This editorial comment should be forwarded to the Portland City Council and to the Oregonian.

At this rate, the council will tenaciously cling to the scenario even if they have to squeeze the new Beaver stadium into Portland Meadows.

And, come to think of it, that's not a bad idea.

..."Morally offensive, not to mention fiscally moronic"

Hmm. That pretty well summarizes Adams' term as mayor so far.

PGE Park is a perfectly fine minor league ball park. Portland Meadows would make a fantastic MLS location. You could even find parking there. It has been for sale. I wonder if it is still.

See:

"Portland Meadows owner seeks bankrupty protection"
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/03/02/daily75.html

This was a month ago. The same guy owns Pimlico. His business is dumping a number of facilities which are named in the bankruptcy papers; Portland Meadows wasn't among them.

"Randy Evers, the Oregon Racing Commission's executive director, said Magna officials assured him that the filing won't affect the Portland facility.

" 'They've said that it's business as usual for Portland Meadows, and that the filing won't affect us at this time,' he said. 'They'll continue to provide racing in Portland and to the state of Oregon.' "

Horse racing has been taking a beating in the wake of video and online offsite gambling.

I still think there may be an opening there.

But why spend the money? Minor league baseball has already proven to be a bad, bad bet for Portland taxpayers. Leave it where it is. And if "major league" soccer doesn't like PGE Park as is, they can walk. They won't -- call their bluff. What? Randy can't call a bluff? That's how we got the aerial tram [rim shot].

I agree with completely with you, Jack. What I meant to say was that Merritt should explore that opening on his own.

Dog and pony show indeed!

NWPortlander has the best idea I've heard yet for a stadium not requiring public money -- there's a complete facility already in place perfectly located to draw well from SW Washington and Portland. The argument that LLP shouldn't invest in the stadium because he doesn't own it is eliminated -- he can buy Portland Meadows, retrofit it anyway he likes, and be the landlord for other groups and uses.

Plenty of people are ready to support soccer if it doesn't act like a leech.

WOW, I had no idea MLS Paulson was related to Treasury Sec. Paulson. It's all making sense now. What a bunch of elitist thieves.

In the family, isn't he known as "Little Merrit"?

In his own family, or the organized crime family running portland?

Of course PGE Park is a fine place for baseball: that's why they've been playing it there for nearly 100 years.

Any sustainable strategy to build a "Soccer Only" stadium would recognize that you can't spend $40 million dollars to remodel a facility that serves a single team that only plays 18 games per season.

You certainly wouldn't destroy a perfectly good multipurpose venue (that's already paid for, like M/C) to replace it with a minor league baseball stadium that costs $50 million dollars. Why? Because EVEN THE WILDLY OVERSTATED ATTENDANCE AND REVENUE PROJECTIONS WON'T SERVICE THE DEBT ON $50 MILLION WORTH OF DEBT.

"Even soccer fans understand"
ROFLMAO

...the organized crime family running portland

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. (Robert Hanlon)

It's not just stupidity. There are people making lots of money buying off politicians like Sam, Randy, Saltzman, Metro, and others. It doesn't take too much investigation or thinking to figure out who they are. Follow the money.

Even Little Big Pipe thinks it's stupid.

How is it that the FBI can spend so much time busting people who hack into someone's Facebook account, yet this whole circus of corruption hasn't seemed to grab their interest yet? We need an Elliot Ness type fed on the scene really bad!