Interest remains high in bringing a Triple A baseball club to Clark County, Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt said. But at this point, paying for a $40 million stadium is throwing enthusiasts a curveball.
Leavitt said this week that members of the local business community are meeting formally to discuss building a stadium, trying to figure out how they might pay for such a large venture.
“There’s still a lot of interest in bringing (Portland) Beavers baseball or Triple A baseball to Clark County,” he said. “Private interests are working on a financing plan.”
But a source close to the Beavers, who didn’t want his name used in print, said that he doesn’t see a Triple A stadium being built anywhere, including Clark County, without public financing in the mix.
Triple A ball requires an 8,000-seat facility with a price tag of at least $40 million, he said. Without public money, “You set the team up for financial disaster if you come in with that much debt on a stadium.”
Triple A teams are one rung below Major League Baseball organizations such as the Seattle Mariners or the New York Yankees.
Vancouver and Clark County governments, both faced with budget issues, have indicated that public money is not on the table.
Still, Vancouver has come up before as a possible landing spot as Beavers owner Merritt Paulson casts about for a new home for his Triple A team, which is now playing its last season at PGE Park in Portland.
The park is being renovated as Paulson’s Portland Timbers team joins Major League Soccer in 2011.
Deals to locate the Beavers in Beaverton, Ore., in the Lents neighborhood of Portland and at the current site of Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum have all fallen through.
Now, it seems as if the team will leave the area for at least next season. News reports have said that the Beavers have scouted Tucson, Ariz., as their next home.
Paulson has said he’s committed to finding a long-term home for the Beavers in the Portland metro area.
Leavitt said he’s still in touch with Paulson and that he hopes a new Clark County stadium could draw the Beavers home.
“I’d say (the chances are) about 50-50, based on my understanding on how those finances work,” he said. “It’d be a real opportunity to provide our community with something to rally around.”
A couple of spots have been named as potential sites for a stadium, including redeveloping the 1,000-seat Propstra Stadium at Hudson’s Bay High School; a tract now proposed for a five-field ballpark on the north side of Northeast 78th Street near St. Johns Road, in east Hazel Dell; and land on the west side of the Sleep Country Amphitheater.
