People in Portland have been kvetching for a major league baseball team well before the recent housing price increases and intensified Californian hate. It's a bad idea, but don't pretend it's being perpetuated by Californians - it's very much homegrown.

Lets go for it. But I think it should be akin to the Memorial Colosseum / Rose Garden complex (oops sorry ***"Moda Center").

First, build two complexes, with enough parking. The Primary houses the MLB team for home-games, practice, and options Portland to host All-star games and tournaments for MLB and the Minors. The second complex houses a Minor-League team (maybe reintegrate the Beavers name), hosts tournament matches for Portland's some dozen Amateur teams currently playing on public and High School fields, and could also be licensed for home-game use for the (*hypothetical) revamped baseball team (dropped in 98') as well as home-game use for the currently active women's softball games.

We could incentivize PSU to revamp the baseball team by promising a % of MLB sales to the Athletic department, and would attract promising players with the prospect of playing in a hosting MLB city that also has Amateur and Minor Leagues. Further, we could re-integrate "civil-war" matches between college and minor, minor and major, to push a sort of "cohesiveness" in Portland baseball. If I'm too far ahead of myself thinking Portland could possibly host Major and Minor teams, maybe you're right...just remove the talk about the Minor League team and still build a smaller side-complex, call it the Annex, license the Beavers name to the Major League team - and you've got instant nostalgia and brand loyalty from the community.

And since I mentioned the Beavers, lets not forget that 1) if Portland had never optioned for MLS, we'd still have a widely popular Minor League team today, and 2) as a semi-relevant (but maybe not) side-note, PGE park had odd seating for baseball with spectators sitting behind and to the side of the diamond. I don't intend to overstate it, but the prospect (especially for youth) of catching a homerun is a timeless tradition and coveted in successful MLS cities. The PGE seating allowed no room for this, as the only way to catch a ball under 98.9% of circumstances would be a foul ball.

You're wrong, FlavioSuave -- there has not been widespread kvetching for MLB in Portland -- well, maybe in your Lake Oswego redoubt. Here in SE, we love our Pickles; in Hillsboro, they have the Hops. This is fun baseball -- no professional thugs, no traffic jams, no $$$$ sucked out of our pockets so that some billionaire can become a trillionaire. We have many problems here in the Rose City -- the lack of MLB is a feature, not a bug. We do not need or want MLB.

PS -- if yoy like MLB so much, MOVE TO A CITY THAT HAS IT.

Jessdickenya - where are you getting the interpretation that you're going to have to fund it? I don't care much either, but I like to pay attention to facts, and/or the available information at the time. Nothing within the discourse of this project has alluded to the county or city funded the construction.

Cassie Mae - Why do you believe MLB equates to Thugs? I certainly hope you are anti Timbers and anti Blazers.

Look, I'm not pro-baseball. But nothing I'm seeing in the complaints equates to logical reasons not to have a team. It seems to me it's just anti-sports people who are paranoid about government spending and still think the homeless crisis is solvable or even a relevant issue. Having a team and a stadium changes nothing about the problems you perceive the city to have. Rather, assuming the city actually retained an upper hand, we could benefit by drafting a contract the requires community development with proceeds. I also have a sharp inclination that anti-transplanters are worried about MLB because it may attract people to move here - am I wrong with that estimation?

come up with better reasons to be against it - I'm genuinly interested in the debate as I haven't really participated in it before - I'd like to know your contentions. FWIW, my guess is it's unlikely anyways

Doomtown, the Beavers, and Rockies in the interim, were not "widely popular" - that's why the Beavers were ultimately sold and the Rockies franchise only lasted a handful of years. I went to games, and the stadium at times was maybe 1/10th full, if that.

cassie mae, I'm in NE, not LO, and if you're actually a local and have paid attention to sports media for the past three decades, the idea of a MLB team has been perpetually floated in Portland with various ups and downs in the amount of vigor and seriousness, but it has been here for a long time. Go search the Oregonian archives if you want. You also seem to think that I, personally, want a MLB team? Not sure where you got that notion, as I'm entirely indifferent if it's privately funded, and generally opposed it if involves public funding. But your moronic ranting and wildly off-base assumptions is 100% on-brand for you, so you keep doing you.

Flavio, so did you intentionally forget that the Portland Beavers returned from 01 to 2010 or did that just slip you? Or the fact that the Hops have 3,000 + in attendance in Hillsboro, and that most of those are commuter fans (IE Portland Metro).

Also, PGE stadium sucked. Seating was literally backwards compared to the tradition in baseball. In the last 8 years (since the demise of PDX baseball), sports spectatorship and fandom has increased due to the influx of sports fans and the fact that the children during the period of time when sports were at a lull in this city are now adults who can purchase tickets.

Not ready for MLB, fine. But I think it's a stretch to believe no one in Portland wants baseball, especially if we had a proper stadium for it and we marketed to Millennials (which I am btw).

Personally, I'd rather watch curling than baseball... and I've never watched curling. But if they can find real estate that would handle it, and enough money to finance it that doesn't come out of my pocket, then I'm all for it. Of course, traffic, rain, land.... big hurdles.

Flaviosuave I am not going to educate you. Professional sports always extract money from the locals for stadiums, etc. Remember how Paul Allen went bankrupt rather than pay his share for the Rose Quarter? That's just one example. Then Moda -- awwww, fuck it. Look it up -- professional sports make money for their billionaire owners who are generally terrible people. And professional athletes? Boils on the ass of humankind. MLB in Portland may be someone's obsession, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing. I hear Houston is a great place to take your kids to see the Astros!!! Delta is ready when you are.

@ Cully. I see where you're going, but I don't think (opinion) that those stats reflect the newest viewership. Portland is predominately white, heavy-handily male, and from what I can tell, it's 20-35 year old market who wants it, so I'm not sure Millennials are the issue. To throw another wrench in that, it was non-millennials who stopped going to PGE park and stopped watching the Beavers. It was non-millennials who invented Seattle rivalry and who perpetuate the idea that an MLB stadium makes us too similar to Seattle.

But you're right about the streetcar and you're right about public assistance. It'll probably happen. Also, I agree, I'm not sure PDX can average 25,000 over 81 games...I'm not certain of that at all. That's why they're likely going to continue doing economic surveys for the next 5-6 years before even signing anything.

Doomtown, no I did not forget the Beavers came back - that's why I said the town AAA team was the Rockies "in the interim" - if you don't know what 'interim' means, look it up! Great word! And then after the Beavers came back, they were eventually sold. Quite clearly, AAA baseball just did not work out in Portland. You seem to think it was the stadium's fault. I guess maybe? Compared to the Blazers and the Timbers, Portland does not have a particularly passionate history for baseball - the 3,000+ attendance for the Hops =/= the type of support required for a financially viable major league team.

Which leads me to cassie mae...what on earth are you ranting about? Educate me? You didn't say a single thing I didn't already know. I said I would be opposed if public funding were required. Which means...I am opposed, given how pro sports teams have historically been funded largely through public dollars for their facilities, unless and until there is some kind of magical unicorn private funding plan that actually looks realistic and viable. But again, way to stay on-brand. I expect nothing less than another wildly off-the-mark rant that is borne of either your inability to read and comprehend what others write and/or the demons of stupidity infesting your brain.

Interesting...rather than just argue FOR a MLB team, Anon phrases his(it has to be a he, with that passive-aggressiveness) piece as what he clearly sees as a parody of the way "progressive" anti-MLB types think...it's the kind of right-wing "satire" that always fails as comedy because it puts pissing on its targets ahead of sustaining the jokes about them.

We don't need MLB. That's nonsense. The soccer is already enough of a joke. And it rains here...? Like...you know...all the time? It's a stupid idea.

MLB may make a short stop here, but for PDX to really hit a home run and not strike out, it needs to pitch this low and away to the general public, and any prospective owners should cover all the bases and not get caught stealing from the public till.

Good stuff, The Wizard, but I feel like your average Portlander will balk at the suggestion.