Friday, May 07, 2004
Yay for Baseball, But Who Pays?
Reader Maury Brown, Information Director for the Oregon Stadium Campaign, tipped me off to a new poll of Oregonians conducted for the Portland Tribune. The poll of 600 likely Oregon voters, approximately half of whom live in Portland (MOE 4% statewide, 6% for Portland) found Portland residents favoring efforts to attract a major league team by a 67-30% margin. Statewide, baseball was favored, 55-38.
However, only 35% of those surveyed said they thought attracting a team would require the use of public money. 38% thought it would not, witih 27% unsure. If one thing is sure about the fight for the Expos, it's that MLB intends to extract as much public money as possible from the chosen market.
A longer-term problem: while outgoing Mayor Vera Katz has made baseball a priority, none of her likely successors share her view. Two candidates are quoted in the article:
" 'If Paul Allen can’t sustain the Rose Garden and the Blazers, how in the world can you have a viable baseball plan?' said mayoral candidate James Posey. 'NASCAR would be a better option for me. It’s proven itself to be viable in bringing in tourism.'
“'If we can put together a financing package like that for baseball,' said Tom Potter, also running for mayor, 'we could put together packages to save our educational system.'"
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Reader Maury Brown, Information Director for the Oregon Stadium Campaign, tipped me off to a new poll of Oregonians conducted for the Portland Tribune. The poll of 600 likely Oregon voters, approximately half of whom live in Portland (MOE 4% statewide, 6% for Portland) found Portland residents favoring efforts to attract a major league team by a 67-30% margin. Statewide, baseball was favored, 55-38.
However, only 35% of those surveyed said they thought attracting a team would require the use of public money. 38% thought it would not, witih 27% unsure. If one thing is sure about the fight for the Expos, it's that MLB intends to extract as much public money as possible from the chosen market.
A longer-term problem: while outgoing Mayor Vera Katz has made baseball a priority, none of her likely successors share her view. Two candidates are quoted in the article:
" 'If Paul Allen can’t sustain the Rose Garden and the Blazers, how in the world can you have a viable baseball plan?' said mayoral candidate James Posey. 'NASCAR would be a better option for me. It’s proven itself to be viable in bringing in tourism.'
“'If we can put together a financing package like that for baseball,' said Tom Potter, also running for mayor, 'we could put together packages to save our educational system.'"
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