[gm]

Originally Posted by Heath

I think they have a stadium ready to go - sorta - needs a few more seats.

Here's a website or two -

http://www.portlandbaseballgroup.org/

http://www.oregonstadiumcampaign.com/index.htm

here's a local newspaper guy's take on the Marlins visit....
http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=32978

What gets me - PGE park only seats 20,000?? Looks larger - Oregon people - help!

This PDX columnist is less optimistic...

I was ... doing recon work because with the Marlins people serious about moving their team to Portland, I figured the least I could do is get serious about making sure their initial visit here is as successful as possible.

I mean, they're publicly saying that this winter tour will include Portland, Vegas and some other cities, and they're publicly saying the stadium deal in Miami isn't good enough. Ya know, I half think the mayor and governor will look at each other after the visit and say, "Man, they never paid for anything."

We're looking more and more like a pawn every day.

And the worst part is, we're happy to serve in that role.

Listen, and this is for the baseball crazies out there in the blogosphere ---- I want baseball, too. But we're not going to get it as long as we appear desperate, and needy, and throw ourselves at a team that is OBVIOUSLY leveraging us against Miami. When we stop being suckers, they'll take us more seriously.

I took a long walk around the top two sites, as proposed on the website of the Portland Baseball Group, and the Pearl District site feels forced. I liked the Rose Quarter site a lot more, but again, I still think we're a lot closer to getting an NHL team than a MLB team.

http://www.oregonlive.com/canzano/