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| Joined: 25 Nov 2007 |
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| Location: Washington DC |
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 Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:08 pm |
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As some might know, there are several cities in the hunt for an expansion club. Seattle will be coming aboard next year, and Philadelphia the following. Cities currently in the running are Vancouver, St. Louis, Miami and Portland along with some other cities that have just popped up in the running.
The price for Seattle and Philadelphia to join in was $30 million, but that price has now increased to $40 million putting pressure on the apparent owner of the Portland franchise (if it was to happen) to strike a deal as quickly as possible. This will also put pressure on other potential owners as this price is likely to continue to go up in the coming years.
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Price for a Portland MLS team going up
Major League Soccer fees climb to $40 million, increasing the pressure to secure an agreement
The cost to land a Major League Soccer expansion team in Portland is quickly climbing.
The new entry fee: at least $40 million. That's up from the $30 million MLS is charging ownership groups in Seattle and Philadelphia to bring their cities franchises in the next two years.
The league's increased buy-in price is putting pressure on potential franchise owner Merritt Paulson to secure a deal before costs escalate further. The owner of the Portland Timbers and Portland Beavers sports teams plans to present his full proposal for MLS to city leaders as early as June.
"We still think it would be a big positive here," Paulson said. "But it quickly might not make sense if we're not able to get something done."
Buoyed by interest that "remains at an all-time high," MLS has identified Portland, Atlanta, Miami, Montreal, San Diego, St. Louis and Vancouver, B.C., as candidates to become its 17th and 18th teams by as early as 2011, said Dan Courtemanche, a league senior vice president. A second MLS team in New York is another possibility.
Portland's bid hinges on Paulson and the city agreeing to a public-private partnership. Paulson said he is willing to absorb the league's $40 million expansion fee. The city would be on the hook for the rest, Paulson said, which probably would amount to more than $55 million.
Paulson gauged the level of City Hall enthusiasm for the project in a meeting with Commissioner Randy Leonard two weeks ago. After a one-hour discussion with Paulson and his consultants, including former Portland Development Commission director Don Mazziotti and Greg Peden, a former Portland Business Alliance lobbyist, Leonard said he was "very much" supportive of MLS coming to Portland. The addition, he said, would be "a huge economic shot in the arm."
Leonard said he can envision the venture ultimately paying for itself with increased ticket revenue. He added that he is not necessarily opposed to dipping into the city's pool of general funds to pay for part of the city's bill, if need be. But he will wait to pledge his support until he reviews Paulson's proposal detailing costs, financing options and revenue projections.
Part of the project's advantages, Paulson said, is that the city would not need to cough up its share of the expenses all at once. The capital outlay would be staggered over three to five years.
Up first: bringing the city-owned PGE Park to MLS standards. Adding grandstand seating on the stadium's vacant east side, plus more restrooms and concessions, among other changes, could easily add up to more than $20 million, an amount MLS commissioner Don Garber said during his last official visit to Portland in October "might be optimistic."
The larger expense would be building a new ballpark for the Beavers, a Triple A baseball team. MLS wants its teams to play in stadiums designed for soccer. So the Beavers would need to vacate PGE Park within five years of an MLS team starting play there, Paulson said. After narrowing his shortlist of potential sites to three within city limits, he said a 9,000-seat Beavers stadium probably would run north of $35 million.
Paulson declined to identify his shortlist sites. The Rose Quarter and the U.S. Postal Service's district office building in Old Town are not among them, he said.
"It's probably a good bet," Paulson said, that one of them is Southeast Portland's 38-acre Lents Park, a locale Leonard proposed during their last meeting. A new Beavers ballpark could be erected, Leonard said, in the same Lents Park spot where an aging baseball stadium now sits, near Southeast 92nd Avenue and Holgate Boulevard.
A new baseball stadium in Lents, near the coming MAX light rail line extension, could jumpstart economic revitalization in an urban renewal area that badly needs it, said Leonard, who lives in nearby Mount Scott.
Limited parking as well an increase in light and noise caused by a new Lents baseball stadium are legitimate concerns that would need further analysis, he said.
The last time the city entered into a stadium agreement, it was left with unpaid debts by Portland Family Entertainment. A subsequent owner of the Timbers and Beavers agreed to pay the city $667,000 to cover those debts.
The Portland Family Entertainment fiasco resulted from "decisions that were based on a lot of faulty assumptions that weren't carefully vetted," Leonard said. "And I heard a lot of angst because the questions I'm asking now weren't asked then. So if we become timid in our leadership at the city because at some point someone made a mistake, we quit growing, we quit becoming the city Portland is and could be."
Leonard also said not being a rabid sports fan "helps me be objective about what the pitfalls and bends might be."
Paulson said he wouldn't expect to complete an agreement with MLS until after the November election.
There's no assurance, however, the league won't bump its expansion fee again. Ownership of the San Jose Earthquakes, who began play this season, paid a $20 million expansion fee. The owners of Toronto FC, which launched last year, paid $10 million. Paulson said he doesn't know his threshold for investing in an MLS franchise, "but it's not a big cushion anymore." |
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