By John Hunt, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Dec. 20--Portland Mayor Vera Katz said Thursday she would be 'directly involved' with the effort to bring major league baseball to the city and would revive a stadium financing bill as part of the city's legislative agenda, even as others voice concern over public financing.
Sen. Ryan Deckert, D-Beaverton, who spearheaded the effort in 2001, said Thursday he would lead a similar fight when the 2003 Legislature opens Jan. 13.
And Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, who said last year that if term limits were overthrown, he'd 'pay the entry price just to come back and kill baseball again,' is back -- term limits were overthrown -- and he hasn't changed his stance.
'We don't have money to educate kids in this state,' Hannon said. 'Yet we have enough . . . money to buy a baseball team that can't be supported by a big-time city in Canada.
'They're looking for corporate welfare from the state of Oregon. They can seek their welfare from somewhere else.'
Officials in Portland and the Washington, D.C., area were contacted last week as part of Major League Baseball's formal process to relocate the Montreal Expos. The Expos are owned collectively by the major-league owners, who are looking to sell the team and have it moved by the 2004 season.
Katz said she would work with the Oregon Sports Authority after the holidays on the effort to persuade Major League Baseball the Expos to Portland and persuade the Legislature to approve the financing -- all by Major League Baseball's 'soft' deadline of late February.
'Honest to goodness, I don't know if we can meet that timeline,' said Katz, who emphasized she will not do it at the expense of a cash-strapped budget.
'I've said loud and clear we will not sacrifice city services,' Katz said.
Deckert has met with baseball backers the last few days and said the proposal would be the same as the one that fell short in 2001 -- a revenue bond backed by income taxes to be paid by future major leaguers in Portland.
Any use of other taxpayer money is 'not in the cards,' Deckert said.
He argued that the proposal would result in a net gain for the state budget because the jobs created by the stadium construction project would pump income taxes into state coffers.
Drew Mahalic, CEO of the Oregon Sports Authority, said the strategy for the local government stadium share is the same as at the state level: floating bonds to pay for up-front costs, then using taxes and fees generated by the stadium and the team to pay the long-term debt.
Mahalic also said the financial outline drawn for the estimated $350 million ballpark drawn by Portland Baseball Group President Steve Kanter was premature.
'That's definitely putting the cart before the horse,' Mahalic said.
Tim Grewe, Portland's chief administrative officer, said the city doesn't know yet if the baseball proposal is realistic.
'The mayor's got an open mind on this issue,' he said. 'But until we look at the numbers we won't know.'
Tax increases hard to avoid Ken Rust, Portland's finance director, said very few publicly financed major league stadiums have avoided an actual increase in taxes or fees to generate at least some of the money.
All the taxes and fees Mahalic cited 'are going to have to be put on the table,' Rust said. 'And it's possible public approval of some additional taxes or fees would have to be in the equation also.'
Most publicly financed stadiums rely in part on sales taxes, which Oregon doesn't have, Grewe said. Another option, raising hotel-motel and car rental taxes, was used two years ago to expand the Convention Center and cover two-thirds of the debt issued to renovate PGE Park. That 2.5 percentage point increase backed more than $125 million in projects.
Kanter said local financing will have to come from a mix of sources, rather than relying heavily on one source such as hotel-motel taxes. For example, a $1 surcharge on tickets would raise several million a year, he said. If the team hit a payroll of $70 million, about average in the major leagues, Tri Met would receive roughly $435,000 more a year from its 0.6218 percent payroll tax.
Chris Finks, the Portland Business Alliance's vice president of marketing, said he and alliance President and Chief Executive Officer Franklin 'Kim' Kimbrough came away impressed by a recent presentation by the Portland Baseball Group.
Finks said a downtown stadium would generate a lot of economic activity and pointed to other catalyst stadiums such as Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore and PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
But until there's a financing package in place, he said, the alliance could not take a position but is excited about the prospects.
'We're going to try to create an entire package that we feel is self-funding,' Mahalic said. 'At this time, with this economy in Oregon, we think that is what people want to hear.'
And, of course, more than Hannon wants to hear.
'Fine,' Hannon said. 'Let Portland pay for the whole damn thing.' Local majority owner doubtful Kanter said baseball is not expecting the team's owners to be ones from Oregon with deep pockets. It's more likely a national group would step up, he said, then recruit local partners as required by Major League Baseball.
Phil Knight is one of the first names brought up when discussing possible deep-pocketed owners, but the Nike CEO has resisted the temptation to own a professional sports franchise. He was, however, an investor with the Arizona Diamondbacks, owned by friend Jerry Colangelo.
The main reason Knight has stayed out of team ownership is a perceived conflict of interest: Knight's team theoretically could sign, say, Roger Clemens, to a below-market value contract, then tie him up with a $50 million shoe deal.
Auto dealer Scott Thomason is another potential owner, but he said he hasn't talked with Kanter lately, although he's all ears.
'Always. But I've been leading that NFL thing,' Thomason said. 'Still, I think any pro sports franchise here is a very good idea.'
Tim Boyle, president and chief executive of Portland-based outdoor apparel-maker Columbia Sportswear, said he's turned down stadium boosters who have approached him several times in the past few years.
'I would definitely go to a game or two,' said Boyle, 'but our business is not about organized sports, and really, I don't personally have all that much interest. And there are enough questions that I would question the financial wisdom of doing it.'
Boyle's wealth is estimated at $600 million, which would make him the state's third richest person, according to Forbes magazine.
While ownership groups inside Oregon are a possibility, Kanter said, 'We think there are definitely ownership groups outside of Oregon that are interested.' D.C. in the lead Last January, Commissioner Bud Selig said the Washington, D.C., area had the early lead.
'I'd have to say Washington is the prime candidate,' he said.
Washington, the last city to lose a franchise to relocation, when the Senators became the Texas Rangers in 1971, is the eighth-largest television market, but it does face the threat of a lawsuit from Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who considers the Wasahington, D.C., area his home territory.
Bill Stetka, spokesman for the Baltimore Orioles, says the team gets 25 percent to 30 percent of its fan base from the Washington, D.C., area. Stetka said he based the figure on addresses of ticket buyers.
The Seattle Mariners don't track such figures, but television ratings in Portland point to strong fan interest. But the Mariners pose no such threat, as Portland is outside the 'home territory.'
Washington, D.C., though, does not have a situation such as the one Portland faces with PGE Park and the Triple A Portland Beavers. The city might take over operation of PGE Park from Portland Family Entertainment.
Katz said it would be a selling point for the Beavers if a major league franchise would have to buy out its rights.
'If we own it, they'll buy us out,' she said.
There is also the possibility that the Expos could move to the Washington, D.C., area and another struggling franchise could move shortly thereafter.
'It's clear baseball is interested in Portland and is going to relocate a couple of teams,' Kanter said. 'Now it really comes down to a choice for Oregon and Portland. It's time to think about what we want to do.'
Boaz Herzog, Scott Learn, Jeff Mapes, Jim Mayer and Henry Stern of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.
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(c) 2002, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
