Portland baseball backers need the money for a stadium-village construction.
Politicians are getting very serious about funding a Major League Baseball state-of-the-art stadium in Portland, Oregon. The Oregon Senate Finance and Revenue Committee wants to now give Portland baseball backers $800 million to help with the construction of a stadium-village to aid in the effort to land a Major League Baseball expansion franchise. The Oregon legislature previously had allocated $150 million for stadium costs. There is an arms race of a sort now taking place in states to fund proposed baseball venues. In Utah, the state would kick in $800 million to go to funding the construction of a Salt Lake City baseball park. Oregon officials think there is some sort of MLB expansion team race and they have to get in the game to compete against Salt Lake City, Nashville and other American markets. Except there is no expansion competition at the moment as MLB owners have to figure out what to do with the Tampa Bay market and are waiting to see if Athletics franchise owner John Fisher can come up with financing for a Las Vegas stadium.
Meanwhile, there has been a site picked out in Portland for a Major League Baseball team to play and city elected officials are all for it. Now there are drawings of the proposed stadium. The Portland City Council agreed to formally support the Portland Diamond Project’s plans to bring a Major League Baseball team to the city and to build a stadium along the city’s south waterfront. Mayor Ted Wheeler brought the agenda item to the council a few months ago with the intention of sending a signal to Major League Baseball and to the rest of the country that the City of Portland is “very serious” about landing an MLB team. Putting aside $800 million in public funds sends out a signal but it may not be enough public money.
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