of the most historic grounds used by any United States professional soccer team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Lang Stadium</span> Sports stadium in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida

Al Lang Stadium is a 7,500-seat sports stadium along the waterfront of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, United States which was used almost exclusively as a baseball park for over 60 years. Since 2011, it has been the home pitch of the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL Championship soccer league.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timbers Army</span> Independent supporters group of Portland Timbers soccer club

The Timbers Army is an independent supporters group of Portland Timbers, a soccer club in Major League Soccer—the top tier of the United States soccer pyramid. Its members are known for their loud, enthusiastic support and the raucous atmosphere they create at Timbers games. Centered in section 107 of Providence Park in Portland, Oregon, the Army has grown steadily over the years to encompass much of the north end of the stadium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillsboro Stadium</span> Sport stadium in Oregon, USA

Hillsboro Stadium is a multi-sport stadium in the northwest United States, located in Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb west of Portland. Opened 24 years ago in 1999 and owned by the city of Hillsboro, the award-winning stadium is part of the Gordon Faber Recreation Complex located in the northeast part of the city, adjacent to the Sunset Highway.

Portland, Oregon, United States, is home to three major league sports teams — the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association, the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer, and the Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League. The city also hosts a wide variety of other sports and sporting events.

Henry Merritt Paulson III is an American businessman who is the minority owner of Peregrine Sports, LLC, which owns the operating rights to the Portland Timbers, a Major League Soccer (MLS) team, and the Portland Thorns FC, a National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team, both based in Portland, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of baseball in Portland, Oregon</span>

Portland, Oregon, has been home to many baseball teams, dating back to the 19th century. Despite this, Portland has never fielded a Major League Baseball team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portland Timbers–Seattle Sounders rivalry</span> American soccer rivalry

The Portland Timbers–Seattle Sounders rivalry is a soccer rivalry between the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders FC, both based in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The rivalry originated in the North American Soccer League of the 1970s, with both cities reviving expansion teams, and has carried into lower-level leagues, including the A-League and USL First Division. The rivalry moved to Major League Soccer, the top division of soccer in the United States, in 2011, where it has grown into one of the largest in American soccer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portland Timbers</span> Soccer club in Portland, Oregon, United States

The Portland Timbers are an American professional men's soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The Timbers have played their home games at Providence Park since 2011, when the team began play as an expansion team in the league.

The 2010 Portland Timbers season was the tenth and final season for the club in the USL Conference of the USSF Division-2 Professional League, the second tier of the United States soccer pyramid. The D-2 Pro League was a temporary professional soccer league created by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) in 2010 to last just one season, as a compromise between the feuding United Soccer Leagues (USL) and the North American Soccer League (NASL). An expansion club retaining the Timbers name began play in Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2011.

The 2009 Portland Timbers season was the ninth season for the club in the United Soccer Leagues First Division (USL-1), the second tier of the United States soccer pyramid. The first competitive game of the 2009 season was played on April 25 at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, BC versus Vancouver Whitecaps FC which the Timbers lost 1–0. Following that loss the Timbers went on a 24-game unbeaten streak in the league on their way to securing the Commissioner's Cup for finishing the regular season atop the table. In a hard-fought, two-legged series, Vancouver Whitecaps FC knocked Portland out of the playoffs in the semifinals by an aggregate score of 5–4. In the U.S. Open Cup the Timbers hosted Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer in the third round but were eliminated by their bitter rivals 2–1 in front of 16,382 spectators at PGE Park in Portland, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proposed Major League Baseball franchises in Portland, Oregon</span>

Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises have been proposed in Portland, Oregon on two occasions. The Oregon Stadium Campaign and the City of Portland were involved in creating a presentation for a committee in charge of relocating the Montreal Expos in 2003. The proposal included possible sites for new baseball parks. In the midst of the campaign for the Expos, the Oregon State Legislature passed a bill that secured US$150 million in funds for a new stadium, that can still be used. The proposal was passed up and Washington, D.C. was selected as the new home of the Expos. In 2007, the Florida Marlins considered re-locating to Portland. On both occasions, PGE Park, the minor league baseball park at the time, would have been used until a new stadium could be completed. Currently, the Portland metropolitan area is the largest metro area in the United States that houses another major league sports franchise without having an MLB franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portland Beavers</span> Minor league baseball team

The Portland Beavers was the name of separate minor league baseball teams, which represented Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). The team was established in 1903, the first year of the PCL.

The history of the Portland Timbers stretches back to 1975, when the original Timbers club joined the North American Soccer League, to the present club that plays in Major League Soccer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Tonkin Field</span> Baseball park in Oregon

Ron Tonkin Field, originally Hillsboro Ballpark, is a baseball park in the northwest United States, located in Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb west of Portland. The stadium has a capacity of 4,500 spectators and is the home for the Hillsboro Hops of the Northwest League and the Post 6 Barbers of the American Legion Oregon Zone 2 Division. Groundbreaking for the $15.55 million venue was on September 21, 2012, with the first game played nine months later on June 17, 2013.

Charles B. Walker Stadium at Lents Park is a baseball stadium located in Lents Park in the Lents neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. It has been home to the West Coast League Portland Pickles baseball team since 2016. The Pickles play thirty home games per sixty game season. The team pays rent to the City, cleans the stadium, and provides security during games. Outside of the dates set aside for the team, the stadium is open for permitted play by anyone who reserves it. The Northwest Independent Baseball League plays many of its games at Walker Stadium.

References

  1. ↑ "MLS awards 18th franchise to Portland". mlsnet.com. 2009-03-20. Archived from the original on March 19, 2010. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
  2. ↑ Larabee, Mark (May 29, 2009). "Beavers must move out of PGE Park, league says". The Oregonian . Retrieved 2009-09-13.
  3. ↑ Jaquiss, Nigel (2008-11-25). "Paulson's Pitch". Willamette Week . Retrieved 2009-04-24.
  4. ↑ James Mayer (February 3, 2010). "Portland City Council approves soccer deal for PGE Park". The Oregonian. oregonlive.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
  5. ↑ Jackson, Josh (2009-03-11). "Beavers' new stadium a step closer". minorleaguebaseball.com. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
  6. ↑ Frank, Ryan; Mark Larabee (2009-04-22). "Saving Portland's Memorial Coliseum may cost taxpayers". The Oregonian . Retrieved 2009-04-24.
  7. ↑ Larabee, Mark (2009-04-23). "Vote on stadium delayed; Lents Park site back on the table". The Oregonian . Retrieved 2009-04-24.
  8. 1 2 Larrabee, Mark (2009-06-22). "Lents Park out as Beavers' home". The Oregonian . Retrieved 2009-06-25.
  9. 1 2 Larabee, Mark (2009-06-24). "Major League Soccer plan still alive as Portland council endorses latest plan". The Oregonian . Retrieved 2009-06-25.
  10. ↑ Larabee, Mark (2009-07-21). "Beaverton in running for new Beavers baseball stadium". The Oregonian . Retrieved 2009-07-23.
  11. ↑ Schmidt, Brad (September 3, 2009). "Clackamas County added to list of possible future sites for Portland Beavers". The Oregonian . Retrieved 2009-09-13.
  12. ↑ Brettman, Allan (November 10, 2009). "Vancouver now interested in wooing Portland Beavers". The Oregonian . Retrieved 2010-04-06.
  13. ↑ Breier, Michelle; J. Harry Jones (December 15, 2010). "Council votes to bring baseball to Escondido" . Retrieved December 20, 2010.
  14. ↑ Hill, Benjamin (May 31, 2013). "El Paso prepares to "play ball" in PCL". MILB.com. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.