Exploring Providence Park Expansion Options
oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/...
oregonlive.comPosted Mar 7, 2016, 7:57 PM UTC
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oregonlive.comHow about another option: Build a brand new stadium near the Moda Center on land currently occupied by the Portland School District. http://m.imgur.com/TttEJup
There has been talk if MLB expanded and Portland wanted to try to get into the league that they use this land. I say screw that, build a jewel of soccer-specific stadium off the banks of the Willamette River with good transit access and much more parking than is currently available at Providence Park. You'd probably have to add a stop on the yellow line MAX at Interstate Ave near Broadway, but it shouldn't be too much of an ask. The Timbers could also get a natural grass field they've wanted. Don't get me wrong, I love Providence Park, but long term it will need a major expansion, and I'm not sure the surrounding area can handle 10,000 more people squeezing into that area without any additional parking capacity. After the new stadium is built you hand Providence Park over to Portland State for their sports programs.
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That land isn't far from downtown, but it also has no immediate neighborhood. If you want to maintain the feel of Providence Park, you can't maroon a stadium over there.
Beside, I like the lack of parking at Providence Park. Fans walk and take transit to the games. It's cool to see the flood of people on foot making their way on game day.
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The fact that the city spent $40 million on renovating Providence makes this idea a no go. It would be mean that even if the new stadium was privately funded, the city loses out on a lot of money from not having the Timbers finish their lease.
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I think a deal could be worked out between Paulson, Portland State and the City. A new stadium would probably bring in more than enough additional revenue to the city to cover the expenses at Providence Park.
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No it wouldn't. It's been proven that in almost every case, cities don't get their money back from paying for stadiums. Good overview of the ways teams screw over cities with stadiums is described in this John Oliver clip:
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No, I'm not suggesting the City of Portland would pay for a new stadium. I'm saying they can get the upgrades at Providence Park covered by the extra revenue a new 35,000-40,000 seat soccer stadium would bring into the city. A new stadium would have to be completely privately funded, even the love for the Timbers wouldn't compel the public to vote for taxpayer money directly funding a new stadium.
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Eww, Canzano.
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DON'T MENTION HIM BY NAME OR IT WILL GIVE HIM POWER.
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What am I missing?
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He says stupid shit like 20% of the time so people just take to hating everything he writes...
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Oh, ok. I've only listened to his radio show when he had Caleb and Merritt on, didn't even realize he wrote for the Oregonian haha
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Do the people on the balcony of the sports club pay for that view?
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Other than the outrageous amount they pay to be members of said sports club, no.
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It would be funny if the Timbers put a tarp up blocking their view somehow.
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not allowed. PP was originally owed by the mac. only reason timbers have it is cause the clause that says mac will always come first and no views can be blocked
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The MAC does charge members an additional price to sit on the deck, and I think it varies based on whether they are reserved seats or GA, plus the quality of opponent (so most Eastern Conference matchups will be cheaper than Cascadia or LA).
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That sports club is extremely difficult to get into (long wait list) and extremely expensive. So in a sense, yes.
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Like planet fitness expensive? Sounds crazy, like rich people gym.
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What? Planet Fitness is like $25 a month? The MAC literally costs thousands of dollars to join.
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Damn that's a balling out of control planeta fitness it's ten a month out in SA. I know I have only been knowing about the MAC for a year and a half and they have a lot of history and are even a part of the original grounds but what value do they bring to the city? It seems like a ultra country club. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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I want to say there's a longstanding agreement there, perhaps dating back to the club's ownership of the stadium.
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The MAC, 100 years back or whatever, actually built what was then Multnomah Stadium. They sold it to the city but stipulated that they 1.) have the first rights to purchase it if the city ever sells it and 2.) will always have the view.
I think, at least.
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That's what I've always understood as well.
There's also the political downside of taking action to piss off the MAC membership, which would, in a general sense, be a bad idea.
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That's great news but I hope they don't do a complete teardown, the current stadium has history and atmosphere and a certain character and classiness that only comes with age. It's basically the American soccer version of Fenway Park or Wrigley Field. We don't have a lot of old history around MLS, let's keep what little we do have.
Chances are we'll never have another MLS stadium where we can say "here's an artist's illustration, circa 1926."
That said, cram in as many seats as you can. Remove the half-roof and add an entire second level to the east side. Reach some agreement with the MAC to cram more seats in the south end, maybe even go vertical along the building, or perhaps add some on top of their building like the seats on top of the Green Monster at Fenway? I have no idea how realistic any of that is...
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I agree on adding another deck, something like this. Not sure if they could do a full level that wraps around.
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That's a goddamn sexy piece of stadium you picked as an example.
Also I was at that game!
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The issue I see with large overhangs like that is the seats below are awfully claustrophobic. My recollection of Candlestick (may it forever rust in hell...) was that even the good seats on the first level were really weird the closer you were to the concourse.
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Yeah but it's either do that or do nothing. Given the choices, I guess you'd make the seats in the back a little more crammed.
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I like the stadium just the way it is.
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That's nice. However, there are at least 11,000 other people that'd like it to be a bit bigger, myself included.
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I can count for 2/11,000th myself.
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I'm not a Timbers fan but why would you continue to play in a stadium that is in the lower half of MLS capacity when yall could easily fill a 40k stadium? They aren't talking about tearing it down, just adding on
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there's a mystique to it.
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Adding 10,000 seats will only make it better......it'll look essentially the same. The "mystique" comes from the large end zone section, that wouldn't be touched by the expansion
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Similar to Wrigley or Fenway -- there's only so much you can do with it, but too much history and character to tear it down or move.
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Sorry, but it should be expanded and updated.
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East side expansion much more efficacious. The city getting rid of local rule requiring street view should not be that hard to do in exchange for financial benefits of a 10k expansion. They could then make huge concourses and facilities that west siders could use and badly need
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I'm still confused by the street view requirement. What does it mean, that you literally need to be able to see Morrison from inside the stadium?
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Vice Versa. You need to be able to see the field and inside the stadium from Morrison
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Really? That seems... weird to me. Do you know what the reasoning behind that is? Just an aesthetic thing?
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Right? I believe it has something to do with regarding the stipulations when occupying the park. Probably some reasoning that since the city owns the park, the public should be able to see inside. The funny thing is, there are maybe 5 or 6 small spaces in the fence that you can see in right now anyway
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Couldn't you build a second level above the street-level sight line? Why would the ordinance need to be changed?
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I wonder how many seats Providence Park could sell out. Like if there was an unlimited supply of seats, how high could it go? Hmmm.
I love the old character of Providence Park. It legit looks like a stadium built in the early 1900s. BUT at the same time, it feels a lot smaller than many other pro stadiums. Yes, the atmosphere is AMAZING but it feels dinky. Also, it looks like it's really old because it is. A newer stadium with some nicer amenities might not hurt.
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I'm genuienly curious, which amenities could be added to make it better?
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The concourses and bathrooms are already packed. Adding a few thousand more seats would make it really difficult to do anything at all.
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I remember this being talked about a few weeks ago, though I think that was regarding one solitary stand and improving the toilets.
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Option D: Start a kickstarter. Use funds to buy sledgehammers. Give hammers to the TA. See what happens to the MAC.
The MAC is only part of the issue. Sure, it prevents the South end from being developed into a full on stand, but tearing it out would only net us 2-3,000 seats.
The bigger issue is that the city is so big on historical preservation that nothing would be able to be touched
The entire east side is new, right? They could tear out the current overhang and build a massive two level stand, it might look comically oversized next to the rest (like Leeds United?) but that could work...
Oversized east stand would be sick
It was actually designed for that. They designed it so they could put a second level on the east. Now he listed option c was tear down the old stands. I'm wondering could a good structural engineer design a way to add a second terrace to the west side too?
The east side is new, yes; however, there is an ordinance that requires line of sight into the stadium from the street level. If they were to build up a second level on that end, they'd have to get the ordinance changed or get a variance of some kind from the city to facilitate that...which is part of the problem.
A simple ordinance shouldn't be too hard to change.
It seems like an ordinance change would be preferable to spending extra money for a rebuild.
Well hopefully MP and the city find a way. Need to get those people off the season ticket waiting list ASAP.
Seems like the solution is "more sledgehammers"
Sledgehammers you say?