Portland Diamond Project, the people who want to bring an MLB team to Oregon, released new renderings yesterday of a 32,000-seat stadium along the Portland waterfront. We’ll get to the pretty pictures in a minute, but first, this:
[Portland Diamond Project CEO] Craig Cheek told a legislative committee Monday morning that Portland could break ground on a Major League Baseball stadium on the south Waterfront as early as 2027 if Portland is awarded a team.
Uh, sure? MLB isn’t likely to pick its expansion cities before 2027 — it still needs to settle the Tampa Bay Rays and Sacramento A’s stadium situations, and then hold a bidding war for both prospective owners and prospective cities. And “breaking ground” is typically just a matter of a bunch of elected officials showing up with hardhats and shovels, so it’s not really a sign of major construction activity. So this is mostly Cheek, an ex-Nike VP who runs the hey-Portland-let’s-put-on-a-baseball-team show, trying to get headlines by issuing checks his butt is never going to have to cover.
The group appeared in front of the committee to make an appeal to “modernize” Senate Bill 5, the 2003 bill lawmakers passed that would carve out $150 million for a stadium in income taxes paid by a team’s players and executives.
“Modernize,” eh? What’s that mean, exactly?
“We asked legislators to revisit SB5, originally passed in 2003, and update the law to better reflect the current revenue generated by players’ salaries and the rising costs to build a world-class stadium in downtown Portland,” Cheek said. “This would not be a new tax on Oregonians. We look forward to working with the legislature to make Oregon Better with Baseball.”
So, the modernized bill would presumably increase the amount of borrowing Oregon would take on, in anticipation of more state income taxes players would pay given that salaries are higher now than in 2003. Cheek doesn’t appear to have revealed details of how much tax money the project would require, other than saying that the stadium would cost around $2 billion total — and that this wouldn’t really be taxes that would cost Oregonians anything, because player income taxes would be free money the state treasury wouldn’t get otherwise, which is not exactly true.
Anyway, on to the vaportecture, I know you’re all excited to see that:
Daytime fireworks, gotta respect the classics! Also, that indeed appears to be some kind of sliding translucent roof, though whether it’s overlapping panels or some kind of accordion-like structure is hard to tell. Either way, when extended it would still leave large openings on the ends, which should be good to protect fans and players from most rainy weather, but not necessarily be the “365 days a year” experience that Cheek is promising.
Aside from fans displaying a weird affinity for waving flags in the middle of an inning and the only scoreboard being unseeable for fans in the left field corner, not much more to say about this one, so let’s move on to:
More flags! And a whole bunch of extremely het couples of various kinds and bicycle models. Are those people planning to bring their bikes into the stadium? I sure don’t see any bike parking before you have to ascend the steps to the turnstiles. Speaking of which, all those fans in wheelchairs are going to have a heck of a time with those steps, though there does seem to be some sort of ramp (with no railings) that they can use to wind their way up to the entry level, if they dare.
And while I get that showing rendered people mostly from behind avoids the problem of having to show particular faces, having all those fans wear t-shirts with giant Old English P’s on the back does imply some weird things about fashion trends in the year LOL2027.
This is a nice enough view showing the proposed stadium’s setting along the Willamette River, but I mostly appreciate it for its new innovation: daytime spotlights! Those are going to be really impressive, so long as you outfit them with 3.86 x 1026-watt bulbs.
So to recap: An ex-Nike executive wants to build a $2 billion stadium in Portland, Oregon for a team that doesn’t exist with owners that haven’t been identified using money that hasn’t been quantified, but in any case he wants the state legislature to allocate more of it than the last time someone made these promises 22 years ago. The daytime spotlights are probably still the most implausible part of this whole deal, but it’s close.
To be fair, Cheek’s quote doesn’t say they could be playing by 2027. It says they could break ground by 2027.
Ugh, you are correct, read too fast — will adjust, thanks.
Does it say “POX” on the field in that rendering? Because that’s sure what it looks like to me.
Its a D. PDX is Portland’s airport code.
The ghost of Pat Williams loves competition.
Portland couldn’t support a AAA team and doesn’t do all that well with its nearby lower minor league team. Why is it considered major league territory?
As I recall, it couldn’t support a AAA team because it let Portland Timbers have the stadium and then failed to build another baseball stadium.
Anyway, it’s not linear.
Minor league baseball is marketing to different demographics with a different sort of stadium, different kinds of owners, etc. The success or failure of one does not mean much for the success or failure of the other.
That does not mean Portland is an ideal location for an MLB team. It is hard to get 20k to 30k people to show up 81 times a year. According to what I could find, Portland is the 23rd biggest sports market.
Its success or failure would likely come down to a lot of other variables. Is the team good, is the vibe at the park appealing to Portlanders (Portlandians?), is it easy to get there and back, is it affordable, does the team do a good job getting local businesses on board, etc.
This is the second timber stadium I have seen lately. There was one proposed for the Commanders too. Are those cheaper than steel and concrete?
Manufactured wood
The big site opens in Millersburg
I love the random skybridge jutting out at an odd angle between buildings. Tell me your first-pass AI generation dataset includes a bunch of crap from Star Wars and 1990s-era Batman movies without really telling me.
I’m relatively sure the renderings weren’t done by AI. I’m an architect, and while I don’t do baseball stadiums, my projects are several hundred million. AI isn’t used for things like this. They’re just done in a specific style that people have learned excites others without showing anything too specific they have to deliver on.
As a Portland-adjacent resident, I’ll summarize the weather here for you!
– March through April: The rain warms up a bit, it’s spring!
– May through July (does not include Memorial Day Weekend or the 4th of July, because it always rains on those days): Usually pretty good, but there’s still a chance you’ll get a little wet.
– August through October 15th: The best time of year, hands down.
– October 16th – February: Copious amounts of rain.
So to summarize, building a stadium here without at least a pop-top convertible roof is insane.
Owner is the guarantor for the bonds on SB5.
I’m really torn on this one.
I love the apparent 240′ fences down the lines, but I also love the (moving?) walkway beyond the right field fence that appears to carry people toward centre field in extreme comfort before the rotating kniv – sorry, before ‘discharging’ them over the seawall beyond CF…
And you Florida teams think having a fish tank in the stadium is world class…. pretenders…
But what about that tree that’s in a planter atop a concourse supported by nothing at all? I guess it could be a balsa tree…
Holographic trees!!!! An important step one the inexorable path to holographic displays…
Neil my only objection is about the fireworks. Teams will do them during the National Anthem or if someone hits a homerun during the day.
Portland can absolutely support a baseball team! Mariner fans welcome our southern rivalry!