Hillsboro's going for a minor league baseball stadium
The city will borrow around $15 million to build the thing (via Hoffman Construction), and the Yakima single-A short season team will be coming down next summer. It's all wired for a City Council vote on Tuesday. Baseball fans who wanted to bring a pro team to Milwaukie or the 'Couv may be too late to the party.
| Posted at 12:23 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (10)
Another scam on the taxpayers
Posted by Joey | June 2, 2012 1:03 PM
The team pays around 150K per year in rent - that will barely cover debt service, even in these days of microscopic interest rates. Yet Hillsboro says this doesn't need to go to the voters, since costs will be covered in their general budget. JeldWen 2 anyone?
This plan, though, has been in the works for a while - I umpire softball games out there, and everyone knew that field #4 would be redone for the baseball stadium.
Posted by umpire | June 2, 2012 1:31 PM
Here is the Salem/Keizer Volcanoe's schedule for those who want to count how few home games they play during their similar short season.
http://www.milb.com/schedule/index.jsp?sid=t578
The ROI is rotten.
Posted by Abe | June 2, 2012 1:39 PM
The little over 3 months of games, about 38, come at a favorable time to be watching baseball here in Oregon. That's a plus. Plus, for those you want their baseball time in a smaller bite, it sure makes sense. The almost 8 months of MLB gets awful tiring.
I sure enjoyed watching the Duck game in Eugene at the PK Park with 3500 attending. Nice facility, nice evening.
Posted by Lee | June 2, 2012 2:11 PM
What should the new team's name be? The Hillsboro Composters?
Posted by Jack Bog | June 2, 2012 3:24 PM
Or Hillsboro Computers?
Posted by Lee | June 2, 2012 4:04 PM
Wait, there's no light rail line to the stadium.
STOP EVERYTHING! This cannot be permitted by the City of Portland or Metro because it will result in too much traffic on the Sunset Highway.
Posted by Erik H. | June 2, 2012 7:55 PM
"no light rail line": Yea, but there's a great coffee shop/restaurant nearby-Longbottom Coffee and Tea. We don't need another Starbucks in a mixed-use subsidized Homer project perpetuated by lightrail.
Posted by Lee | June 2, 2012 9:32 PM
The plans call for expanded surface parking lots. Don't they know that no one drives cars anymore?
Hillsboro is actually one of the few jurisdictions in the area that could pull this off. They have the land, facilities and credit rating. Milwaukie will analyze it for two years, while Beaverton's plans never made any sense.
Posted by BigSwede | June 2, 2012 9:59 PM
This whole (hole?) city/pro-sports thing baffles the hell out of me. Glendale, AZ is a good example with the hockey franchise. The city is massively in debt, laying off teachers, public employees, and police and firemen, yet figures its a good idea to pay the NHL $25 million a year to try and keep the team in AZ (great place for hockey?).
Right now it looks as if the Timbers are doing well. Hopefully, it will continue.
Does it make any sense to tear down Memorial Coliseum and replace it with Memorial Stadium for PSU football, the Civil War game and one home-game each for Oregon and OSU? Otherwise, where's the fan base? In Hillsboro?
Posted by Bill | June 3, 2012 11:38 AM