What will happens when Beavers, Timbers play on same night?
KATU had some good material on the Paulson stadiums deal late last week. One item posted there was a letter from the "commissioner" of "major league" soccer to Portland city commissioner Dan "Profiles in Courage" Saltzman, saying that unless the Beavers baseball team is built a new home so that it can move out of PGE Park, "major league" soccer won't come to Portland.
One of the reasons he gave was that there would be a need to schedule baseball and soccer on some of the same nights:
Is he kidding? They're going to schedule a Beavers game that conflicts with a Timbers game? Won't that hurt attendance at one place or the other? At the moment, 25 games into the season, the Beavers are drawing a big 4400 a game (official, lying "attendance"), and five games into the season, the current version of the Timbers is showing around 7700. If the new, "major league" Timbers pull in several thousand additional fans, how many of them are folks that might otherwise be taking in a Beavers game?
And even if the games are on different nights, how much revenue will the one team draw away from the other? Some fans' budgets might force them to choose between the two.
On another front, a reader sends along this report, which he painstakingly prepared, on minor league baseball stadiums in other cities.
| Posted at 11:32 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (9)
I can't wait for the chorus of "nobody could have predicted that..." statements coming out of City Hall when MLS folds in a few years.
Posted by Dave J. | June 8, 2009 1:12 PM
You are basing this argument on the assumption that baseball fans and soccer fans are the same people. I don't see that much overlap (being a baseball guy who is bored by soccer).
Posted by Gil Johnson | June 8, 2009 1:22 PM
Can't we just trade our AAA baseball and soccer franchises for an NFL team? They can knock my house down and build the stadium there. No really, I need out of my mortgage.
Posted by Brendan | June 8, 2009 1:39 PM
It's true. The same people will be staying home from both.
Posted by Allan L. | June 8, 2009 1:56 PM
The 1913 "deed" document and the 1950 "eminent domain" document on the KATU website are incomplete copies. Need to see the whole things, and more.
Posted by Mojo | June 8, 2009 2:05 PM
"a reader sends along this report,"
Geez, that one guy has done more study than anybody in city govt.
Posted by Steve | June 8, 2009 2:58 PM
I especially like the comment on the Syracuse stadium.
I did notice that descriptions of the surrounding areas of these ballparks were generally done via Google or, I presume, some Internet source of information. Anyone up for the BoJack summer tour of AAA ball fields ;)
Posted by umpire | June 8, 2009 5:55 PM
Merritt Paulson: (ring, ring) "Shortstop, LLC, Merritt Paulson speaking."
Merritt Paulson: "Hey Merritt, its Merritt Paulson calling from Peregrine, LLC."
Merritt Paulson: "Hey, what's up dog?"
Merritt Paulson: "Hey, I was wondering if we could talk about how to work out the schedules between the Beavers and the Timbers for the 2011 season and beyond."
Merritt Paulson: "Sure, what do you have in mind?"
Merritt Paulson: "I was thinking, that since the Timbers only have 15 home games and the Beavers have 72, it might make sense to let us pick the soccer dates first, and then work the baseball dates around those dates. What do you think?"
Merritt Paulson: "Funny you should suggest that approach. Its exactly what I had in mind. Consider it a done deal!"
Merritt Paulson: "That's just great Merritt. I just knew this would be easy, especially compared to all this B.S. with Sam and Randy, not to mention Dan The Man. Speaking of which, I wanted to compliment you on the great job you did drafting that nastygram for the MLS Commissioner. Its a classic. You should submit it for an award at next year's Pro Sports Owner Association Convention."
Merritt Paulson: "That's a great idea. I worked hard on getting the tone just right without tipping anybody off that I was the real author. In fact, I worked so hard on it I forgot to mow my lawn and that reporter from the Oregonian noticed. I'm going to try not to let that happen again. Take care Merritt, and talk to you soon."
Merritt Paulson: "Later, dude."
(click)
Posted by sowhat | June 8, 2009 7:57 PM
Of the many concerns I have about the soccer-baseball-stadium(s) mess, this is pretty low on the list. As Gil suggests above, there's very little crossover between followers of the two sports. Ironically, followers of both sports tend to find the other incredibly boring.
Posted by Nate Currie | June 8, 2009 10:49 PM