Gamesmanship by the rulers of Rose City Hall just reached a new level of chicanery, as expressed by Mayor Vera Katz.  “We left the decision to them,” Vera proclaimed in a late November news conference on the future of PGE Park and the private investors comprising the latest version of Portland Family Entertainment, inheritors of the original Park revamping mess created, mind you, by Vera’s sleight of hand and mouth in 2000 to engineer a deal with the creators of Portland Family Entertainment (PFE), Marshall Glickman and Mark Gardiner.  That pair answered the Mayor’s Request for Proposal to upgrade ol’ Civic Stadium…and earned the City Council nod even though their only competition involved a thoroughly researched and documented plan by civic and industrial leaders devoted to remodeling the Stadium as a magnet for Major League Baseball and other prime events.

Mayor Katz hid the PFE proposal details from her Council members to earn a rubber stamp approval for Glickman, son of Portland Trailblazer founder Harry, and Gardiner, a (shudder) former Portland city finance director.  This pair was replaced in 2001 at the insistence of the private investors (principals of Crown Pacific Forest Products, Thomason Motors, Zidell Marine and pro sports promoter Peter Jacobsen Productions).   This group was attracted to a very flawed, improperly investigated city pledge to issue $33 million in debt to renovate the Stadium in return for the investment group’s chipping in $5.5 million to the Stadium reconstruction, plus purchasing not one, but two minor league baseball teams and a minor league soccer squad.  PFE got a 20-year monopoly on running the new PGE Park.

Debt Service Now an Issue

Such a deal!  Purchase of a Triple A baseball squad immediately turned out to be $3 million over the cost originally projected by PFE, who also spent far more than projected upon operational systems, staffing and concessions., doubling loan debt.  Operating expenses the first year were triple original projections, and caused the private investor group to send Glickman and Gardiner packing, along with their inflated salaries.  PGE Park’s renovation produced a capacity of 20,000 seats, less than the original Stadium, and while being far more seats than can logically be attracted by minor league baseball and soccer, capacity is 50% of what would be attractive to major league baseball (which had been favorable toward the other Civic Stadium redo proposal).  The PFE stadium reconstruction included 34 luxury suites, an impractical sell for minor league sports, as proven to date by only 21 of these being subscribed  by private investors.    

The city and private investors replaced PFE’s original principals with Mark Schuster, veteran operator of minor league baseball operations in several cities.  Schuster dramatically slashed operating expenses here this past season.  However, economies were not nearly sufficient to meet loan payments and city fees based upon a revenue sharing clause in the original PFE bid.  City officials are now attempting to get Schuster’s lender (TIAA-CREF) to chop loan debt to a mere $8 million, rather than $23 million as currently listed (loan debt began at only $10 million in the first PFE proposal to Vera and pals).

Minor League Sports No Answer

Portland now sits with a downtown sports venue impractical for minor league athletics, insufficient for the majors and unable to service debts already incurred.  Seems like a minimum of due diligence by City Hall would have reached this conclusion prior to Vera’s nod to the PFE proposal.  Now the city is putting pressure on Schuster and his lender to slash their financial needs.  We expect a minimum of ‘give’ on the current stadium financiers’ position.  Also, the private investment group that got snookered in by
the original PFE proposal has stated that they will hand over the stadium keys and walk away from their investment.  They are now pitted against city officialdom.

The latter has just insisted that the minor league Beaver baseball and Timber soccer teams will continue to play at PGE Park even if their owner, PFE, withdraws support.  Sure, you betcha, and who pays for that position?  Major league baseball is the only logical answer to that question…and that will require millions more investment as called for in the proposal that was ignored by Vera when she pushed the city’s choice of Harry Glickman’s little boy’s incompetent bid.

And this is the city government who proposes to place ownership of Portland General Electric in the public domain!  

© 2002 Oregon Magazine