In a response letter, Paulson agreed, calling the city a "tremendous fit" for his organization. He added that he looked forward to future discussions with both the mayor and the Beaverton City Council.

Ha, ha. Exactly the same statement was made in Petaluma and in Portland. Paulson will apparently repeat it, ad nauseum, wherever there might be public money, perks or concessions in the offing for Peregrine LLC.

They can add this to the back of the "Welcome to Beaverton" signs: "Kick me"

There's plenty of room on SW Canyon Rd where all those car dealerships have gone out of business.
Or they could cut their losses on The Round and bulldoze that whole area, it's right on the Max line after all.
How about that pile of rubble where they bulldozed the Greenwood Inn?
That Cascade Plaza site where the old Viewmaster plant was would also be prime.

As long as they don't suck my Portland taxpayer wallet through Metro, I say Vaya con Diós.

My favorite line from the Beaverton Mayor's letter:

“We’re open to listening and exploring the opportunity to build a mixed-use facility here in Beaverton that could serve a number of public uses.”

Sorry. Merritt wants an intimate baseball park so he can maximize his revenue with a cozy baseball-only ambiance. Maybe a rock concert but no other sports.

Mixed use so the public can have a stadium for other things too? Please. The public's just there to pay for it.

Beaverton has $30 million lying around? Fascinating.

"Beaverton has $30 million lying around? Fascinating."

Hey, outside of kickback from Nike, Beaverton has been on annexation tear to build up revenues. I'm sure they have a big surplus to p!ss away on monument building.

There really needs to be some kind of equaliztion between cities/counties.

Portland gets to charge for water/sewer and building permits while Mult County has to provide medical and fixes bridges. Not quite a fair deal.

So, we get to keep the Beavs and may not have to pay for the new stadium out of our own taxes? Wahoo! Sign me up!

Another reason for me to stay out of Beaverton.

I do have one question though. My old hometown of Columbus Ohio just built it's AAA baseball team a new stadium. So how come they replaced a perfectly fine 15,000 seat stadium with a new 10,000 seat stadium? Is basball falling in popularity so each new stadium has to be smaller than the one it replaces?

Greg C

Fans want an intimate experience. Think Madonna and A-Rod.

Actually The Round would be perfect for the stadium. It's vacant condo roundness is perfect for the ballpark penthouse boxes with the media boxes on top. It almost matches PGE Parks glass enclosed boxes. With light rail right there, it's just like the light rail line proximity in Portland.

How cute.

Makes sense to me to spend $40 Million to duplicate what you already have.

If it goes to Beaverton, it's likely to have it's own share of obstacles. Doyle does not speak for the whole council. And they've got their own parallel cast of characters. I beleive we are about to get to know each one of them more than we wanted to.....

Now Merritt has two city councils to wine and dine. Has Doyle been to NYC yet?

Beaverton? Lake Oswego must have said 'no'. Does LL Paulson know how to get to Beaverton? Maybe he'll like it out there and want to move his crap soccer team there too. Is Mr. Knight on board with this? Who owns that defunct trailer park accross from Nike? Is that big enough?

It's an old ploy, playing neighboring municipalities off of each other, and Randy & Sammy & Saltzy will fall for it like (fill in the blank).

Merritt's following one of pop's trade cookbooks. The only trick is getting the frogs to hop into the pot. These ones are even bringing their own firewood.

Unless they tear out some condos, there isnt enough land anywhere along the MAX in the Beaverton city limits to build a baseball stadium. They might be able to use the land the old Cadillac dealership was on, but I cant imagine what that would do to traffic on Cedar Hills Blvd/Hall Blvd. Its already a parking lot on the weekends as it is.
There is enough land a few blocks over on Nike property though...

Given that Beaverton is such a magnet for bad zoning ideas, I am surprised it's taken this long for the stadium to be drawn in. These two deserve each other.

Unless they tear out some condos, there isn't enough land anywhere along the MAX in the Beaverton city limits to build a baseball stadium.

They could take a stab at chunks of Tualatin Hills Park, Orenco Woods Golf Club, the Washington County Fairgrounds or Shadywood Park, for starters.

All are directly adjacent to the Max (and all were found on the fly using an app syncing Max with Google Maps. Who knew?)

(Some of these places might not be in B'ton city limits, but Hillsboro might be willing to play ball with a rich guy who answers the door in his socks.)

Consistent with the always-excellent Dave Zirin's thesis that baseball is resegregating ---

http://www.edgeofsports.com/2009-07-16-438/index.html

That Cascade Plaza site where the old Viewmaster plant was would also be prime.

Too late...thats a strip mall now.

The old Greenwood Inn area might work, but holy cow, can you imagine how f'd up Hwy217 would be on game day?

This sounds so much like the "Fairfax County" play that was used to scam stadiums out of so many cities in Major League Baseball.

Owner: "We need a new stadium"
Voters: "Then build one. With your money."
Owner: "Nah, I think I'll move the team to Fairfax County, Virginia, and give DC a baseball team."
Voters: "OMG do you want your stadium money in banded and manicured stacks of $100 bills, or just in a dump truck?!"

This seriously happened about 7 times until some city held the line, and someone actually moved what is now the Washington Nationals.

George -

I'm not really seeing what is so excellent about Dave's article. Yes, I'll agree that we have some serious social problems in this country. 3 out of 5 black males in California wrapped up in some part of the judicial system is absolutely unacceptable. However, the MLB being only 8 percent African American is a non-issue in my book. African Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population. Not a whole lot of disparity there, although there has been a significant drop in the percentage since the '70s. This is likely due to the large influx of players from Latin America.

Still, you won't find anyone getting praise for articles about how non-white the NBA is. Again, a non-issue. We could go on and on researching the social factors that contribute to this, but who really cares? Let's try to fix the root problems of society and not worry about sports.

There's also Western Avenue with any number of vacated / burned industrial buildings. That tired bingo building and dollar store along with the Bi-Mart strip could be levelled.

Consistent with the always-excellent Dave Zirin's thesis that baseball is resegregating

Except, the strong trend in the construction of new minor-league parks (in line with the major-league trend) has been to build them downtown, *not* in the suburbs. Reno, Lansing (MI), Memphis, Harrisburg (PA), Dayton, Frisco (TX), Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, Indianapolis ... the list of cities that have built downtown ballparks goes on and on. Let me know how you fit this in with Zirin's thesis, which I found far from convincing.

(Zirin doesn't have any evidence to refute the claim that preferences have shifted from baseball to other sports (a claim support by data showing huge increases in the presence of African Americans in the NFL and NBA), so he conjures an "access" issue. Zirin says "all-star caliber traveling teams have taken over the sport, and playing on one of those teams isn't cheap." But the same statement could be made about basketball. In fact, it could be argued this is even *more* the case with basketball. And yet, obviously, plenty of African Americans find their way into the sport. Why is it so hard to accept that cultures and tastes change? The fact is, baseball has become *generally* less popular in the United States in the past half-century, and is being sustained these days largely by the infusion of Latin American talent and interest.)

The old Greenwood Inn area might work, but holy cow, can you imagine how f'd up Hwy217 would be on game day?

WES! (heh!)

Gresham/East County or Hillsboro have more suitable sites than Beaverton for a stadium plus parking, I imagine.

If there must be a two stadium solution, wouldn't it make far more sense to keep the baseball team in the baseball stadium and build a shiny new stadium for the shiny new soccer team? It would probably be a lot cheaper (one new construction vs. one new construction and one major renovation), and I'd venture to guess that soccer would draw better in the 'burbs than baseball would.

I can just picture Rockwood Stadium now!

* * *

OK, back to reality, where MultCo urban renewal dollars flow from east to west and not the other way around...

Wilsonville ought to get in on the fray. There's that vacant 60-acre spot where Thunderbird Mobile home park used to be. Lay down some track and put WES closer to it.

Or the defunct Living Enrichment Center. Has anything been done with that yet?

They can put it in cedar hills where the socialist nimby's kept out Walmart.