Portland baseball backers want to build a stadium village.
Portland, Oregon baseball backers want to make sure that Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and his 30 owners know that they are trying their best to impress MLB barons that they are serious about landing an expansion team. To that end, the Portland backers are looking to purchase a 164-acre golf course in Beaverton that is owned by the city of Portland. The Portland Diamond Project wants to build a stadium-village on the site and is ready to take the golf course property off the hands of the city for $50 million. Of course that $50 million could go back to the group by the time negotiations are done and the tax avoiding gadgets are put into place.
“After careful consideration of many other Portland Metro area properties, we have decided that the scale, the timing, the availability, and the opportunity that this site possesses, simply could not be a better fit for our project,” said Craig Cheek, the Founder and President of the Portland Diamond Project, in a press release. “We think this site not only will put us in the best position to acquire an MLB team but will afford the Portland Metro area the chance to build something truly transformative: a game changer, economically and socially.” Nashville baseball backers have some plans in place for a stadium, Salt Lake City baseball backers have some plans in place for a stadium. Manfred wants to expand the business to 32 franchises but not until stadium situations in Oakland and St. Petersburg, Florida have been resolved. Oakland Athletics’ owner John Fisher has permission to relocate his business to Las Vegas but there seem to be some snags and Tampa Bay Rays’ ownership has not finished a stadium deal in St. Petersburg. There also are stadium issues in Phoenix and Chicago. The Portland stadium-village game has just started.
