06:23 PM PDT on Thursday, August 26, 2004

By ABE ESTIMADA, kgw.com Staff

Backers of Major League Baseball in Oregon rolled out a $350 million stadium financing plan that they say is a “starting point” for attracting a team to Portland while acknowledging for the first time publicly that the Rose City appears to be out of the running for the Montreal Expos.

KGW Mayor Vera Katz talks about the baseball stadium financing plan.

Baseball boosters unveiled their plan on Thursday, and bore some good news for big league fans: Portland’s aggressive pitch for a MLB team may have already coaxed a swing.

“We’ve crossed home plate,” said Mayor Vera Katz. “Unfortunately, we still have extra innings.”

A potential owner has contacted Oregon baseball supporters to express an interest in locating a franchise to the Rose City, said David Kahn, a special baseball advisor to Katz.

“Are there people out there who have some interest in owning a team in Portland, Oregon and have the wherewithal to do it? Of course there are,” Kahn said.

The financing plan, the interest of at least one owner, and conversations with one East Coast baseball owner of a “land rush” of teams seeking to move after the Expos are re-located has Kahn very confident that it’s just a matter of time before the Rose City will become home to a MLB franchise.

"We have now a road map, a starting point, to sit down with (a team) and say, 'Here's how we would begin to do it,'" Kahn said.

Kahn didn’t identify the interested owner but said it’s been common in the last decade in the National Basketball Association and the National Football League for teams to move from one city to another. The MLB is no different, he said. Teams in Oakland, Florida and Minnesota are thought to be considering a move, Kahn said.

KGW Baseball supporter David Kahn talks about the stadium financing plan during a Portland news conference.

“I think it’s well-documented which teams want a new stadium, which teams are having problems in their own markets,” he said. “You know the same names that we do.”

The plan for the 38,000-seat, 975,000-square-foot stadium is only expected to be set in motion once a major league franchise takes the bait.

“Nothing would happen until there was an owner, and there was a team,” Katz said. “If and when that opportunity arises, we will be ready.”

Oregon baseball backers have sent their plan to MLB officials.

Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's chief operating officer, did not immediately return an Associated Press e-mail seeking comment.

At the owner's meetings last week in Philadelphia, DuPuy said baseball would meet with officials from the top four communities bidding for the team, which appeared to take Portland out of the running.

If baseball owners and MLB officials decide to locate the Expos to Washington, D.C. or Northern Virginia, the largest metro area in the country without a baseball team would be Portland, Kahn said. Las Vegas likely would be the other city vying for the next available franchise.

The likelihood of the Expos coming to Portland "is probably quite slim," Kahn said. "But we've known that for several months. We've known that because the D.C. market (size) had a leg up in the so-called competition."

Kahn said he didn’t believe that Monterrey, Mexico or Norfolk, Virginia, which have also expressed an interest in big league baseball, would seriously be in the mix for the next team to move.

With a stadium financing proposal already crafted, Portland becomes a very attractive option, Kahn said.

“You can make an argument from a momentum standpoint or from a credibility standpoint, we actually stand above, heads and shoulders, over any other community that has done this," Kahn said.

About a third of the financing plan relies on the sale of state income tax bonds, which was authorized by the Oregon Legislature. The sale of the bonds would amount to about $115 million, which will be paid back through players’ income taxes.

The plan provides for $85 million in ticket fees, $56 million from a special stadium district financing that will include businesses within that district paying a 1 percent grass receipts tax on earnings, $29 million from concessions and merchandise, $13 million from hotel and rental car taxes, $12 million from the team lease, $25 million from the sale of charter seat leases, $10 million from the creation of an urban renewal district, and $5 million that will be likely be levied against property owners who live near the stadium to pay for street improvements.

City officials are also mulling plans for redeveloping PGE Park after its bonds are paid off and after the MLB team moves to its new stadium.

Portland mayoral candidate Jim Francesconi doesn’t buy baseball supporters’ pitch. He issued a statement on Thursday reiterating his opposition of public financing for a baseball stadium.

“I love baseball, but I don’t like this proposal,” he said. “At a time when so many are out of work, we cannot ask taxpayers to bear the majority risk for a stadium project. The city should not be involved in these discussions until a private owner emerges, willing to invest private dollars.”

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)