Paulson soccer deal looks worse by the day
Back in June, we blogged with a smirk about the news that the "major" (by U.S. standards) soccer league that the taxpayers of Portland are being forced to buy into by the City Council was seriously considering shifting its season to the winter months, which would surely kill off any slim chance the league has for financial survival. Today other media have also taken note of that proposal.
There are so many reasons why the financially cursed PGE Park will never be anything but a terrible burden to the city's taxpayers. The real challenge is predicting the precise mode of failure this time around. A winter schedule in Portland weather would certainly be a leading candidate.
| Posted at 6:00 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (11)
Three words: Retractable roof, baby!
(I could have done it in two.)
Posted by none | October 13, 2009 7:28 PM
Soccer vs. NFL at home on big-screen.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Let me know when your office has fantasy soccer!
Garber has hubris if nothing else. It'll be real nice driving past PGE Park empty all summer. Samdy will actually kick themselves for losing the Beavers rental income.
Posted by Steve | October 13, 2009 7:53 PM
absolutely no one who is seriously following MLS soccer inner politicking (and there's actually a lot of us) thinks Garber is serious about moving the schedule to fall-winter-spring. Honestly, it's the bigwigs in Europe who run FIFA that are blindly encouraging America to follow this model even though its common sense that it wouldn't work nearly as well. He's merely trying to appease them and get them to worry about something else. The timbers will sell 60,000 tickets a game before the MLS gets moved to the winter. While I wouldn't usually recommend reading the comments of a newsblog, the many comments on the WWeek article are spot on.
Posted by ambrown | October 13, 2009 10:07 PM
Lying to FIFA, eh? But I'm sure he and Paulson are telling the truth to Portland and Beaverton.
Posted by Jack Bog | October 13, 2009 10:17 PM
Samdy will actually kick themselves for losing the Beavers rental income.
That would first entail having to realize they made a mistake, and then to exhibit regret over a botched decision. I don't think either of these is possible.
Posted by john rettig | October 14, 2009 5:32 AM
what is this "soccer" thing you refer to???
Posted by Burk54 | October 14, 2009 7:49 AM
To paraphras a Daily Show commentator. You guys are playing checkers while the city is playing chess. The city is looking 3 failures ahead.
Posted by Marsden | October 14, 2009 10:53 AM
Its fun watching really bad business decisions played out in public. Usually businesses make their mistakes behind closed doors and we are only aware of their stupidity when they declare Chapter 11. It would be even more fun if they weren't trying so hard to screw up using our dollars...
Posted by Dean | October 14, 2009 12:01 PM
Here's a bit of good news; Merritt says he isn't going to move forward with the MLS deal if Beaverton won't give him what he wants for minor league baseball.
http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2009/10/paulson_no_baseball_deal_no_ms.html
Posted by Jerryb | October 14, 2009 7:52 PM
As much as I like the Beavers, it would almost be worth getting rid of Paulson if neither AAA nor MLS were in Portland. Let a new owner show up with a new team.
Posted by Mike (the other one) | October 14, 2009 8:32 PM
It is fascinating that City Council has chosen to bond another 25 years on our backs to remodel PGE park when we are already strapped with an existing bond of 17 years. This is leadership? I love soccer but not at that price.
Posted by maya | October 15, 2009 9:27 AM