Zero cost effective options? If we were not getting MLS, the Beavers would continue to play in PGE, I would assume. If they want 30 million to renovate PGE, and another 50 million for a minor league baseball field, why not spend all 80 million of that, or less, possibly, on a brand new soccer only stadium? And PGE can be the cavernous baseball stadium it currently is. SPD, I'll do it for 750,000. Peanuts!
Your back yard should be more than large enough to hold any serious soccer fans who might occasionally show up.
Brilliant idea! Make weekends offlimits, and make the MLS games weeknights only. Who is running that league? That won't work in Portland, I can guarantee it. A bad ecomony, a struggling league, and let's move the games away from the days when families can make a trip to the pitch.
I only mentioned one site that was out of the core Portland area and that was Delta/Portland Meadows. That is absolutely not true. There are sites available large enough and (relatively) inexpensive enough to make a new stadium economically feasible. Ironically enough the site where the old Vaughn street stadium once stood (that's where the Beavers use to play before they moved to PGE Park) is available. Also the area south of OMSI on the east side is available. Plus others. Okay now this is where you get pretty comical, Paulsen is going to have a lease agreement anywhere his teams play. Unless he's planning on having games in his backyard they have to pay. Now lets think about financial viability for a little bit, you have a baseball team that gets 3000 people attending a game. You could either keep them in their current home and current lease or you could move them to a new $50mill stadium that will have a higher lease. Why would you think that moving the Beavers to a more expensive facility would make any financial sense what so ever? But what you refuse to recognize is that no matter how money you put into PGE Park it's still going to be an inferior facility. Compared to other MLS facilities it's not going to be that nice. Why do you think PA didn't remodel the MC for half the price instead of building a new arena? Why do you think other teams build new instead of remodel old? Because when it's all said and done it's just putting lipstick on a pig. Just how long do you think the Timbers are going to stay at PGE Park? If the team is a success (which it will be) Paulsen is going to be looking for a new home in 10 years or less.
I bet they win the MLS cup in year 3, and he's looking for a new stadium. The thing about a new stadium, this year, Qwest Field is hosting the MLS Cup, or whatever their championship game is called. It's like the SuperBowl in that it is at different cities each year. Will a renovated PGE Park get the championship game? Maybe so. I doubt it. A brand new stadium might, however.
Way to totally miss the point. Did anyone say that they wouldn't play on weekends? Did anyone say that they'd only have weeknight games? Not sure where you read either of those things. European leagues have off weeks (like a full league bye week) every so often during World Cup qualifying so their teams don't have to play without their best players.
