icon next to each of them.
Portland Beavers Baseball at Lents Park
(FAQ provided by betterbeaversballpark.com)
Why Lents Park works for baseball
- Block away from I-205 corridor
- Block away from new public transit light rail stop
- Easy access to Clackamas, Multnomah and Clark counties
- 10 minute drive from downtown Portland
- Catalyst for local development
- Low-impact site
Project Information
- Estimated cost of new baseball stadium: $35 million
- Estimated annual economic benefit from Portland Beavers baseball at Lents Park: $20 million
- Size of Lents Park: 38 acres
- Estimated size of new ballpark: 12 acres
- Number of jobs created by development of new ballpark: 600 construction jobs
- Number of Portland Beavers home games: 72
- Average Pacific Coast League home attendance: 6,436/game
- Average Portland Beavers home attendance: ~5,500/game
- Estimated Portland Beavers home attendance at Lents park: 475,000 for 72 regular season home games or approximately 6,597 people per game
- Average Triple-A stadium seating capacity: 12,700
- PGE Park baseball seating capacity: 19,556
- Estimated Lents ballpark seating capacity: 8,500 fixed seats + room for 2,000 on grass outfield berm
Additional Information
- Portland Beavers will remain in Portland; Lents Park, located in Southeast Portland at SE 92nd and Holgate, is the preferred location for a new ballpark. If a Lents location is ultimately not feasible, other sites will be explored and pursued.
- A new right-sized stadium for the Beavers will give fans a more intimate baseball experience in a venue that will maximize the team's potential.
- The Portland Beavers can share PGE Park with Major League Soccer for a limited time (~2 years). After that, PGE Park will be a soccer/football specific facility.
- A new light rail station just one block from the ballpark is scheduled to open in 2009, and easy access to and from I-205 will make getting to and from Lents Park easy and convenient.
- A new stadium will help stimulate nearby housing and small businesses and will create jobs for the community - in the community.
- The new ballpark would be a publicly owned facility to be enjoyed by school and other amateur baseball leagues.
- New Little League baseball fields are currently under construction adjacent to the proposed site. These new fields, and the other existing soccer fields, basketball courts, and community garden in the park will remain intact.
Office of Mayor Tom Potter
1221 SW 4th Avenue, Suite 340
Portland, Oregon 97204
Phone: 503-823-4120
Fax: 503-823-3588
Mayor's 24-Hour Opinion Line: 503-823-4127
Commissioner Dan Saltzman
Portland City Commissioner
1221 SW 4th Ave. Rm. 230
Portland, Oregon 97204
Phone: 503 823-4151
Fax: 503.823.3036
dan@ci.portland.or.us
Mayor-Elect Sam Adams
503 823-3008
commissionersam@ci.portland.or.us
http://www.commissionersam.com/
Commissioner Nick Fish
1221 S.W. Fourth Avenue, Room 240
Portland OR 97204
(503) 823-3589
to email Nick Fish go here:
http://www.portlandonline.com/fish/index.cfm?c=47691
(follow the instructions)
Commissioner-Elect Amanda Fritz
http://www.amandafritz.com/
you ought to be able to contact her here somehow!
Commissioner Randy Leonard
rleonard@ci.portland.or.us
1221 S.W. Fourth Ave, Room 210
Portland OR 97204
503-823-4682
While the new stadium itself may have the same footprint as the old one, they also propose building a clubhouse for the team, plus lots of additional parking? Who will pay to buy and develop new park space to replace the park functions displaced by these? Will the replacement park space be as accessible to the people who now use Lents Park? There needs to be no net loss of developed park land for this neighborhood -- and this needs to be included in the calculations of the project's cost.
While the project might generate 600 construction jobs, those jobs are only temporary. How many long term jobs will be created? And how many of those will be "family wage" jobs? My guess is that most of them will be low wage service jobs.
These are the kinds of questions that need to be dealt with before a decision is made to convert public park space to use by a privately owned team.
FYI: the MLS team in Kansas City shares its venue with a minor league baseball team and local college team. So why does PGE Park need to push out baseball if the Timbers join the MLS?
Check the field dimensions and seating capacity between the two parks. PGE Park seems to have more than enough capacity as it is for a sports market of our size.
CommunityAmerica Ballpark
Kansas City KS
Hosts BOTH a minor league baseball team (T-Bones) AND an MLS team (the Wizzards); plus a local college team.
Its new stadium can seat about 6500 for baseball and 10,400 for soccer.
Field dimensions:
Left: 300
Center: 405
Right: 330
PGE Park
Portland, OR
PGE Parks capacity for baseball and soccer is 19,566.
Field dimensions:
Left: 335
Center: 405
Right: 321