SHHHHHHH! Don't tell the big boys in Portland, TriMet will start building a Max line to Tucson, I hope it's done in time.

I hear the weather down there is better for soccer...

Two words: Perfect fit.

So funny, the show Leverage, last night. Ballpark corruption.

I just hope that Samadumbs and Randy don't fall for this ploy and suddenly insist they need hundreds of millions of public dollars to keep the Beavers in Portland, lest they be lured away by a rival town. Didn't we get enough of this when the Expos / A's / Raiders / Sonics held their cities hostage with threats of relocating?

If they really wanted to keep the Beavers local, t'd be great to have a mayor with some b*lls to tell MP "you move them, you lose support for your soccer team, too."

If the Beavers are going to be a Padres affiliate in the long term, it would make sense to permanently relocate the team to Tucson. They would be closer to the parent club, reducing travel time and costs for Padres management to keep track of the team. Also reduces the time necessary to get players to San Diego for emergency call-ups.

Sure, a "temporary" home. Just like Bud Selig became "acting" baseball commissioner ... in 1992.

Good. The sooner those Paulson vultures move on permanently and completely, the better.

Actually Tucson would be an easy move for the Beavers. The Reno Aces - the AAA affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks - moved from these to Reno in 2009. There is already one MLB team that has their Spring Training Ballpark in Tucson; and so there is already a good AAA level ballpark in place for the Beavers.

It seems that all of Portland's Pols, Developers, and Planners have been talking to Tucson. To help the Beavers out, Portland's PDC must be talking to Tucson's City Hall.

Arizona Daily Star reports a city consultant says a new downtown convention hotel is feasible IF...1) a $160M streetcar is built; 2) a $31M expansion of the Tucson Convention Center is completed; 2) the city completes most projects ever proposed for Rio Nuevo (downtown renewal area). Some of the projects are UA Science Center, Tucson Origins Heritage Park, several museums, Sonoran Sea Acquarium, $95M residential development, $300M commercial development and $225M in infrastructure. The report was prepared by HVS Convention, Sports, and Entertainment. Sound familiar?

Well, Homer Williams is in town-true! The report said the convention center hotel would have one of "the highest occupancy rates in the region, at annual room rates equal to those at luxury golf resorts on the outskirts of Tucson." If you believe that..... What is even more ludicrous is after all these IFs, the hotel developer Garfield Traub said "It shows this is a very viable hotel". Again this sounds so familiar to Portlands Convention Center Hotel, and even the same players.

Tucson is Portland. And Tucson lost their baseball team, so Paulson will probably move our 100 year old tradition. Amazingly there are beavers in the few streams that flow year round nearby in Tucson.

Wow, did you know that Stan Coveleski was a Portland Beaver in ~1910?

We should immediately terminate our city's connection with sports history, for the sake of Bush administration refugees, and their children.

Hey Sam, spare a dime for Mary Cheney's new badminton stadium?

Wait Sam, I forgot: we won't need an actual dime for Mary's idea, just a dime (plus interest) of debt.

I bet you can understand that, eh Sambla?

By the way, I caught up on my filmed-in-Portland Leverage last night. And wonder of wonders, the storyline is built upon a corrupt waterfront development, rumors the local AAA baseball team is moving, and a dodgy new stadium deal.

I was especially amused that while almost everything else in the entire series has been carefully anonymized as to location, in this case there were a couple long lingering shots of the PGE PARk sign featuring the Beavers.

It was awesome to behold.