Portland MLS stadium search goes to the suburbs
Yesterday the Keston family was talking about sites in Seattle for a MLS side, now they are talking about Portland.
When the idea of a MLS team in the northwest owned by the Kestons first surfaced, it seemed like Portland had a bit of an edge due to PGE Park. PGE holds just about 20,000, is located in the city and only needs a few renovations to make it MLS ready. However, it is owned by the city, which would limit the amount of profit a team could see from it.
With that in mind, James Keston has pointed to the suburb of Hillsboro as a site that could host a "first-class soccer-specific" stadium. This stadium would be similar to FC Dallas's and Colorado's in that it would have a 17-24,000 seat stadium surrounded by soccer fields. Hillsboro is about 20-miles West of Portland.
So why Hillsboro, well it is easy to build a big site in a suburb, but there is also a stadium currently there, thus they would not be starting from nothing. Also, with a new owner of the soccer and baseball teams currently in PGE Park, which have temporarily stalled discussions.
The current stadium in Hillsboro seats 4,000, so a major upgrade would be needed. However, James Keston believes this upgrade would be less then the $120 million to start from scratch.
The Keston family is suppose to decide on a city for their club soon. However, it looks very likely that no matter if they go with Seattle or Portland, they will not actually be playing in that city.
When the idea of a MLS team in the northwest owned by the Kestons first surfaced, it seemed like Portland had a bit of an edge due to PGE Park. PGE holds just about 20,000, is located in the city and only needs a few renovations to make it MLS ready. However, it is owned by the city, which would limit the amount of profit a team could see from it.
With that in mind, James Keston has pointed to the suburb of Hillsboro as a site that could host a "first-class soccer-specific" stadium. This stadium would be similar to FC Dallas's and Colorado's in that it would have a 17-24,000 seat stadium surrounded by soccer fields. Hillsboro is about 20-miles West of Portland.
So why Hillsboro, well it is easy to build a big site in a suburb, but there is also a stadium currently there, thus they would not be starting from nothing. Also, with a new owner of the soccer and baseball teams currently in PGE Park, which have temporarily stalled discussions.
The current stadium in Hillsboro seats 4,000, so a major upgrade would be needed. However, James Keston believes this upgrade would be less then the $120 million to start from scratch.
The Keston family is suppose to decide on a city for their club soon. However, it looks very likely that no matter if they go with Seattle or Portland, they will not actually be playing in that city.
Labels: Hillsboro, Jason Keston, Michael Keston, MLS, MLS expansion, PGE Park, Portland, Seattle
posted by Mike H at 10:49 AM
1 Comments:
Hey Mike. Thought I'd send a couple near-hand observations on this subject your way. One, from my site, paints a fairly rosy picture of the Hillsboro location (not least 'cause I live there); a second, from the Timbers' Blog, wonders about how existing fans will react to a suburban location.
Can't say who's more correct; it's possible we'll never know.
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